You already own a mobile, wearable Bluetooth keyboard with only three buttons and 49 distinct inputs!
Engwar is a minimal alternative to Braille which grants a convenient input channel to mobile devices.
If you own a headset with volume controls and a phone, you've got everything in your hands to run three-button wireless chorded keyboard for your phone - a bluetooth headsets with three buttons and an android app that detects pause/resume, vol+, vol-
(3 buttons + 4 chords (32 + 13) )*(3 double tap/single tap/long press) = 21 distinct inputs. When these inputs are semantically mapped to phonemes, it forms a complete input layer. An even richer scheme breaks every phoneme into two taps - 7 * 7 = 49 combinations!
It is also ideal for those with sensory issues. It aims to modernize Braille for mobile technology.
Formally, Engwar is a tactile English Phonemic orthography.
Advantages over standard braille include concise representation, and more intuitive spelling than English, because with Engwar, words are spelled exactly how they sound in spoken English.
The Engwar alphabet is based on English phonemes rather than individual characters, with a phonetic spelling system. This approach streamlines reading, writing and spelling.
Engwar is geared for use with wearable mobile technology. Typing can be done with one-hand on a chorded keyboard, and reading with a wearable haptic device featuring six haptic actuators on the forehead, updated via a bluetooth controller. This should make text-based internet use much more accessible.
Each Engwar character represents an English phoneme.
Engwar classifies Phonemes by the following seven binary attributes:
Voice, glottis, palate, tongue on teeth, lips open or closed, lips extruded (as in Owl) or retracted (as in Eel).
Like Braille, Engwar characters consist of a grid of six dots.
Since there are only six dots, Engwar combines glottis and palate as a single dot, since all of these Phonemes can be distinguished by other traits.
Each dot signifies one of the six attributes, from top left to bottom right, proceeding from the lips towards the lungs through the six binary categories.
Unlike Braille, the grid is a wide 3 x 2 grid eg ::: This is better for forehead haptics. Input is top row, bottom row.
As you master Engwar, you'll be able to 'hear' the haptic through your fingers or forehead - a holy synesthesia.
- Perfect the phoneme selection and mappings
- Write the media-controls to Engwar Braille keyboard app
- Record the Engwar Phonemes
- Add the Engwar Phoneme recordings to the demo site
- Write a speech synthesizer app from Engwar phonemes to Audio.
- Write an ascii to Engwar converter eg ''' ''_ .'' _'' .:' -> ehhh ng ooo aaa rr
Engwar was inspired by Tolkien's Tengwar and Braille.