Dryft Hopes To Improve Typing Experience On Tablets

 

Some people actually find it quite easy to type on a tablet’s virtual keyboard as opposed to one on a smartphone, obviously because the keys are larger on the tablet as it has relatively more screen real estate. However, there’s one major problem that tablet owners might have experienced. Users can’t rest their fingers or wrists on the screen when typing, because the touch is registered, which ends up pressing different keys unintentionally. Dryft, a software based keyboard developed by Swype’s co-founder, hopes to eliminate this problem. It automatically positions keys beneath the user’s fingertips, thus allowing them to rest their fingers or wrists on the display without any accidental key presses.

Swype is a popular software keyboard for Android, if not the most popular. Randy Marsden is the co-founder of Swype, he has founded Dryft with Rob Chaplinsky, who is a managing partner at a San Francisco based venture capital firm. Dryft uses the tablet’s accelerometer sensor alongside its touch sensor to tell the difference between the user resting and typing. It also eliminates the need to keel keys since the dynamic keyboard automatically forms under the user’s fingers. Right now Dryft is in beta development. The company is courting manufacturers to which it can license the keyboard to and also developers, who will be given the ability to integrate Dryft in their apps through a SDK.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Tablets
Tags: swype