Touch Screen Cell Phones

Typing on touch screen cell phones isn't easy. The problem is the small size of the on-screen keys.

Users hold their mobiles with their fingers and press the tiny keys with their thumbs using a "two-thumb-typing" technique for text messaging.

Creating long messages is difficult. Typing mistakes and sore thumbs abound so we use short abbreviated text messages.

This has created a whole new lexicon of acronyms, slang and vernacular to replace our vocabulary.

For example, instead of typing "see you tomorrow at Starbucks" we can type "cu2moro@*$". This is easier on the thumbs, and faster, but you'll need to know this lexicon if you want to understand anything.

To solve this problem, Dimitri Lisitski invented a smarter, easier and more accurate way to type on touchscreen cell phones.

ThickButtons is a free download application that resizes keys by shrinking letters that are unlikely to be used and enlarging those that will be.

Here's How It Works

ThickButtons predicts the next letters in the word you're typing and makes those letter-keys bigger.

For example, if you start typing "fundraising" by entering f-u-n, the application will enlarge the letter "d" because it anticipates you will need to press this letter next.

It enlarges the letter "d" by simultaneously shrinking neighboring letters "s" and "f".

While the algorithms are sophisticated, the application actually memorizes your usage and predicts/shrinks what letter(s) you're unlikely to use while enlarging those you likely need.

The interface is simple to use and it works amazingly well.

Typing is faster and more accurate, making the size of a cell phone touch screen less of an issue.

There are dictionary-based applications that will guess words you might use but they don't solve the problem of speed and comprehension.

"Our technology simply approaches the same problem from a different angle. With ThickButtons, we are helping to eliminate the frustration of misspelled, mistyped, and misuse of text, ultimately improving communication," says Lisitski

ThickButtons works on Android touch screen cell phones and it's free to download from their website.

Google's Android has surpassed Apple's iPhone as the third most popular cell phone. Symbian (Nokia) and Blackberry (RIM) are the first and second most popular.

Source: thickbuttons.com