There are many mobile keyboards and Minuum sets to make typing even better. Unlike keyboards which use the multiple row QWERTY format, Minuum has managed to condense everything down to a single row while keeping the QWERTY format we're familiar with. At first glance, it seems very unlikely to be able to type accurately and efficiently. However, Will Walmsley, CEO of Whirlscape, reveals just how wrong that assumption is in a video showing the keyboard in action. An Indiegogo campaign was started to fund the project and a stretched goal of $60,000 has been added to build a wearable development kit. As of writing this, they've managed to raise nearly $30,000 with 30 days left on the fundraising campaign. Originally, the goal was to raise just $10,000.
Minuum will work with multiple languages and is even capable of being utilized on multiple surfaces thanks to sensors and motion capture. Here are some of its features:
- Recovering more than half of the usable touchscreen space you lose when you type on traditional virtual keyboards
- Allowing you fast text entry when your typing is sloppy
- Providing you with letter magnification for precise typing—especially useful if you have large fingers
- Giving you the benefit of smart auto-correction
- Respecting your familiarity with the QWERTY keyboard so you don’t have to re-learn the keyboard layout
- Providing convenient access to everything you’d expect in a keyboard (such as, punctuation, space, backspace, and enter) without stealing your screen space
- Letting you type anywhere—with a keyboard you can move around your touchscreen
You can check out the video below which shows how Minuum works and the philosophy behind it.
Source: The Minuum Keyboard Project
Sorry don’t see the need for this keyboard. When you are typing why do you need to see the rest of the screen? Surely the best way to go is to have better voice recognition first and apply that to the upcoming smart watches. Personally I have a Note 2 with plenty of room on the screen and additionally have a stylus as an option for text entry.
Voice recognition is already pretty good, but isn’t viable in every situation. We still haven’t reached a point where it’s not weird to talk to your phone :-) Right now, Minuum is more of a concept than anything. The idea of condensing the keyboard while maintaining accuracy is interesting. But yeah, with Android phones having much larger screens than in the past, you usually don’t have to worry about not being able to see what you’re typing.