5. What’s new in Version 4.0

5 What’s new in Version 4.0

A preview version, 3.99, was released in October 2004.

There is an automatic speed control, which will speed up Dasher when it senses you are able to go faster.

There is a new socket interface allowing Dasher to listen to head-trackers or gaze-trackers or EEG-interfaces without going through the mouse.

There are several ‘button modes’ for people who want to drive Dasher using one, two, three, or four switches.

There is a ‘click mode’, for people who like to point where they want to go, and click to take a single step in that direction. (Good for beginners?)

5.1 What’s coming in version 4.2

We will implement a game-mode for Dasher: this will help novices learn to write. A teaching hand will guide the novice when he goes astray, and novices who write fast without needing much guidance will win lots of points.

New language models will be added, which will make predictions at the word level as well as the letter level.

Japanese and Chinese will be fully supported.

The Dasher team also hopes to create a free web-cam-based head tracker and gaze tracker, ‘VIM’, by April 2006.