Now, a software to do away with tapping on touchscreen phones

Tapping on your touch screen phones would soon be a thing of past, all thanks to new software—Swype—which predicts words as you slide your fingers on the keypad.

Seattle-based Cliff Kushler, who invented the T9 software for quick typing on cell phones, has created Swype with partner Randy Marsden.
 
Swype allows users to glide a finger across the virtual keyboard to spell words, rather than tapping out each letter.
 
“We’ve squeezed the desktop computer, complete with keyboard and mouse, into something that fits in a pocket. The information bandwidth has become very constricted. I thought, if we can find a better way to input that information, it could be something that would really take off,” the New York Times quoted him as saying.

He said that Swype is a big breakthrough that could reach billions of people.

Swype’s software detects where a finger pauses and changes direction as it traces out the pattern of a word.

The movements do not have to be precise because the software calculates which words a user is most likely trying to spell.

Capitalization and double letters can be indicated with a pause or squiggle, while spacing and punctuation are automatic.

Kushler, who is chief technology officer of Swype, estimates that the software can improve even the nimblest text-messager’s pace by 20 to 30 percent.

Swype is now being used on seven smartphones in the United States, across all major wireless carriers, including the HTC HD2 and the Samsung Omnia II.

By the end of the year, the company says its software will be on more than 50 models worldwide.

However, it has not yet cracked a deal with Apple, the king of touch-screen phones, but it is tinkering with software for the iPhone and the iPad and hopes to show it to Apple soon.

To make money, Swype charges phone makers a licensing fee for each device sold and is also contemplating for add-ons.

“We could have custom dictionaries for doctors or lawyers,” said Mike McSherry, chief executive of the company.

But Swype’s appeal goes beyond mobile phones, said Won Park, director of United States technology sourcing at Samsung.

“It could become the de facto standard for tablets, next-generation TVs or next-generation remote controls. It has tremendous potential,” said Park.

Swype’s executives also see its reach extending into public kiosks, smart home appliances, video game consoles and in-car navigation systems.