Kännsch

Android Keyboard App for Swiss German Text Input

Swiss German is not a clearly defined language. There are many different ways of writing a certain word. Current predictive keyboards do not consider languages that have flexible writing styles. This is where we come in. Our app quickly adapts to your style of writing and keeps you from having to type out every word you want to write.

This app is based on the Google Open Source Keyboard. It preserves the robust functionality and visual appeal of the popular app that has been developed and tested over a number of years. Our extension work focuses on allowing you to improve your user experience by keeping your individual writing style.

Our app is optimized for compatibility with Swiss German input. However, it still performs well with commonly typed languages like English, German, Italian, French and others.

This app is being developed at the Disco research group of the ETH Zurich as the product of a master thesis.

Visit our website and contact us if you have questions or want any further information.

http://kaennsch.ethz.ch

Permissions needed:

• Contacts: to suggest names of your contacts (can be turned off)

• Location: for language studies

• Phone: to generate a unique yet non-reversible ID for your phone

• SMS: to construct an initial dictionary with your typing style (can be turned off)

• Storage: used to store dictionaries

• Internet: to sync with our server and obtain new words in your typing style (can be turned off)

• Startup: to start the background syncing with our server

• Vibration: for haptic feedback while typing (can be turned off)

In order to improve the app and thus your user experience, we do extensive logging of everything you type. We collect the following information from your phone/tablet:

• Anonymized user ID

• Timestamp

• Every typed character

• List of suggested words for every typed character

• X and Y coordinates of touch event on phone/tablet display

• List of effectively typed characters for every word committed

• Events keyboard close/open

• App preference state

• Device make, model and screen resolution

• GPS location

We reserve the right to forward the collected data to academic research facilities in Switzerland and abroad.

It is of utmost concern to us to preserve your anonymity. To assure this, your phone or tablet generates a unique and non-reversible ID on site which cannot be traced back to you. All communication with our servers is performed using this generated ID.