SmartKey Technology

The REACH Interface Author can also be purchased with Smart Key Technology (Patent Pending).

"Smart Key Technology" (Smart Keys) is the latest advance in assistive technology software. This product includes both REACH Interface Author and Smart Keys. Smart Keys predicts the next letter and will remove, change the color, or gray out unlikely keys. This feature can increase the typing speed and accuracy for many REACH users.

Here is how it works - just load any of the REACH typing keyboards such as one of the alphabetic keyboards shown below:

Start typing the word "lucky" by selecting the letter "L". When the letter "L" is typed, not only does REACH start predicting the word you are typing (word prediction starts predicting words that begin with "L"), but Smart Keys starts predicting the next letter.

Smart Keys does this by using a unique (patent pending) method for determining which letters follow the letter "L" in the REACH dictionary(ies) you have loaded. In one option, Smart Keys then removes all letters that don't follow "L" (see below):

This simplifies the keyboard display and makes it easier to find the next letter you are looking for! It also makes it easier to "hit" the correct key because there is now a lot of empty space, so if you accidentally miss the target key, you won't type the wrong letter!

When you type the next letter ("U") in "lucky", Smart Keys again updates the keyboard to show you the letters that follow the sequence "LU":

At this point, you can continue typing "lucky", but you probably would select it from the word prediction bar instead (to save typing time).

If you are typing a word that is not in the current REACH dictionary(ies), then you can select the "Escape" (Restore) key (lower left corner) to bring back all the keys on the keyboard. When you finish typing the novel word, you probably will want to use the quick "Add Word" option to add it to your User Dictionary.

If you want the benefits of Smart Keys but also want all the keys to stay on the keyboard, you can select the "Gray and Make Active" option (where unlikely keys are "grayed out" but can still be typed), the "Gray and Make Inactive" option (where unlikely keys are grayed out and cannot be typed) or the "Change Colors" option, (where the colors of unlikely keys are changed).

An example of the "Change Colors" option is shown below to show what the keyboard would look like after typing the "L" in "lucky":

You also can decide whether to show or not show the number keys, punctuation keys, or control keys!

REACH with Smart Key Technology 2.5 is only $389.