Design and evaluation of an assistive window for soft keyboards of tablet PCs that reduces visual attention shifts

Abstract

In general, soft keyboards are used for tablet PCs much as they are for smartphones. However, since the screen size is larger than for smartphones, user gaze is dispersed. In this paper, we propose a new keyboard for tablet PCs, in which an assistive window is introduced to decrease visual shifts, and evaluate the usability and usefulness of the keyboard. Results of an experiment are reported confirming that the gaze dispersion showed a reduction of 90% compared to an existing keyboard, although the typing error rates and typing time did not greatly improve. These results indicate a way to reduce visual dispersions on larger screen devices.