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Virtual Keyboards Revision 1.4, 18th Jan 2008 |
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There exist
a number of useful utilities to enhance the touch experience and some of these
utilities are integrated into the UPDD touch software. Virtual keyboards
(on-screen graphical keyboards) are one of the most useful touch applications,
especially where data entry is required and a physical keyboard is not
available.
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This
document highlights a number of virtual keyboards that we have used and
should be sufficient to satisfy most user requirements. This document does
not try to be a comprehensive review of available virtual keyboards and we
acknowledge that there are many more available, details of which can be
obtained via the internet. |
Windows
System keyboard
Since
Windows 2000 the system ships with a basic virtual keyboard, found under the
Accessibility program group. When first
invoked the system states that “the keyboard provides a minimum level of
functionality for mobility-impaired users.
Mobility-impaired users will need a utility program with higher
functionality for daily use” the underlying message is this is basic adaptation
of a virtual keyboard. There is not a
secure mode version so the keyboard is not available when in a secure desktop,
such as logging in etc.
Windows system virtual keyboard
UPDD Keypad
As part of
the driver development we also developed a virtual keypad and keypad designer,
the idea being that you could use the designer to create your own keypads and
use them as required. Unfortunately, we
did not take the development to its full conclusion and it is a market we do
not feel best placed to complete with, especially the effort involved in
catering for multi-language keypad.
Rather than waste the development, version 4 of the driver (4.0.4
onwards) will ship with a basic keypad that runs in the secure desktop and a
basic keypad to run on the desktop.
Basic qwerty UPDD Keypad
Eyesboard
The system
and UPDD keyboards are acceptable as entry level keyboards that satisfy a
functional requirement but offer minimum extensibility. Where presentable and functional keyboards
are a requirement for professional and commercial usage there are a number of
licensed products available and we are a distributor for the EyesBoard product
from PlazaLOGIC. The virtual keyboard
system offers a high visual impact and enhanced functionality, offering both
secured and desktop keyboards.
Eyesboard Virtual Keyboard
Evaluation
software and full documentation is available here.
This downloads version 2.0, build 20118, dated 18th Jan 2008.
The
keyboard actions can be controlled from applications via an Eyesboard API. Documentation regarding the API and
registry settings and a small API demo application can be downloaded from here.
Keyboard
template files can be easily edited. Keyboard template files (board.xxx.yyy.xml)
define the keyboard layout. For example, to remove the option to close the
keyboard (X in top right corner) the line command="eyesboard.close" is
deleted from the relevant keyboard XML file.
Documentation is available here.
The license
cost for the EyesBoard software is as follows:
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No of Licenses |
Price in USD |
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1 - 10 |
$26.50 |
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11 - 25 |
$23.70 |
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26 - 50 |
$23.00 |
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51 - 100 |
$17.00 |
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101 - 200 |
$15.00 |
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201 - 300 |
$12.90 |
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301 - 400 |
$11.60 |
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401 - 500 |
$10.50 |
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501 - 600 |
$9.60 |
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601 - 700 |
$8.70 |
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701 - 800 |
$7.89 |
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801 - 900 |
$7.10 |
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901 - 1000 |
$6.60 |
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1001 - 2500 |
$5.60 |
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2501 - 4000 |
$4.75 |
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4001 - 7500 |
$4.05 |
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7501 - 12000 |
$3.60 |
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12001 - 17000 |
$3.26 |
Comfort On-Screen Keyboard
Another
commercial virtual keyboard is available from Comfort Software at http://www.comfort-software.com/on-screen-keyboard.html.
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Comfort On-Screen Keyboard supports all characteristics of the regular keyboard (for instance, repeated keystrokes when you hold down a key) and has additional advantages:
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UPDD Toolbar virtual
keyboard option
The UPDD
Toolbar function offers the ability to associate areas of the touch screen with
specific touch functions, such as a single touch to invoke a virtual
keyboard. Toolbars are explained in full
in the Toolbar document.
A toolbar
can be created specifically to invoke a virtual keyboard and the keyboard
option caters for the three keyboards described above:
In this
example a toolbar has been created such that when the toolbar is touched the
Eyesboard will be invoked. The enabled
Toogle check box defines that the application is it be removed on touch if it
is currently active.
If a
different virtual keyboard is in use then a toolbar can be defined to invoke
the keyboard application directly (via the full pathname).
Windows Mobile
Pocket CM
This
keyboard mimics the iPhone keyboard and is available at http://www.pocketcm.com
TouchPal
Neat
keyboard concept from CooTek and is available at http://www.cootek.com/index.html
Mac
OS X
System keyboard
Since Mac
OS X 10.4 the system ships with a basic virtual keyboard, which can be enabled
under the System Preferences, International, Input Menu.
Mac OS 10 system virtual keyboard
TouchStrokes
One of the
most popular Mac OS X virtual keyboards available is called TouchStrokes and
can be found at http://www.assistiveware.com/touchstrokes.php.
Linux
xvkbd
Is a freely available virtual keyboard program for X Window systems and can be found at http://homepage3.nifty.com/tsato/xvkbd/.
Vkeyboard
Another freely available virtual keyboard program for X Window systems and can be found at http://kiosk.mozdev.org/.
The following keyboards
are all documented at http://tuxmobil.org/tablet_unix.html
xvkbd - virtual keyboard for X window system
xvkbd
is a
virtual (graphical) keyboard program for X Window System which provides
facility to enter characters onto other clients (softwares) by clicking on a
keyboard displayed on the screen. This may be used for systems without a
hardware keyboard such as kiosk terminals or handheld devices. This program
also has facility to send characters specified as the command line option to
another client.
GNOME On-screen Keyboard (GOK)
The GNOME
On-screen Keyboard (GOK) is a
dynamic on-screen keyboard for UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems. It
features Direct Selection, Dwell Selection, Automatic Scanning and Inverse
Scanning access methods and includes word completion.
Florence
Florence is a
virtual keyboard for GNOME that appears on screen. It is adapted for people who
are able to use a pointing device but have difficulties using a real keyboard.
It aims at being easy and pretty.
kbde
kbde is a
keyboard emulator. The goal is to provide tools for emulation of keyboard input
on keyboardless (x86) computers. It includes a keyboard emulator driver and a
user-space program, as well as a library which make it easy to write custom
applications able to create keyboard input emulation.
GTKeyboard
GTKeyboard is
an application written in C with the aid of the Gimp Toolkit. It is intended to
help users with physical disabilities to enter text into a simple editor, as
well as to help them use other X11 applications that require keyboard input.
GTKeyboard allows the user to press keys on an onscreen keyboard that will
either be entered into a simple text editor that GTKeyboard provides, or into
the application of choice that the user specifies by clicking on the window. It
has also been used by people who have strange keyboard layouts, and by people
who for one reason or another cannot use a keyboard with the machine in question.
matchbox-keyboard -- On-Screen Keyboard
Matchbox-keyboard is
an on screen 'virtual' or 'software' keyboard. It will hopefully work well on
various touchscreen devices from mobile phones to tablet PCs running X Windows.
You can embed matchbox-keyboard into other applications with toolkits that
support the XEMBED protocol ( GTK2 for example ).
Contact
For further information or technical assistance please email the technical support team at technical@touch-base.com.