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submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by vatlark@lemmy.world to c/opensource@programming.dev

EDIT: They want users to help generate a dataset. You just play a game and email them the data when you are done.

I just did it, it was easy.

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[-] Alfredolin@sopuli.xyz 4 points 15 hours ago
[-] TheHobbyist@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 day ago

I haven't watched the video but Futo collected a swipe dataset which is MIT licensed.

https://huggingface.co/datasets/futo-org/swipe.futo.org

[-] vatlark@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Thats interesting and its pretty sizable with about a million words swiped. I'm not sure what heliboard is doing differently.

[-] Foxfire@pawb.social 3 points 1 day ago

This has lit a fire under me, I'm gonna gesture so many words! Sucks that I have to download the proprietary library—I entirely stopped gesture typing because of that—but this is for the greater good. I'll exclusively use it for this data collection, and nothing else. Hopefully the word spreads, and we get a massive data set which makes a great FOSS gesture library on mobile possible.

[-] angrywaffle@piefed.social 51 points 1 day ago

That's really cool. There are a lot of FOSS that need data collection to be accurate and useful. I wish more of them accept donation of anon data. e.g. I'd love to donate my location data in exchange of accurate transit data.

[-] vatlark@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah absolutely for the transit data. All the wrong people already have my data, I would happily donate my data to the right people.

[-] Feyd@programming.dev 21 points 1 day ago
[-] Sxan@piefed.zip 27 points 1 day ago

Heliboard is awesome, and once you get it installed its swipe works well. I'm off Android now, but I'd turn on telemetry for Heliboard.

[-] doc@fedia.io 16 points 1 day ago

Swipe in my experience does need work. I'm glad they're doing this.

GBoard, before I switched, was like 95% accurate. I could trust it for blind typing. Heliboard with the google library is maybe 70% accurate and frustrating. "typing" in that last sentence was first "topping" the second "ripping" before I tapped it out.

To this day nobody is as good as Swype was. RIP.

[-] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Same experience here. Swype was the original and somehow after all these years still the best?! Or maybe I'm misremembering because my standards were lower back then.

GBoard is noticeably better then Heliboard. I still use Heliboard but it is frustrating sometimes, to the point where I wonder if I should just start typing with my thumbs instead. Might be faster on the whole, since I sometimes lose 5-10 seconds correcting the swipos.

I will start submitting gesture data ASAP. The keyboard world needs this.

[-] TheFinn@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago

Swype was great but Swiftkey's (pre-Microsoft) word prediction made it my favorite. It was also able to pick the correct word without me having to care about swiping over the right letters. It seemed to work just by the shape I was tracing.

[-] deprecateddino@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

This is what I use and just firewall it.

[-] rhubarbe@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 2 points 1 day ago

I have to correct 50% of my words in my language (French). It keeps guessing words that don't exist. Example: I swipe "Donc" (then) and it guess "Do'c". What is that word?

[-] vatlark@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

There is no live telemetry, you just email them the data when you are done.

[-] perishthethought@piefed.social 8 points 1 day ago

I love this idea so I just enabled the swipe library we have now (closed, boooo) and submitted my first set of test data. It worked just like in the video here. Neat!

If anyone sees this post and wants some more background on the keyboard and why it's so handy, here you go:
https://www.howtogeek.com/i-tested-this-open-source-keyboard-for-a-month-and-it-replaced-gboard/

NB: I am no shill just a happy user.

[-] Willoughby@piefed.world 8 points 1 day ago

I've gotten used to Unexpected Keyboard for use with Termux, but I do agree the average folk need a keyboard for the people.

[-] witty_username@feddit.nl 3 points 1 day ago

Aah he even said toodles at the end! I'm in

[-] DarkSpectrum@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago

I like HeliBoard but the lack of a private swipe capability made it so clunky to use. I've been using FUTO Keyboard on Android which has the swipe feature but runs privately offline( no network permissions). The swipe accuracy isn't perfect but its better than typing each word.

[-] ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

FUTO Keyboard might be willing to share data. Its another open Open source keyboard. License purchase optional but encouraged.

[-] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 21 points 1 day ago
[-] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

https://github.com/futo-org/android-keyboard/

Uses their own license which forbids commercial use but the source is available and you're free to modify and distribute it so...

Not proper FOSS and doesn't meet the OSI definitions but colloquially speaking it looks pretty open to me.

[-] joyjoy@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 day ago

All this FUTO hate must be coming from big-FOSS so they can sell more free.

[-] entwine@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

It's always inspiring to see random people on Lemmy calling out big-FOSS and sticking up for the little guy.

(Mandatory /s in case people don't know that FUTO's founder is literally a tech billionaire)

[-] Marthirial@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Just installed FUTO 5 minutes ago and already love it. One handed typing is fantastic.

[-] three@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

HEY EVERYBODY, THIS GUY IS JERKING OFF

[-] Eldritch@piefed.world 5 points 1 day ago

Yeah the more damning thing is the fascism. Anything from or in any way connected to Curtis Yarvin should get a wide berth. Rossman hooking his wagon to Yarvin is disappointing. But well within the norms for him sadly. (Kiwifarms association etc) I want to like him and support him for his right to repair work. But personally I can't.

[-] TheFinn@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago

FUTO has connections to Curtis Yarvin? Goddammit

[-] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If you modify it but then no one can use your modifications while at their work, then it's not much use being able to see the code.

[-] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That's not how that works...

It just means you can't modify it and make a profit from selling it or monetizing your modifications.

(... Or try to sell it without modification, for that matter)

[-] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Show me where the license supports your interpretation.

You may modify the software only for non-commercial purposes such as personal use for research, experiment, and testing for the benefit of public knowledge, personal study, private entertainment, hobby projects, amateur pursuits, or religious observance, all without any anticipated commercial application.

You may distribute the software or any part of its source code only if you do so free of charge for non-commercial purposes.

[-] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The parts you quoted, for one...

"Non-commercial" is well defined.

For a general overview: https://www.copyrighted.com/blog/copyright-commercial-use#what-is-commercial-use-in-copyright

[-] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Commercial use in copyright refers to the use of creative works, such as text, images, music, or videos, for financial gain.

Just as I said, can't use the keyboard with modifications to write a work email. Since the license doesn't grant that permission, it's unsafe to assume that it does.

[-] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

When I was 14 I purchased a CD with a copy of the Audacity installer on it from a shady site for $30...

I seriously doubt the authors intend you to uninstall your keyboard every time you need to write a work email; it's to stop you from profiting off of their work, just as you can't remove their branding and funding links when you re-distribute.

I have CC BY-NC images as my desktop wallpaper on my work laptop... Now if my work was selling the laptop then it could become a problem, especially if the pretty art was part of the value proposition. While it merely existing might be a gray area under some hyper-pedantic interpretation, it's functionally irrelevant in the real world until there's money involved and the licensor can show damages.

(Psst I also changed some behaviour in my GPL editor for personal use once without sharing my changes and also I also used that version a few times while writing proprietary commercial code... Pls don't tell Stallman)

[-] ulterno@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

Psst I also changed some behaviour in my GPL editor for personal use once without sharing my changes and also I also used that version a few times while writing proprietary commercial code… Pls don’t tell Stallman

As long as you didn't ship the edited binary of the GPL editor with your proprietary software, you are safe here.

[-] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Personal anecdotes of successful piracy don't make for an open-source license agreement, otherwise I would be a minor king of open-source.

If a database server's license says “only allowed to use for personal purposes”, it's rather obvious that I can't install it at my work. If a keyboard's license says “you may modify the software only for non-commercial purposes”, it's less clear, but also not apparent why the same interpretation shouldn't apply. Most importantly, copyright law doesn't allow willy-nilly use by default in the case of doubt.

I also changed some behaviour in my GPL editor for personal use once without sharing my changes and also I used that version a few times while writing proprietary commercial code

As the other commenter correctly pointed out, GPL only requires you to share your code if you distribute the compiled binary. And, being a fully FOSS license, GPL doesn't restrict commercial use of programs.

this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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