numerical input

[kalos]

hello!

do you have any innovative idea for easy, fast, accurate numerical data input? ie. to input numbers in a pc

a numpad can be very efficient for people that have learned to use it very well, but I think there might be other ways to insert numbers, like gestures, voice, etc

the fact that numerical data is more limited than general text data, gives the opportunity to overcome the difficulties of text input, for example: speech recognition for words is very troublesome, but in numerical input, we have only 10 digits to input, so it may be much more convenient

anyway, any innovative idea?

thanks!

[Ath]

Anyone processing numerical input I know, like bookkeepers, accountants and the likes, can far more quickly type the numbers they want (on a proper numeric keypad), than they can pronounce them. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual factor is 10 times faster or more!

The only plausible improvement I can see would be to add an external numpad on the left side of the keyboard, in addition to the numpad on the right side of your (standard) keyboard, so you have 2 hands to enter the numbers even more quickly .

[AndyM]

Learning to use a 10-key number pad is far easier than learning touch-typing.

And Ath is right, keying numbers that way is much much faster than saying them.  One possible exception would be strictly single digit numbers if the verbal integers didn't require an "Enter" or "Plus" between digits and the keypadder did.

[Ath]

One possible exception would be strictly single digit numbers if the verbal integers didn't require an "Enter" or "Plus" between digits and the keypadder did.

And even that will probably be slower, as voice recognition will take a few hundred milliseconds to process the audio.

[kalos]

okay, but, how about some trully innovative stuff?

my proposal:
we need ten numbers in total (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) to form any number
we have ten fingers
with a device that recognizes which finger we tap (easy to implement) we can "type" numbers, as far as I can imagine, much faster, by tapping our ten fingers
or even more faster, if we tap two, three, etc fingers at the same time, to type 1, 2, 3, etc numbers (easy to implement too)

any comment on this?

[Ath]

we need ten numbers
we have ten fingers
with a device that recognizes which finger we tap (easy to implement) we can "type" numbers, as far as I can imagine, much faster, by tapping our ten fingers

Ok, step by step:
sit in front of your computer, with the keyboard lying in front of you
stretch all your fingers on both hands in the direction of the keyboard
move your hands over the keyboard, until your fingertops reach the number keys atop the qwerty/azerty keys
spread your fingers equally (and possibly bend a little) until all numbers have a corresponding finger over them
start thinking and typing numbers

Voila!

And if that doesn't work for you: http://www.virtual-laser-devices.com/

[kalos]

stretch all your fingers on both hands in the direction of the keyboard
move your hands over the keyboard, until your fingertops reach the number keys atop the qwerty/azerty keys
spread your fingers equally (and possibly bend a little) until all numbers have a corresponding finger over them
start thinking and typing numbers

with my method, we would save the time and effort to do these

[kalos]

any other comment about this idea of method of numerical input or any other idea?

[Curt]

any other comment about this idea ?

yeah, one comment:  [attachimg=#]

[kalos]

any other comment about this idea ?

yeah, one comment:  (see attachment in previous post)

why?

[Ath]

why?

It seems that everyone except you thinks this search for an alternative for numeric input is not a good idea