CES 2007: A full keyboard for a normal sized phone

Las Vegas (CA) - Digit Wireless showcased what could potentially be one of the widest disseminated products to come out of CES 2007 at the Unveiled event last night. Their Fastap keypad, which fits onto normal sized mobile phones and in a sequential alpha-numeric order, could help to revolutionise the way people interact with their phones for sending text messages.

The system works by having numeric keys raised slightly above letters, and by smartly determining whether or not somebody is pressing a surrounding button by accident or not - for example, when you're pressing the 5 key the letters surrounding it will not also be pressed if your finger slips.

According to Digit Wireless, this system allows a 120% increase in the efficiency of text messaging over traditional phone keyboards, which usually group three letters onto one numeric keypad. This translates into a 97% increase in data revenue, according to Digit; which obviously makes it an extremely attractive product to push to market for operators.

At the moment, LG is the main customer of the new system, with Chinese company ZT also rolling it out; and the company is in discussions with most major operators.

CES Unveiled Slideshow:
See all pictures from CES Unveiled ...