T9 or text predicative input in mobile telephones
Almost everybody who has a mobile phone uses SMS. It's a very convenient
and cheap service provided by near all operators in those standards where
it's possible. But you feel not so comfortable when keying in with 10 buttons
instead of a standard PC keyboard. The T9 program developers promise to
help us by offering a predicative input of a text.
The T9 technology developed by Tegic
company allows to quicken and simplify keying in of a text where a number
of buttons are less than a number of letters in an alphabet, for
example, in mobile phones and in other mobile devices. Tegic call it Intelligent
Typing. The T9 technology was licensed by many companies that produce mobile
devices, for example, Motorola, Siemens, Nokia, Ericsson, Beneffon, Nec
and others.
What is this? Using the T9 system we are pressing the button with the
necessary letter only one time. Having typed several letters you should
wait until the T9 creates a word. If this word coincides with that you
wanted to type just press a space button and turn to the next word. And
if not, the T9 will offer some other words made from the letters you have
keyed in. In order to choose the right word press the "0" button and set
it with pressing of the space button or any punctuation mark.
Let's consider an operating principle of the T9 and analog systems with
an iTAP system which is used in some models of Motorola. After typing a
button the phone will display that letter (among 3-4 letters specified
on the button) which is come across most of all, and will display other
variants below on the screen. If it has not guessed the letter you have
to use "<*" and "#>" keys (instead of the "0" in a classic T9) in order
to choose the appropriate letter in the list below. First, such system
seems unusual. For example, we used to type the "C" letter by pressing
the 2-abc button three times; here it should be keyed in by pressing 2-
abc and then "#>" twice. If you will press the 2-abc three times you will
just get three letters.
Let's consider an example with a word "abandon":
-
press 2-abc, and "A" will be displayed, below on the screen you will see
A b C;
-
press 2-abc once more, "ac' will be displayed and below you will see AC
CA AA Ab bC bA CC bb Cb A2, move the ">"
-
press 2-abc once more, you will see AbC, and below there will be AbC AbA
Abb Ab2, let's move the arrow one position to the right, to AbA;
-
press 6-mno, you will see AbAn, and below: aban abam abao aba6 - iTAP have
guesses the letter;
-
press 3-def, and there will be AbAnd, and below: AbAnd AbAne abanf aban3;
-
press 6-mno, you will se abando, and below: abando abandm abandn aband6;
-
press 6-mno, you will get abandon,
-
variants: abandon abandom abandoo abando6. Press "ĪK".
In a classic T9 instead of "ĪK" you will have to press the "#>" button.
What does this system give you? When typing this word by a usual method
you have to press buttons 15 times, and with this program - just 11. When
I was typing this word the second time, the iTAP guessed the third letter
with the first attempt - it means that there is some kind of a self-educating
system.
Besides, if you will ignore arrows below on the screen when typing,
the iTAP will try to interchange the last letters (sometimes even all letters)
"to its liking", i.e. it will implement those operations which are specified
by the developers. Let's take the word "motorola", without using the arrows
and ignoring the variants below. Lust look only at the word itself.
"motorola":
-
6-mno - m,
-
6-mno - on,
-
8-tuv - not,
-
6-mno - onto,
-
7-pqrs - motor,
-
6-mno - motoro,
-
5-jkl - motorol,
-
2-abc - motorola.
Or the word "rules":
-
7-pqrs - p,
-
8-tuv - st,
-
5-jkl - rul,
-
3-def - rule,
-
7-pqrs - rules.
The complete success!
Unfortunately, there are some difficulties. There is a good deal of
words that can't be typed without arrows. For example, the word "mainboard".
-
6-mno - m,
-
2-abc - na,
-
4-ghi - nag,
-
6-mno - main,
-
2-abc - maina,
-
6-mno - mainam,
-
2-abc - mainama,
-
7-pqrs - mainamap,
-
3-def - mainamard.
I failed, but anyway, you have to press 14 times using arrows than 18 in
a usual mode. Note that the ">" is pressed 6 times successively, it means
that you can just press and hold the button.
When you finish typing the word you have to "say" "ĪK", and there will
appear a space, and if you want to type some punctuation mark, the iTAP
will automatically come back to the end of the word!
Another feature is that when typing 2-4 letter words below you will
see several combinations (a classic T9). For example, a word "pony":
the phone will display "snow",
and below you will see:
snow pony sony sonw sonx sonz son9,
just move the arrow to the right and you will get the required word.
But if you have used arrows at least once, or if a word consists of
more than 4 letters, the phone will offer alternative words only with the
last letters changed.
For example, take a "snowman":
Snown,
and below there will be snown snowm snowo snow6.
I.e. at this stage we should replace only the last letter with arrows.
As for a number of pressings in a usual mode, I should say that in order
to type a letter which stands on the same button with one that I have just
keyed in, I (on my phone) have to move the cursor. For example, in order
to type "cba", I have to press "C" (three times), move a cursor, then type
"b" (2 pressings), move a cursor, and type "A". I know that on some models
instead of moving a cursor, you have to just wait a bit, but it doesn't
make the process faster, since while waiting you would have typed several
letters. That's quite convenient that in any time you can set either usual
or numeric input by pressing 2-3 buttons. (Menu - iTAP - Numeric -Tap right
while editing).
Conclusion. The system in question is undoubtedly worth paying attention
to. Thanks to iTAP typing and editing get simpler much more. Some words
can be input three times faster that in a usual mode! The T9 and iTAP are
not still an alternative to small portable keyboards, but it is still a
real breakthrough.
I think that with analog systems voice typing in mobile phones is not
so far.
