[i-TRIXX] (C)old Case #2 - writing without a keyboard

Does it still exist? Is it conceivable in the year 2009 to write some text without using a keyboard? The last time we wrote a significant amount of text with a pen seems centuries ago – perhaps pens are still used at schools and other types of education? Even though, a keyboard is not always that straightforward or handy. With a mobile phone or PDA the keyboard is too small, those buttons aren't very convenient either for someone with an impairment and then there are people whose fingers are always in a tangle anyway.

Behold Dasher! For all those situations where a keyboard is not so convenient, an application with this name has been in development for several years, which allows text entry without using a keyboard. Instead of entering letters one by one, text processing with Dasher turns into something that looks more like an arcade game; you navigate through a cloud of letters and by an amazing good fortune, groups of letters appear that form into words.

You can find a good demonstration of this application at the web link below. and from the second one you can download the software for numerous languages and platforms and take your own test flight, sorry, text flight.

Will Dasher become something significant? If you look at the latest developments on the official Dasher website you will have to come to the conclusion that it seems to have stalled. Why would Dasher still have a future? Because the duo of 'keyboard and mouse' has increasing competition from 'gesture based control'. The pen, eye-tracking systems, controlling with sound and even systems with 'mind control' (controlled using our thoughts) will certainly increase in interest and applications in the next few years. So, Dasher may be an Old, but certainly not a Cold Case!