The idea of a virtual keyboard on a smartwatch seems very laughable for some, but Minuum has been at the forefront of revolutionising how we use keyboards, and they believe it will work on devices as small as wearables. They are now officially the first keyboard that will work on the Android Wear platform, specifically for the Samsung Gear Live, the LG G Watch and the soon to arrive Moto 360.
Since Android Wear is still a relatively new platform for smartwatches, there are not that many apps yet available that would require text fields. But Minuum believes that making a virtual keyboard available for the wearables is a first step towards developers making apps that would need it. They posted a short demo video on their website, showing how it would look on an LG G Watch. You’ll see that it doesn’t use the standard QWERTY keyboard (thank goodness because that would have occupied 2/3 of the screen) but instead uses a horizontal type keyboard, one that they’ve been using for the other smartwatch platforms, smartphones and tablets.
The creators of Minuum believe that the keyboard is something that can adapt to natural language patterns, just like how voice recognition adapts to our tones. But they can only do it as long as the intuitive design accepts the concept of “sloppy typing”, which is fairly common on small gadgets. They are trying to change the paradigm by which we use virtual keyboards and being on Android Wear will be a step towards that since the new smartwatch platform is expected to get bigger in the wearable market.
They will also be coming out with a circular keyboard design in preparation for the Moto 360, the first roundwatch face smartwatch that will be coming out later this year. If you’d like to try out Minuum on your Android Wear device, sign up on their website so you can get installation instructions. For other gadgets, you can download Minuum at the Google Play Store.
SOURCE: Minuum
