Half-QWERTY: a one-handed keyboard facilitating skill transfer from QWERTY

Half-QWERTY is a new one-handed typing technique, designed to facilitate the transfer of two-handed typing skill to the one-handed condition. It is performed on a standard keyboard, or a special half keyboard (with full-sized keys). In an experiment using touch typists, hunt-and-peck typing speeds were surpassed after 3-4 hours of practice. Subjects reached 50% of their two-handed typing speed after about 8 hours. After 10 hours, all subjects typed between 41 % and 73% of their two-handed speed, ranging from 23.8 to 42.8 wpm. These results are important in providing access to disabled users, and for the design of compact computers. They also bring into question p;evious re;earch cl~ming finger actions if one ‘hand map to the other via spatial congruence rather than mirror image. K E Y WO R D S: Input devices, input tasks, human performance, one-handed keyboard, QWERTY, portable computers, disabled users, skill transfer. INTRODUCTION The idea of a one-handed keyboard is not new. As early as 1968, Engelbart and English [2] used a one-handed chord keybomd in conjunction with a newly developed input device — the mouse. The user entered text with one hand, while using the mouse to enter spatial information with the other. However, unlike the mouse, acceptance of onehanded keyboards has been limited to very specific Permission to oopy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and tha title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. ~ 1993 ACM 0-89791 -575-51931000410088 . ..S 1.50 applications, such as keyboards for the disabled. There are several reasons for this, but chief among them is the need to learn a new typing technique. For most people, the benefit of touch typing with one hand is not worth the cost of learning to do it. This paper describes a new approach to one-handed text entry which exploits the skills already developed in twohanded typing. It is called, “Half-QWERTY~ because it uses only half of the QWERTY keyboard. The technique can be used on an unmodified standard QWERTY keyboard (using only half of the available keys, Figure 1), or with a special half keyboard (Figures 2 & 3). The former provides wide access to the technique, The latter provides a compact keyboard with full-sized keys supporting touch typing on portable computers, for example. The present study examines the degree to which skill transfers from QWERTY to Half-QWERTY keyboards. THE HALF-QWERTY CONCEPT1 Most one-handed keyboards are chord keyboards. HalfQWERTY is not. The design builds on two principles: 1. A user’s abflity to touch type on a standard QWERTY keyboard. 2. The fact that the human hands are symmetrical — one hand is a mirror image of the other. A Half-QWERTY keyboard is comprised of all the keys typed by one hand, with the keys of the other hand unused lPatents pending. International Application # PCT/CA90/00274 published March 21, 1991, under International Publication # W091/03782.