Swype – the next generation of text input

Swype is a ridiculously futuristic-looking technology for inputting text to touchscreens. It’s also unfortunately named. It sounds like it’s been swiped from Skype. Ah well, no matter. You basically swipe/swype your finger over the keyboard, taking in all the letters that are in the word, and it works out which ones you’ve gone over and which words could be made from that combination of letters.

It sounds a little iffy to me, but if you check out the video over the jump, and see it in action being operated by someone who’s practiced with it, it’s actually lightning fast. I’m not even sure I can think that quickly, let alone find the letters to swipe over.

It’s a one-fingered technology, which solves one of the key problems I have with most touchscreens – that you need two hands to use them properly. One to hold the device, and the other to tap with. With this, you could just swype/swipe your thumb over the letters you want and let the error correction work out any jitters.

Capitals and such are solved by wiggles of your finger, or taps, or something, and I imagine a lot of grammar and punctuation can be inputted automatically. It’s available already on Windows Mobile, and I imagine an iPhone version isn’t far behind.

Swype (via Wired)

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