MATLAB Typewriter Package

Contains a simple app for providing text prompts based on the Mackenzie & Soukoreff 2003 dataset. Quick start:

git submodule add git@github.com:Neuro-Mechatronics-Interfaces/matlab_package__typewriter.git +typewriter
git submodule update --init --recursive

Overview

The Prompter Typing Interface is a MATLAB-based application designed for guided typing tasks. It provides real-time feedback for user input accuracy, tracks words-per-minute (WPM) performance, and supports automated prompt advancement.

The interface is implemented as a MATLAB class (Prompter) and includes a graphical user interface (GUI) built with uifigure. It is especially suited for typing-based experiments, training applications, or research studies.

Features

• Real-Time Typing Feedback:
  • Background colors dynamically update to indicate correct, incorrect, and incomplete text.
• Words-Per-Minute Tracking:
  • Displays live WPM statistics based on typing speed.
• Configurable Phrase Set:
  • Load custom typing prompts from a text file.
• Auto-Advance Mode:
  • Automatically advances to the next prompt upon completion.
• GUI Controls:
  • Pause and resume functionality.
  • Integrated heads-up display (HUD) for WPM statistics.

Interface

• Main Typing Area:
  • Displays the current prompt with background color feedback for each character.
  • Includes a text input box for user typing.
• Right-Side HUD:
  • Displays current WPM.
  • "Pause" button to stop typing and disable input temporarily.

Installation

1. Clone or download the project to your local system.
2. Ensure MATLAB is installed (tested with MATLAB R2024a).
3. Place the project directory in your MATLAB path.

Usage

If you have correctly installed the contents of this repository to a folder named +typewriter which is on your workspace path in the MATLAB editor, then you can test/observe how the UDP interface runs by running the following command:

typewriter.example_auto_prompter;

This should launch a script which will automatically read the current prompt (via JSON-serialized UDP message exchange, read from the loaded prompts that by default are found in +typewriter/@Prompter/config/phrases.txt), looking similar to the gif shown above. The main loop has a pause delay of 0.1 seconds; you can reduce this time to see that it increases the words/minute and bits/second throughput, as expected.