Optimization of Mobile Phone Keypad Layout via Genetic Algorithm

Using mobile phone to send text messages is very common nowadays. Everyday, many users spend a lot of their valuable time to type such messages. Using an appropriate keypad layout, this time can be reduced significantly. In this paper, we propose a GA-based approach to find an appropriate mobile phone keypad layout. The used GA is a simple one with a suitable fitness function which considers all parameters affecting speed of text entry in mobile phones. Some application specific GA operators including three mutation operators and one crossover operator have been developed. Using the proposed algorithm, we show that the current layout is not the best one and we can find layouts that are so more efficient. An important facet of the proposed algorithm is that it can be easily specialized for a particular task by using input text pertaining to that task