HexInput, as originally described, is an
on-screen keyboard
A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the input of characters without the need for physical keys. The interaction with the virtual keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take place in a different form ...
with the following characteristics:
* Keys are activated (pressed) either by tapping on each key in turn (the usual approach for on-screen keyboards) or by dragging a path over the desired keys. Unlike
ShapeWriter, every key dragged over is considered pressed, so the sequence of keypresses is deterministic and predictable.
* Most keys are hexagonal, arranged in a
honeycomb
A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen.
Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about of honey ...
pattern. This allows most keys to have six neighbouring keys that one can drag into without entering any other keys.
* Letters are arranged to optimize text input in a particular language (
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, for example). Note that this may mean that some common letters may appear twice.
The name ‘HexInput’ is unfortunate: in computing, ‘hex’ tends to mean
hexadecimal notation
In mathematics and computing, the hexadecimal (also base-16 or simply hex) numeral system is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of 16. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using 10 symbols, hexad ...
, though it may be argued that a general text input method is named for general users, not just those with computing backgrounds. The use of hexagons is not essential to the idea, though they do maximize the available area per cell and the number of easily reachable neighbors per cell.
The original exposition included an alternative layout using squares (keys having four neighbours unless at an edge of the keyboard), and a later edition depicted an essentially honeycomb pattern but some hexagons split in half. Alternatively (not mentioned in the original exposition), one could leave gaps between keys so that one can drag through gaps to reach a larger number of “neighboring” keys.
The HexInput concept is available for Palm OS devices via myKbd, where it is now known as the "QUONG" layout (after the first five letters in the top row).
ATOMIK
[{{cite web , url=http://www.almaden.ibm.com/u/zhai/topics/virtualkeyboard.htm#_Project_ATOMIK , title=IBM Research - Almaden - Locations , website=www.almaden.ibm.com , access-date=11 September 2008] is a closely related input concept from researchers at IBM.
References
External links
English To Hindi Typing
Pointing-device text input
Keyboard layouts