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SOURCE Whirlscape Inc.
Start-up launches Indiegogo campaign to change future of mobile typing
TORONTO, March 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ - Whirlscape Inc., a Canadian tech start-up, has developed Minuum, "the little keyboard for big fingers."
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130318/TO512)
Minuum is a tiny, one-dimensional keyboard that frees up mobile screen space while
allowing fast, accurate typing. Its specialized, patent-protected auto-correction algorithm corrects
highly imprecise typing. This algorithm, based on the touchscreen and
wearable device research of company founders, Will Walmsley
(researcher) and Khai Truong (associate professor) at the University of
Toronto, configures the difference between what you type and what you
mean, in real time, getting it right even if you miss every single
letter.
Watch Walmsley demonstrate the Minuum keyboard in their Indiegogo
campaign video.
"While our mobile devices are becoming smarter and faster, the keyboard
has coasted into the 21st century essentially unchanged from the days of the typewriter; now
we're stuck with keyboards that cover up half a smartphone screen but
don't make up in accuracy what they take up in screen space," says Will
Walmsley, CEO of Whirlscape. "Realizing we could minimize the keyboard
while maintaining accuracy was the eureka moment. We've changed what a
keyboard needs to be, enabling a future of typing with wearable
technology."
Minuum improves mobile typing by:
-
Recovering more than half of the usable touchscreen space lost when typing on traditional virtual
keyboards
-
Allowing for fast, accurate text entry when typing is sloppy
-
Providing letter magnification for precise typing-especially useful for
large fingers
-
Respecting user familiarity with the existing QWERTY keyboard
-
Providing convenient access to everything users expect in a keyboard
(such as punctuation, space, backspace, and enter) without stealing
screen space
-
Letting you type anywhere-with a keyboard you can move around your
touchscreen
The Minuum touchscreen keyboard is the first step of the Minuum project, which seeks to bring simplified typing to mobile and wearable devices.
The Minuum layout is "one-dimensional" because it presents a continuum
of letters, laid out in a row. The simplicity, size, and accuracy of
Minuum make it the perfect keyboard to fit into the future of wearable
computing. While the first implementation of this technology is for
smartphones and tablets, its type-anywhere implications are
far-reaching.
To bring a tiny, user-friendly, accurate keyboard to mobile devices and
give users back their screen space, Whirlscape is aiming to raise $10,000 on Indiegogo from March 18 to April 17, 2013. The campaign will fund the launch of an Android keyboard app, along
with an iOS (iPhone, iPad) keyboard for developers to put into their
apps.
The Minuum keyboard's beta version will be available for technology
journalists to test for free in June 2013.
An FAQ is available on the Minuum website along with background information,
technical details, product specifications, photos, and more details
about Minuum's wearable computer applications: minuum.com/mediaroom.
About Whirlscape Inc.
Based in Toronto, Ontario, Whirlscape is a Canadian high-technology
start-up with roots in human-computer interaction. Its product
offerings address typing errors in widespread applications like e-mail
and text messaging (SMS), initially through alternative keyboards on
Android devices with planned extensibility to iOS (iPhone, iPad) and
other platforms or OEM devices. Founded in June 2012, Whirlscape has
received seed funding from the University of Toronto Early Stage Technology (UTEST) program and MaRS Innovation. Whirlscape is engaged in developing fully functional Minuum keyboards
for Android, incorporating touchscreen entry and motion-controlled
modes. The company is also prototyping wearable typing devices to test
its technology to its limits.
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