Swype co-founder Randy Marsden has been speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013 conference and yesterday he revealed a new method of text input for tablets. The new input method is called ‘Dryft’ and it lets users position their hands on the tablet display at a place comfortable to them. Marsden said that in testing experienced typists were able to reach speeds up to 80WPM with this new soft-keyboard app.
If you haven’t heard of Swype, it was a new way of inputting text on a smartphone or tablet which employed the unique method of tracing the word on the screen over the QWERTY keyboard. Every time you finished a word you let go and started the next. This was supposed to save time as there’s a lot less tapping going on. This keyboard tech has since been included in various products including Samsung smartphones. Marsden says that Swype has been an outstanding success with a total of over 400 million installations.
“What we did on Swype for smartphones, we’ve done with Dryft on tablets,” said Marsden just before revealing Dryft. Following Marsden's introduction a typist demonstrated Dryft. A notable aspect of this input app is that the keyboard on screen moves to fit your fingers, it arranges the ‘home row’ to fit you, not the other way around. Marsden says this solves the problem of an on-screen keyboard having to be looked at instead of felt. The system is also smart enough to know when you’re resting fingers but not wanting to input text. The developers used both touch sensors and accelerometer (sensing vibration) to know when you’re typing or resting fingers.
With Dryft, Marsden asserts that “all your hard-earned typing skills, that you’ve learned on a regular keyboard, can be transferred to a tablet.” Also, while most people can type without looking, on a physical keyboard, that’s most often not the case on a tablet – until now.
Talking at TechCrunch Disrupt, Marsden said that he wants Dryft to “become the de facto mode of text input for tablets,” though it will probably never be available in Apple’s App Store unless Cupertino changes its attitude to alternative keyboards. The semi-transparent soft-keyboard is for two hands right now but the company is working on a one handed version which will be ready “soon”.
