|  |
Keyboard Optimizer
A utility program that optimizes keyboard response settings to suit a user's typing style.
Date Posted: August 23, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
Type any text, using your normal typing. It can be in any language, though English works slightly better. | | |
|
Some suggestions may be made after just a few characters. Sometimes it may take several sentences before enough evidence has been gathered for a recommendation. | | |
|
The Keyboard Optimizer has been designed so that users can use keyboard navigation even if they are having problems with extra characters appearing. These extra characters will be ignored. For example, holding down the tab key will advance the selection by only one item. Repeated presses of the tab key less than 0.5 seconds apart will be ignored, in order to eliminate extra key presses sometimes caused by tremor. | | |
|
No. The Keyboard Optimizer operates by activating keystroke filters available in Windows. These may help you to type more accurately, but they will not correct mistakes that do appear. | | |
|
The Keyboard Optimizer errs on the side of caution. A single example of a problem is usually not enough to trigger a suggestion. Several examples are usually required. | | |
|
It may be that the typing sample you have provided did not show the problem, or that the problem was not seen frequently enough to trigger a suggestion. If there is a specific keyboard setting you are interested in trying, and the Keyboard Optimizer does not provide it, you can access it through the regular Windows Keyboard or Accessibility control panels. | | |
|
Use the See details button in order to display the technical details of the current and original settings. | | |
|
In Windows, the key repeat and debounce settings are linked, so changing the debounce time does affect the key repeat delay and rate. If you don't like these changes, then press Start again in order to return the keyboard to its original state. | | |
|
The Keyboard Optimizer does not do this, but there is a way. When you close the program, if you choose to keep the current settings, then your keyboard settings will remain for the remainder of the session. When you log off, Windows may ask you whether you want to keep the new settings. If you say yes, then Windows will store and restore these settings for you. | | |
|
No. | | |
|
No new keyboard settings are provided by this program. | | |
|
Automatic/Dynamic adjustment is a mode of operation in which the Keyboard Optimizer continues to analyze your typing while you use other applications. It makes some automatic changes in order to keep the key repeats appropriate, and it offers other suggestions explicitly. This mode may be
useful if your needs change significantly throughout a session. | | |
|
Your typing is monitored, but no recording is made unless you choose to record the session. If you record the session, a log file is created, but all alphabetic characters are recorded as x and all numerals as 1, so it is not possible to recreate what you have typed from this log file. | | |
|
The program's analysis algorithms were developed by studying and recording people with a variety of different motor impairments using keyboards. The program was then tested with a similar group of individuals who tried using the Keyboard Optimizer's suggestions. The suggestions made were 95% appropriate, but sometimes useful features were not suggested. | | |
|
While the Keyboard Optimizer is available through alphaWorks, you can provide feedback to the developers through the evaluation survey. | |
|
|
|
|
 View screenshots:
 |
| |
|
View screenshots:
