WordTree: Results of a Word Prediction System Presented Thanks to a Tree

Abstract

For mobility and portability reasons, written communication devices are getting smaller and physical keyboards are replaced with virtual or onscreen one (PDA, pocket pc, GPS, etc.). Text entry has become a tiring job for people (ordinary and motor disabled people) because of the low entry speed. A list of predicted words can be presented to reduce the number of clicks to complete the word. However, these techniques present a disadvantage: let's consider the situation where the word the user wants to enter is not presented in the list. He has then to continue his writing. The prediction system narrows the possibilities in order to display the wanted word. In this paper we present a novel interaction technique in which the user can select a substring of the word. The user clicks on any letter, and the substring to this letter is inserted in the text. We also present the simulated experiments to compare our system to the classical list. The results are then discussed and analyzed.

STAACS3: Simulation Tool for AAC with Single-Switch Scanning

“…Word prediction modules offer a list of the most probable words based on either the input of previously typed words (prediction) or the letters already entered in the current word (completion). The most basic approach involves browsing a lexicon using a lexicographic tree organization [10]. However, these techniques may encounter difficulties when dealing with Out of Vocabulary Words (OOV), resulting in potential confusion.…”

DESSK: Description Space for Soft Keyboards

“…These systems are of different types. The most well-known are word prediction algorithms that propose the most probable words according to the given prefix [3]. Prediction systems can also propose characters that are most likely to succeed the prefix already entered.…”

“…The modifications can be of different types: The most common consist of modifying the set of words displayed in the list [3] or the set of characters displayed on additional keys [37], or altering the character positions on a "scanning keyboard" [48]. It is also possible to modify the key sizes [1] or shapes [2] to facilitate access to the most probable characters.…”

SlideKey: Impact of In-depth Previews for a Predictive Text Entry Method

“…To compensate for this decrease in input speed, soft keyboards are often coupled with word prediction systems. The most commonly used solutions are to offer the user the most likely words in the form of a list displayed near the soft keyboard [2]. However, these systems are only effective if the desired word is present in the list.…”