Re: A research idea for entering characters

Mark E. Shoulson <mark_at_kli.org> wrote:
 
> I made a font like this a while back (capital letters and numbers and selected symbols only) with the character in the lower right quadrant.  If you turn the error-correcting up to high, it works fine.
 
Thank you for replying.
 
This is an interesting development.
 
There are in the United Kingdom some businesses that offer the facility to send a personalized greetings card. One can go online and design the card, using either a stock image supplied by the business or by uploading an image. Payment is by credit card or debit card. The business then prints the card and sends it by post to the recipient, who may, but need not, be the person sending the card. A5 is a popular size: that is, the card is a piece of A4 size card folded to produce a two-page A5 card.
 
It occurs to me that if there were artwork for a QR code keyboard made available, free to use though not public domain so as to give provenance, then someone could use the artwork in such a greetings card website to send, at low cost, a one-off print of the keyboard printed well on high quality card.
 
If there were a suitable app for a mobile telephone, then the fact that the QR card keyboards could be printed in high quality and distributed as needed could be a useful facility.
 
I am thinking that there may be many details that need to be decided before such a QR code keyboard could become a practical possibility. For example, how does one ensure that one can get to the desired QR code without another QR code being accidentally read? This seems to imply plenty of access space to get to the desired character. So there is a design balance to be made over size of QR codes, the number of QR codes on a piece of paper or card, the size of the access pathways and the size of the piece of paper or card.
 
There could be a design that has the digits and * and # and an ampersand and a % sign and intended to be used with an app designed to enable a telephone call to be dialled and initiated without the end user needing to press any buttons at all. This could perhaps be useful for some people. As it would have only have fourteen QR codes, or fifteen if one included a + sign, this might make design easier.
 
What is needed is a standardized protocol of how it is to work.
 
For example, automatic prevention of doubled characters unless an ampersand is used between them, the ampersand being just to assist input and not recorded.
 
For example, use %1 to initiate a call to the number that has previously been set up.
 
William Overington
 
9 April 2013
 
Received on Tue Apr 09 2013 - 06:33:56 CDT