Google Acquires Impressive Touchscreen Keyboard Startup BlindType

Google has just acquired BlindType, a very impressive technology that allows you to type on touch screens without even looking at them. See our past coverage of the startup here.

BlindType doesn’t force you to type using a virtual keyboard at the bottom of your screen, which is the norm on most smartphones. Instead, you just start typing wherever it’s convenient— BlindType analyzes the position of your finger taps relative to each other to determine which characters you’re typing (check out the video below to watch it in action).

Here’s a post that just went live on the company’s blog:

We are excited to announce that BlindType has been acquired by Google!

We want to thank everyone for their overwhelming support and positive feedback.
We know that typing on your mobile device can be a frustrating experience, which is why
we’ve worked hard to make touch typing easier and faster than ever – the way it should be.

We’re excited to join Google, and look forward to the great opportunities for mobile innovation that lie ahead.

The BlindType team

BlindType’s website may be ugly, but the video demos are very impressive — I’d love to see this technology make its way into Android. Unfortunately the software isn’t actually released yet (not even as a standalone app), so you won’t be able to try it yourself for a while. In the mean time another fantastic third-party keyboard is Swype, which first made its debut at TechCrunch 50 and now comes stock on many phones, including some Android devices.