Search

Ahtut

Tutster – Because I Can

Was driving the other day away from orchard and in the mist of losing my way, i bumped into a road call One Tree Hill…

And I pounder…

Springfield – The Simpsons

http://sg.pagenation.com/sin/The%20Springfield_103.9495_1.3328.map

Townsville – Powerpuff Girls

http://www.townsvillepri.moe.edu.sg/

One Tree Hill – One Tree Hill

http://www.singaporeexpats.com/singapore-property-pictures/condo/one-tree-hill-gardens.htm

Any where else?

I just realise I resize some of the older photos by mistake and that was pretty much the only copy I have. Well, live with the crappy photo resolution on the older post then. I dun care. Really.

I am jumping on the band wagon with inspirations and all the hype on what touch screen can do.

I have had a Windows Mobile device for years and have lived with the crappy input system provided thus far. There are many alternative SIP around all trying to address the issues on inputing on Windows Mobile devices; especially for those who yearn for 1 hand (or 1 thumb rather) operation like what Symbian and conventional phone devices provides. Yes, so that we can all text when we are driving.

What I am trying to achieve to allow user to easily input text with 1 thumb. The common problem encountered with these SIPs are

• You don’t know what key you are pressing – Often your thumb will cover your line of slight, and with no textile feedback, you don’t know which key you are pressing
• The buttons are too small for 1 thumb operation – I have fat thumbs. Go figure what’s the problem
• Screen assets – The WM device does not have the luxury of having big buttons for problem 2
• Buttons on the edge of the screen is hard to press

To solve these issues, my SIP (hence now TutThumb) have limited number of buttons so that I can have big buttons on the screen. It follows the conventional phone key pad system (1 key for 3 letters etc) to select different letters tied to the key. The first prototype I have came out with maps 9 characters to a button. To select a individual character, you press the button and slide your thumb to the different direction. For example, the letter ‘a’ is mapped to the first button. To select the letter ‘a’, you press the button and slide your thumb to the left and release your thumb. This will select the letter ‘a’. If you want the letter ‘A’, press the button and slide your thumb up-left (diagonally).

Usability problem

I designed such that area for interaction should not be too closed to the edge so that you can still access it with your thumb. However, after using the prototype for just a few seconds, I realise sliding your thumb sideways may prove to be a challenge as compared to sliding your thumb vertically. I figure this has to do how you hold the phone and the gripping of the phone

With your thumb touching more then 1 surface of the touch screen, I finally realise why we need multi touch screen (d’oh)

Technical Issues

Deploying the SIP on actual device is harder/more troublesome then I thought. Because the SIP is coded as a COM object, there are times I need to reboot the device to make sure it gets unloaded properly. I am still new to COM objects in general, and sometimes my SIP doesn’t load and I would think I made a mistake somewhere. But apparently, the device just didn’t load it properly. Anyone who have better clues in debugging SIP, I will appreciate if you can drop me a note