I was just thinking as I was typing this morning that it would be nice to have an AI algorithm that could interpret what I was typing and put the spaces in between the words. After all, I probably use a limited vocabulary of about 1200-1500 words (do you know the average American only has a vocabulary of 500 words?) and so it could do a reasonable job of guessing when I needed a break between words. After all, it should be much faster than I am.
Would this make a difference in typing speed? I would think so. I type somewhere between 80-120 words/minute most days (the higher end when I'm ticked off and adrenalized). Some decently large percentage of the time my hands stay on the keyboard is dedicated to the movement of my right hand off the keys surface to strike the space bar (I only do it with my right hand for some reason--is that a flaw). Between lifting, striking and replacing I could see that my right hand must leave the keyboard for at least 10% of my TTT (total typing time).
Maybe I should just retrain myself on one of those split Dvorak keyboards. I'm assuming here that y'all know that the reason the "standard" keyboard is laid out the way it is is to slow typists on the old manual typewriters.
Yes, Virginia, I used one. For a few years. Pain in the ass. Anyway, type too quickly and the keys hit one another on the downstroke and bind. So some bright bulb figured out the layout that would slow down typing (English) to a rate that would reduce the interference.
Did s/he do a proper study I wonder?
Anyway, the Dvorak keyboard re-lays out the keyboard to optimize typing speed and one can apparently get split keyboards that cant the two haves up at something like a 30 degree angle. This way one doesn't pronate one's wrists and carpal tunnel syndrome becomes a thing of the past.
There are also "chording" keyboards that let you type at accelerated speeds because two or three keys pressed simultaneously will generate a whole word. I believe that one can even type everything with one hand using one of these. Very cool.
Posted by artandscience at July 10, 2004 10:14 AMUm, aren't you supposed to hit the space bar with your uniquely opposable thumb?
Posted by: paul at July 11, 2004 11:24 AM