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Show HN: A 2-row, 16-key keyboard designed for smartphones

(k-keyboard.com)
83 points QWERTYmini | 8 comments | 10 Dec 25 17:49 UTC | HN request time: 1.44s | source | bottom

Mobile keyboards today are almost entirely based on the 26-key, 3-row QWERTY layout. Here’s a new 2-row, 16-key alternative designed specifically for smartphones.
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MontyCarloHall ◴[10 Dec 25 18:58 UTC] No.46221922[source]▶
Smartphone keyboards dynamically adjust the "hitbox" of each key based on what's previously been typed and overall letter frequencies of the language. So when typing "Paris is the capital of Fr..." [*], the A key becomes much easier to hit than its neighbors. Fun fact: back in the day, when this tech was less refined, certain letter contexts made the hitboxes of some keys effectively nonexistent [0].

I wonder if an approach like KKeyboard with larger but statically combined keys leads to faster typing than the current approach with smaller but dynamically "combined" keys.

[*] In reality, the context is modeled using a simple Hidden Markov Model with a much smaller effective context window that could not associate "Paris" and "France." But you get the idea.

[0] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/impossible-to-type-okee...

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1. quamserena ◴[10 Dec 25 19:14 UTC] No.46222171[source]▶
Omg I thought this was just me. How do I turn this off? On iOS, this has been bugging me for a long time.
replies(2): >>46222804 #>>46223297 #
2. devmor ◴[10 Dec 25 19:54 UTC] No.46222804[source]▶
I would love a way to turn it off as well, this is the source of the majority of my annoying typos.
replies(1): >>46226482 #
3. shakna ◴[10 Dec 25 20:28 UTC] No.46223297[source]▶
There is no builtin setting in iOS to disable it. However most 3rd party keyboards don't have it, as implementing it without OS support is a huge pain.
replies(1): >>46227667 #
4. sushisource ◴[11 Dec 25 01:18 UTC] No.46226482[source]▶
Seriously this explains so much. I thought I was going crazy, or just becoming an old man who can't type on a phone any more.
5. nneonneo ◴[11 Dec 25 04:29 UTC] No.46227667[source]▶
Why is it hard? In principle you render an image instead of discrete buttons, and do your hit testing manually. Sure, it’s more annoying than just having your OS tell you what key got hit, but keyboard makers are doing way fancier stuff just fine (e.g. Swype).
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6. shakna ◴[11 Dec 25 07:25 UTC] No.46228618{3}[source]▶
Apple's keyboard receives more information, to put it simply. It doesn't get told that a touch was at a particular point, but the entire fuzzy area. Allowing you to use circular occlusion and other things to choose between side-by-side buttons and override the predictive behaviour when it is the wrong choice.

A third-party maker gets a single point - usually several in short succession, but still it requires more math to work out where the edges of the finger are pressing, to help determine which direction you're moving. So most just... Don't.

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7. jrmg ◴[11 Dec 25 14:51 UTC] No.46232065{4}[source]▶
Are you aware of the `majorRadius` and `majorRadiusTolerance` UITouch properties?
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8. shakna ◴[11 Dec 25 19:59 UTC] No.46236353{5}[source]▶
Apple's software gets the actual mapping matrix that those use.