Optimization of Thamil Phonetic Keyboard
Thuraiappah Vaseeharan, Elango Cheran · 2004
The current standard for the Thamil phonetic keyboard layout is the Tamilnet99 keyboard, which was recommended by a special committee at the 1999 Tamilnet Conference (¯A¸o ¾A¢u þ¨½Â ¸Oo¾AiI Ai?iI) held in Chennai and later accepted by the Government of Thamilnadu [1-2]. An important goal in deciding the optimum phonetic keyboard layout includes placement of Thamil letters with a higher frequency of usage at 'stronger' key positions, and placement of Thamil letters with a lower frequency of usage at 'weaker' key positions [3]. There is reason to believe that improvements can be made in the Tamilnet99 keyboard. We hypothesize that slight modifications to the Tamilnet99 keyboard layout will increase optimization of the aforementioned goal. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether and how the efficiency and user-friendliness of key positions in the Tamilnet99 keyboard can be improved to match strength of key position with frequency of Thamil letter usage.