New service for Chinese typing

[yogesh]

I am writing to introduce a new technology to facilitate easy and accurate typing of Chinese Mandarin.

The web based service is called Lipik and uses an Artificial Intelligence module to predict what you want to write based on what has been written so far. This greatly enhances typing speed and accuracy.

Please try this at lipik.in/mandarin.html and share your valuable inputs and comments which will be very encouraging for us and help in improving the service.

Warm regards,

Yogesh

[skylee]

I would not use it because -

a) it does not support output in traditional script.

B) it does not support input in word and choosing a character involves moving my fingers away from the keyboard and using a mouse, which lower the speed. For example, to type 怎么, instead of simply inputting "zenme + space", I need to type "zen + space" then use the mouse and then type "me + space" and then use the mouse. It's so slow and tiring.

[Albert Cheng]

I think this service is quite interesting because its quite special from what I have used before, its definitely worth a try:D

Because it does prediction for the next word which I am gonna type and showed on the ribbon.

For example :

I was trying to type 怎么（zenme）。When I typed zen， 怎 showed up in the 2nd place on the ribbon ,so I　used Ctrl+ number 2 to choose 怎 from ribbon. After 怎 has been chosen, 么 showed up in the ribbon in the 4th place without any typing from me, amazing isn't it!! So I did Ctrl+ number 4 to choose 么 from ribbon.

Its was absolutely doing predicting for what I was gonna type ! Personally I have never used any Chinese input software that does this trick ,even Google Chinese input does not do prediction:(

But some aspects of this service does need improvement:

a> Need to support triditional Chinese Character;

b>It would be terrific if it could support input in phrase.

But anyway I would recommend you guys to give it a try.

Yi

[HashiriKata]

I've just tried it and I like the prediction feature, which saves a lot of typing. However, there seems to be a not-yet sorted problem (or it may be because I'm not familiar enough with the software to avoid): When I type a punctuation mark, some unwanted character also comes along with the punctuation mark. Worse still, I just couldn't find a way to start a new line (= start a new paragraph). I tried to look at the FAQ to find a solution and this instruction is what I found: "Pressing a non-letter key will automatically select the first suggested chracter. " So, does this mean the problem I mentioned above is in-built, and there's no way to by-pass it?

[skylee]

It's also a bit amazing that post #3 is not the same post #3 that I've read but there is no remark that it's been amended/deleted and reposted, etc.

Anyways I didn't know about the Crtl+number function when I first tried the software. But compared to google ime for which I just need to press the number only, the Crtl+number function doesn't seem that amazing.

[skylee]

And perhaps the software also needs improvement for its prediction in respect of poems, chengyu, proverbs, set phrases etc. I tried to type some random set phrases such as 人生得意須盡歡 / 葡萄美酒夜光杯 / 夜長夢多 / 防不勝防 / 床前明月光 and the prediction failed almost completely.

[imron]

Personally I have never used any Chinese input software that does this trick

Many of the older pinyin IMEs used to do this "trick", back when IMEs were pretty unsophisticated and you could only type one character at a time. Some Wubi IMEs (such as freewb) also do this, as do most modern pinyin input methods on mobile phones.

However then some bright spark figured out that rather than doing this, it was far more efficient for the typist if the IME did on-the-fly sentence correction, as this way they don't have to select every single character that they type. The first generation of these IMEs (such as the MS pinyin IME) did an ok job of this, but the second generation (Sogou, Google etc) really made great improvements in this area.

[self-taught-mba]

All hail the IME King, Imron!

[yogesh]

Dear Skylee, Albert, Hashirkata, Imron, Self-taught-mba,

Many thanks for your inputs.

Please note the following:

1. We have enabled selection of the predicted words using Ctrl + number. We thought this is more useful than directly allowing selection by just pressing the number, as this method allows entering of numbers also. However this is a minor issue and we can change the functionality depending on what is more user friendly

2. The default prediction is based on Chinese Corpus of most general usage. However the system learns from users writing styles and starts predicting based on their writing style. For this you need to open and account so that it can maintain your profile. The prediction for poems, set phrases can be made better by doing this.

3. We believe that even though a on-the-fly sentence correction may result in higher typing effiecient however it assumes better familiarity of Pinyin from users and requires typing out the entire Pinyin text. By making context based predictions, our method also helps people with lesser knowledge of Pinyin.

4. Ctrl+Enter is required for getting a new line, like most other Pinyin softwares. We have amended the instructions in the help file to correctly mention this.

5. We have corrected the error regarding puntuation - 'Pressing a non-letter key will automatically select the first suggested character'. Many thanks for reporting this.

6. We are working on supporting the traditional script.

Please keep guiding us as to how we can make the service better.

Regards,

Yogesh

[skylee]

3. We believe that even though a on-the-fly sentence correction may result in higher typing effiecient however it assumes better familiarity of Pinyin from users and requires typing out the entire Pinyin text. By making context based predictions, our method also helps people with lesser knowledge of Pinyin.

I don't understand this.

[Albert Cheng]

Quote:

Originally Posted by yogesh

3. We believe that even though a on-the-fly sentence correction may result in higher typing effiecient however it assumes better familiarity of Pinyin from users and requires typing out the entire Pinyin text. By making context based predictions, our method also helps people with lesser knowledge of Pinyin.

I don't understand this.

To skylee:

I think he meant normal input method which support the on-the-fly sentence is suitble for ppl who can type Chinese PinYin very fast without think about it.

But this new prediction based input method is more suitable for ppl who are still leaning PinYin since they are not exactly sure what to type, so the prediction is more helpful to them.

For example:

If you want to type 今天天气好,in PinYin is

"jin tian tian qi hao".

For a person who already knows PinYin of each Chinese Character well in this sencente , the on-the-fly based input method(like Google or Sogo) is probably faster since the user can type "jin tian tian qi hao" within 2 second.

But for a new learner of PinYin , he probably need to think about how to type the corresponding PinYin of 气（qi）after he typed 天(tian). In this case, the prediction based input method would be more helpful.

Hope my understading is correct.

Regards,

Albert