Eyes-Free Text Entry with EdgeWrite Alphabets for Round-Face Smartwatches

Abstract

Small wearable information devices such as smart-watches are available everywhere. A user can input text in these devices while doing other tasks. However, eyes-free typing, that is, without looking at the input space, on these devices remains difficult to execute. This paper describes our project on developing eyes-free text input systems. Not only an auditory feedback feature was developed for the EdgeWrite text input system for round-face smartwatches, but also a simple template-based gesture recognition engine was implemented. The experimental results show that the developed system maintains reasonable text input speed and error rate for eyes-free under standing and walking conditions.