Do you remember Minuum, “the little keyboard for big fingers?” Unlike most keyboards, it combines a layout that consists of a single line of characters with an auto-correction algorithm that corrects highly imprecise typing that comes with using a small input area. Currently available for Android smartphones and tablets as a public beta, work continues on improving it and making it available across more devices.
The promise of Minuum is that it can be adapted to a wide range of devices that goes far beyond smartphones and tablets. In its latest video, Canada-based startup Whirlscape shows off how Minuum could be used on a smartwatch (a Samsung Galaxy Gear in fact).
Typing on a smartwatch is counter-intuitive. It’s hard enough on a smartphone and even Minuum will probably not have you typing 70 words per minute on your smartwatch. Voice recognition will likely establish itself as a far more appropriate input mechanism for such devices but there may still be occasions where a fallback input method may be required. Minuum could well fill that gap based on this video.
On a side note, since we last wrote about Minuum, it has been enhanced to support more than just English. the latest version also supports German, French, Italian and Spanish.
Minuum is now on sale for CA$1.99 via Google Play.