The keyboard is based on four fundamental strokes (nà, héng, shù, piê, denoted by the numerals 1, 2, 3 and 4) and the traditional stroke order. It is, therefore, intuitively familiar to any person with a knowledge of characters. The keyboard is ergonomically designed and mathematically optimised using information on the textual frequency of Chinese characters.
Using this keyboard, it is possible to type any Chinese (traditional or simplified), Japanese or Korean character (provision for kana and hangul can also be included).
For simplified Chinese characters the frequency weighted average number of keystrokes required to type a character is three.
Simple provisions for avoiding character ambiguities reduce the average incidence of ambiguity to one in five thousand characters of text and thus allow uninterrupted touch-typing. An optional procedure for further decreasing this low incidence of ambiguity is provided.
The keyboard can be learned in about half an hour from written explanations and graded examples occupying about two A4 pages. The system is well suited for professional touch-typing, as well as for the occasional typist.
Further optional facilities for abbreviating and simplifying the task of typing characters are provided. These decrease the weighted average number of keystrokes per character below three.
Copyright © Zwi Barnea 2002