Boffins at New York University's Media Research Lab (MRL) have developed what they claim is are revolutionary new method for pen computing text entry. Designed for the Palm handheld, the Quikwriting system is, the researchers claim, much faster than the Palm's current text entry technology, Graffiti. Developed by MRL Associate Professor Ken Perlin, Quikwriting arranges characters in a special sequence of groups that determines how each letter, number or symbol will be drawn. Within the sequence are symbols which tell the software which character within a group you actually want to enter. Moving the stylus from the centre, towards the desired character's location, to one of two special symbol areas and back the to the centre allows the system to figure out which character you want and display it. The speed comes because it's instantly clear how to get a given character -- you don't need to learn Graffiti's shorthand -- and you need never take the stylus off the screen while writing. Quikwriting will be officially launched during November's User Interface Software and Technology 99 conference. ® You can see in detail how Quikwriting works and download a PalmOS demo here.