Dasher Demonstration

Dasher is a one finger user interface that allows text entry without a keyboard.

Keyboards are inefficient for two reasons: they do not exploit the redundancy in normal ... all » language; and they waste the fine analogue capabilities of the user's motor system (fingers and eyes, for example). I describe a system intended to rectify both these inefficiencies. Dasher is a text-entry system in which a language model plays an integral role, and it's driven by continuous gestures. Users can achieve single-finger writing speeds of 35 words per minute and hands-free writing speeds of 25 words per minute. Dasher is free software, and it works in all languages, and on many platforms. Dasher is part of Debian, and there's even a little java version for your web-browser. http://www.dasher.org.uk/

This is an excerpt from a Google TechTalk:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5078334075080674416

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Dasher
• User
• Interface
• Text
• Entry
• Typing
• David
• MacKay

[aurielMoon]

its really interesting (im writing a mini-essay on it for ec)but i cant see lots of people using it. it seems that there would be lots of room for error. is there any formating buttons?

do you know where i could download a free trial version?

[UnreasonableMan]

There's a link in the description.

[yetson]

Try to think outside the box.

What if you had no thumbs? No fingers? Dasher would become a viable solution for people who are handicapped and are forced to use their eyes/tounges for GUI interactions.

[Onlinemaster1]

Jako ciekawostka dobre, do użytku jednak raczej dla osób niepełnosprawnych

[HybridFridge]

Found the real website and downloaded it for Win7, it's really awesome! It feels a lot like a video game, which is a good thing :P Makes writing more fun!

I also found the Android app! Search "Dasher" on the market, it's free! It's a bit harder, but it works exactly the same way.

[HybridFridge]

Found the real website and downloaded it for Win7, it's really awesome! It feels a lot like a video game, which is a good thing :P Makes writing more fun!

[HybridFridge]

@UnreasonableMan The link for dasher leads to a car sales website :(

[HybridFridge]

Freaking amazing

[poniesinashed]

I love this software; it's made typing a breeze for me.

[qt247ha]

lovely idea for people who are disabled! I love this!

[Slegarthoth]

Bizarre and cool!

[koCmoC36]

I love this thing. It's so interesting and easy to use. I have it just for one day, but feel pretty pro. Like a game

[eliluong]

pretty clever!

[jlarpi]

Yea I already thought of that after I made the post. Ppl could write words if they're paralyzed from the neck down as they could write words by controlling a device with their mouth.

However, I'd just prefer voice 2 text.

[jlarpi]

Interesting, but fucking stupid. T9 pwns this piece of shit, and can be used with 1 thumb

[feedmepaper]

Interesting concept. I wonder how does it compare with the touch type typing though. The muscle memory really takes off after a while which lets people really blast off their wpm count but this method will always depend upon the alogorithm used and your ability to recognize the next alphabets/combination that you want.

Eitherway, its an interesting concept.

[spokehedz]

Okay, so how does he type now, Retrogamer500?

And it was more of a general statement, using a widely known figure to illustrate a point that not everybody can type--but everybody can look with eyes onto a screen. And they have eye-tracking software, so use that with this and you should see my point.

[ulaelable]

You can proabably make words faster with this with one finger than one finger typing.

[COMB0]

That's the stupidest thing I've seen in a while.

[jonnybryce]

I just dled this. It takes longer than typing and makes me dizzy.

[retrogamer500]

spokehedz, he can only twitch his cheek. He can't move his finger.

[spokehedz]

Maybe for you, but what about Sir Hawking?

Instead of taking HOURS to write out words, he can spend minutes writing out things.

How about on my cellular phone? Why do we need all of the physical keys to write out short sentences?

Think outside the box.

[mike060187]

Keyboards will own all as well as writing. that prototype is sht and pointless.

[xchmelmilos]

You could theoretically delete whole words by moving more than XY distance after (if You already deleted last letter nothing will be deleted this way) ....

[xchmelmilos]

keyboard is better because it uses muscular memory - so You don't think about next letter it's impulse.

this is better because it guesses what i might mean with XY probability.

good metaphore though :) nice job

have You tried it with impaired people or with trackball/touchpad tribe

mine few cents::

I presume You delete letter by moving before that line ...

[xchmelmilos]

what is the probability the guess is correct ? I undestand there are some impossible permutations of letters in language and after some prefixes ...

letters won't be at the same place next time ... isn't finding letters rather slow - there are 26 letters

I see You helped it by doing "fisheye" but still there are 26 letters

[tomhsharky]

I agree - I don't think it will replace the keyboard on a computer. However, have you ever tried typing on an iphone? A dasher interface there could work really well, as you pretty much need to look at the screen all the time there anyway, and you have limited space for the keyboard.

[KingChrisVI]

Interesting concept, and was fun to try it. However, while the use of keyboard can become an unconscious act for skilled typists, the Dasher-method can not, based on the fact that it's impossible to know what you're writing without actually looking at every single letter you're typing. Thus, I doubt that it'll ever replace the keyboard. I acknowledge its potential amongst people with certain physical impairments, though.