Smartwatch Keyboard Concept. Samsung Gear S2 typing

I'd like to present Gear S2 keyboard concept. There are three big buttons each bound to nine letters. By swiping a finger in one of eight directions, a user would easily and precisely choose a character to type. Simple tap is for selecting the central character.

We know that text input on smartwatches is an issue that has not been effectively solved yet. Voice input, predefined text and T9 keyboard are using currently in smartwatches. While sometimes voice input can be great, there are many situations when speaking to your device may not be appropriate. Even T9 on such small screen is terrible solution.
Shrinking a regular T9 (or QWERTY) keyboard to a miniature screen of a smartwatch, be it square or round, results in a bad user experience.
For example, compare with current UX:
— to type “yes”: 3 interaction vs 9
— to type “yes!!!”: 7 interaction vs 20
— size of the buttons is 3 times bigger
— an user’s effort is 3 times less

For commercial use please contact me at alexandr.sholudko@gmail.com