Minuum - universal one-dimensional keyboard

On March 18, IndieGoGo had a very interesting keyboard concept for the Minuum touchscreen. Typing text on a smartphone or tablet is inconvenient not only because of the lack of tactile feedback, but also because the keyboard closes the half-screen. The creators of Minuum solve this problem in the following way: they take the usual QWERTY-keyboard and “flatten” it vertically, having built it almost in one row: ^Q a _Z ^W s _X ^E d _C. With this arrangement, the usual position of the letters will be preserved, and the lack of information about the vertical position of the letter and the inevitable inaccuracies are quite easily compensated by using dictionaries and recognition algorithms that have become almost standard applications on any smartphone. If you need an exact set, for example in the case of passwords and URLs, then you can select the desired letter or number in the enlarged fragment that appears instantly when you touch it.



The fact that Minuum uses only one dimension for work, turning a traditional keyboard in the form of a two-dimensional table into a ribbon, opens up huge possibilities. The same principle of keyboard organization can be applied not only on touchscreens, but also in devices with any sensors capable of recognizing hand movement along a straight (or curve) segment — Kinect, Leap Motion, Wii, accelerometer with a gyroscope, video camera or even a strip of paper with a simple pencil drawn graphite track. This will allow typing text on a device with almost any miniature form factor - glasses, watches, ring, etc.


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The alpha version of the Android application is ready, the crowdfunding campaign has successfully reached its goal barely begun, the release of the beta version for backers is scheduled for July. The public release, which includes a library for iOS application developers and a universal SDK for different types of devices, to be held in early 2014.