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#8pen#keyboard#gestureinput

The 8pen

8pen

76 subscribers • 1 video on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 3 people: 2 on Hacker News and 1 on Lobsters.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2022 to 2025.
  • Made by the vendor. The company whose product it covers made or sponsored it.
  • May be out of date. The tools, versions or practices it shows have likely moved on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

1M views16 years ago3 recommendations

Mobile developmentSoftware designAndroid and Jetpack ComposeFlutter and React Native

A demonstration of the 8pen, a gesture-based circular keyboard replacement designed for touchscreens and mobile devices.

The new 8pen is out! goo.gl/v6hXb. And there's a game too: goo.gl/Qvpiw New videos: youtu.be/KSPOYzwXJe0?hd=1, youtu.be/7-5nm4ZPMqI?hd=1 The 8pen allows for the replacement of the conventional keyboard on all devices capable of detecting gestures, in particular mobile phones with touch screens, modern remote controls or game controllers. Its advantage lies mainly in the fact that it is possible to input text faster than using conventional layouts on small devices, while at the same time mimicking human hand-writing. Moreover, the simplicity of the gestures involved greatly reduces the problem of mistyping that frequently occurs with the classical layout due to the lack of space. For the same reason, it is possible to write without viewing, as only the central region is needed as a reference for starting and ending a movement. Learn more at: 8pen.com

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a fascinating and highly unique alternative text input method for mobile devices.

horsawlarwayon Hacker News • Recommends

On “The PocketReform is a made-in-Berlin Linux handheld”

> Sad thing is, that if someone would spend a ton of research and thinking on making something usable and comfortable, most people would completely poopoo it as a freaky unusable layout, just because it would look unfamiliar, lol. Absolutely. 8-Pen was this for Android. (example video here: link to this video ) It was absolutely, hands down without question, the most accurate way to quickly enter text into a phone using only a screen. Seriously - I could type at about 25-35 wpm on my phone screen at 100% accuracy, one handed. They'd done a ton of work to place letters based on frequency and likely combinations to make typing smooth and relatively fast. No fucking disaster of auto-complete that I have t…
View on Hacker News

c-cubeon Lobsters • Recommends

The 8pen input method for phones 2010
6View on Lobsters

Tijdreizigeron Hacker News • Recommends

On “The iPhone Keyboard – Make It or Break It (2022)”

The physical ones (on flip phones) were also 12-key (0-9, *, and #), so I suppose it was just swiping on the keys that was novel. It definitely does leave one to wonder whether that innovation was inspired by this prototype. Since we’re on the topic of input methods: I’ve always found the 8pen 1 fascinating. I sadly never had the opportunity to try it for myself, since I was using an iPhone rather than Android at the time (and it’s since been delisted). 1 link to this video
View on Hacker News

grishkaon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Show HN: iPhone 2005 weird "Blob Keyboard" simulator”

I honestly never understood why on earth QWERTY became the standard for touchscreen text input. It's a good keyboard layout but only when the keys are physical and large enough that you can type with two hands without looking at the thing. But it's absolutely godawful when you have to use it with one finger or two thumbs and no feel. All those dictionary-based crutches that were piled on top of it over time don't help, they only exacerbate the problem, especially considering how laughably poorly they work with languages whose grammar is more complex than English. I've been using touchscreen phones since 2011 yet I somehow still make typos all the time. This suggests that the problem isn't me…
View on Hacker News