We owe a debt of gratitude to Martin King, the relatively unsung entrepreneur and inventor of T9 predictive texting. The technology, which predated systems like Swype, used a dictionary to “find” words that matched the series of keys pressed, thereby allowing you to type words without multiple taps of a single key. T9 was a direct successor to King’s work at allowing paraplegics use keyboard displays. You can read about the creation here.
He had multiple myeloma.
King was also a well-known adventurer and he sailed across the Atlantic alone and spent long plane rides planning new inventions. In this swiftly moving world, it’s hard to stop and remember the giants who got us where we are today and on whose shoulders we stand.