Quikwriting 2.1 release notes

Ken Perlin, February 2000

Quikwriting is an alternate input method for handheld PDAs. Current implementations are for the PalmPilot, Palm III and Palm V. This page contains the release notes for Version 2.1. Version 2.0 brought a number of major changes and improvements to Quikwriting, so that it would function as a complete input system. Version 2.1 adds more exact calibration, and provides interactive autocalibration feedback. For your convenience, the release notes for Version 2.0 have been retained in this document, since Version 2.1 is fully compatible with Version 2.0. To get to the main quikwriting page, click here.

Quikwriting is a writing system based on a zone system. Its major advantage is that writing is continuous - you never need to pick up your stylus.

Version 2.0 added much more extensive use of a calibrated plastic insert:

The insert contains two side-by-side virtual keyboards, an alpha keyboard ``a'' and a numeric keyboard ``n'':

NEW: Version 2.1 has autocalibration - while your stylus is down, the lower right corner of your screen will always show the number of the zone which contains the stylus.

While you read this document, you might want to open the Java emulator for QW2.0

All together, there are 18 zones: 3×3 zones for each keyboard. In the discussion below, we use the following convention when naming the zones:

1a  2a  3a
4a    5a    6a
7a  8a  9a
1n  2n  3n
4n    5n    6n
7n  8n  9n

Zones 5a and 5n are the two center zones. Every stroke both starts and ends on a center zone. Each stroke has a major zone, which is the first zone it enters after starting, and a minor zone, which is the last zone it exits before ending.

We can identify a stroke by its major and minor zones. For example, the stroke to draw the letter `s' goes from center to upper-left to upper-middle to center on the alpha keyboard. This stroke can be described by `1a2a'.

The major and minor zones can be the same. For example, the stroke to draw the letter `n' goes from center to upper-right to center on the alpha keyboard. This stroke can be described simply by `3a'.

Features added in Version 2.1:

Features added in Version 2.0:

Now you're ready to quikwrite!

Incompatibilities with Version 1.0:

Old features which have been deleted: