REACH Smart
Key™ Technology
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REACH "Smart Key™ Technology" (Smart Keys™) is one recent advance in assistive technology introduced by AHF. An "add on" option for REACH Interface Author™ (REACH™), this innovative approach to on-screen keyboards will increase typing speed and accuracy for many REACH™ users.
Here is how it works - just load any of the REACH™ typing keyboards such as one of the alphabetic keyboards shown below:
Start typing the word "yours" by selecting the letter "y". When the letter "y" is typed, not only does REACH™ start predicting the word you are typing (word prediction starts predicting words that begin with "y"), but Smart Keys™ starts predicting the next letter.
Smart Keys™ does this by using a unique method for determining which letters follow the letter "y" in the REACH™ dictionary(ies) you have loaded. In one option, Smart Keys™ then removes all letters that don't follow "y" (see below):
This simplifies the keyboard display and makes it easier to find the next letter you are looking for! It also makes it easier to "hit" the correct key because there is now a lot of empty space, so if you accidentally miss the target key, you won't type the wrong letter!
When you type the next letter ("o") in "yours", Smart Keys™ again updates the keyboard to show you the letters that follow the sequence "yo":
If you are typing a word that is not in the current REACH™ dictionary(ies), then you can select the "Escape" (Restore) key (lower left corner) to bring back all the keys on the keyboard. When you finish typing the novel word, you probably will want to use the quick "Add Word" option to add it to your User Dictionary.
If you want the benefits of Smart Keys™ but also want all the keys to stay on the keyboard, you can select the "Gray and Make Active" option (where unlikely keys are "grayed out" but can still be typed), the "Gray and Make Inactive" option (where unlikely keys are grayed out and cannot be typed) or the "Change Colors" option, (where the colors of unlikely keys are changed).
You also can decide whether to show or not show the number keys, punctuation keys, or control keys!
Scanning Keyboard Advantage
The greatest advantage for Smart Key Technology™ comes for persons using scanning keyboards. The problem with scanning keyboards always has been the amount of time wasted while waiting to get to the correct key. As shown in the graph below, in an experimental evaluation of Smart Keys™, there was a 31% increase in typing rate when scanning for subjects using Smart Keys™ compared to using the same REACH™ keyboard without Smart Keys™.
When you turn on any of REACH™'s three scanning options, depending on the options you select, REACH™ only scans the likely keys or scans the likely keys first, before scanning the unlikely keys. This can result in substantial time savings!
Free demonstration software is available if you would like to try REACH with Smart Keys™:
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