agrability University

Blogging with Becky

The other day my niece pulled out a large black bag from our closet. To her amazement, she discovered it was a cell phone. That discovery was followed by hysterical giggles as she inquired if we actually used it. Based on something I saw today, I wonder if we will look back at the plastic keyboards we use every day with the same amusement.

I attended a workshop today where developer Randy Marsden debuted some of the technology he is working on. Many years ago Randy had a good friend that had a spinal cord injury. As he worked on solutions for his friend, his passion for aiding people with disabilities was born. That passion transformed quickly into his company called Madentec Limited.

He showed us his latest project called Swype in which he is working on with Cliff Kushler. Cliff is the man behind the predictive text technology (or T9 Disambiguation for you techies out there). They have taken the knowledge of predictive text and combined it with the ability to literally swipe a stylus or finger over an on-screen keyboard to create text. This method provides a fast and easy way to input text rather than using a traditional keyboard. Here is a quick video to see how it works:

I got to try it out first hand today and let me tell you it lives up to the hype. For people with disabilities, this technology will be amazing. It does not require exact accuracy which is important for individuals with limited mobility or use a head mounted pointer. One major cell phone company (still a secret) will be announcing this technology on their phones around the holidays. Be on the lookout for TV commercials advertising the new phone in the next few months. Unfortunately for iPhone users, it won’t be on your devices any time soon.