think or thwim

I typed this using my mouse and Dasher, a free open source program that allows you to enter text efficiently without using a keyboard, or even hands if you have the right equipment. Here’s how it works:

This video is an excerpt from David MacKay’s presentation at Google. The rest of the presentation goes into more detail about how it works and how it might be used. He says experienced users achieve 10 to 35 words per minute with fewer typos than using a keyboard. I’m considerably slower than that.

I think driving through a 3D landscape with the letters arrayed in front of you might be easier and more intuitive, but this first version is a pretty brilliant start. 3D letters could be larger or smaller based on the probability they will be used next. It might also helpful to divide the visible spectrum by the number of characters in a language and give each character it’s own color - which would be only slightly different than it’s neighbors.

There is an online Java version of Dasher at Dasher.org.uk. You can also download the desktop version there.