[GLOBAL ECONOMIC TIMES]  A software keyboard has appeared that allows you to easily switch between Korean and English without having to press the Korean-English switch key.

According to related industries on the 24th, Professor Emeritus Kim Kuk of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Seokyeong University recently developed and released 'Gaon Hangul', a software keyboard that allows easy input of Korean and English letters. A software keyboard is software that can be installed on Windows, a computer operating system (OS), to change the way characters are input on the keyboard.

The biggest feature of Gaon Hangul is that it does not use the Korean-English conversion key on the keyboard. Currently, computer keyboards require you to press the Korean-English switch key to insert an English word while typing in Korean. Afterwards, you must press the switch key once more to return to Korean to continue working on the document. Therefore, it is inconvenient to have to change the Korean and English keyboards just for one word.

Professor Kim developed Gaon Hangul to solve this inconvenience. With Gaon Hangul, if you need to input an English word while working on a Korean document, you can input the English word while holding down the shift key, then release the shift key to immediately input the Korean word. In other words, there is no need to change the entire keyboard alternately between Korean and English.

Gaon Hangul also allows you to easily input double consonants such as ‘ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ’ and some double vowels such as ‘ㅖ’. The current keyboard requires you to hold down the shift key to input double consonants and some double vowels. However, Gaon Hangul is convenient because double consonants are entered by pressing the consonants twice in succession. You can also type the double vowel 'ㅖ' by entering 'ㅕ' and 'l' in succession.

This reduces document work time. Professor Kim said, “Gaon Hangul is easy to convert between Korean and English, so you can work on documents quickly and reduce typos,” and added, “Even the disabled and children with small hands can easily use it.”

Professor Kim distributes Gaon Hangul, which he developed over the course of about 10 years, to individuals for free. From now on, companies will only receive money if they use it for business purposes. He said, “We are distributing Gaon Hangul for free to individuals to spread the word,” and “we are considering charging a fee for corporate use.”

To use Gaon Hangul, you must download the software (https://m.blog.naver.com/gaonhangul?tab=1) and install it on your computer. Gaon Hangul for mobile devices is under development. Professor Kim said, "After installing the Gaon Hangul software, go to the 'Korean' item in the control panel settings and reset 'Advanced Keyboard Settings' to Gaon Hangul to continue using it. Gaon Hangul for mobile devices, which is scheduled to be released within a year, will be used as a general keyboard. “We rearranged the keyboard in alphabetical order instead of (QWERTY keyboard),” he explained.

What Professor Kim emphasizes through Gaon Hangul is convenient communication between humans and devices. He emphasized, “The method of communication between humans and digital devices is important,” and “We developed Gaon Hangul and received a patent to enable people to use digital devices conveniently.”

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