Entering text on "smart" watches is not nearly as convenient as on a smartphone - especially if the clock does not have a virtual keyboard. The team of researchers developed a rotating keyboard called COMPASS. It allows you to type messages on the watch without using the device's touch screen.

COMPASS is a text input method that uses the bezel clock. The user can rotate three pointers and use them to select the desired symbols. After selecting a letter, the pointer location is dynamically optimized so that a person can get to the next letter as quickly as possible.

Similarly, predictive input works on modern smartphones. But on "smart" watches, this technology appeared for the first time.

COMPASS developers evaluated the effectiveness of the method by conducting research with ordinary users. In 90 minutes of using the technology, the input speed increased from 10 words per minute to 12.5.

The team published a research paper in which she talked about the development and implementation possibilities of COMPASS.

The advantage of the method is that, unlike the usual T9 keyboard on, for example, Samsung Gear S2, COMPASS allows you to keep the round form of the rest of the screen area. Therefore, the contents of the screen can be scaled to fit into the inner area without changing the appearance.

The authors of the study are employees of the University of New York at Stony Brook and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Representatives of the Key Laboratory of Advanced Computing and the National Laboratory of Information Science and Technology of Tsinghua also took part in the development of COMPASS.