When thinking further regarding my earlier post re a control with 10k settings etc. I came up with this idea (and I apologise if readers have seen it done elsewhere - I haven't, I've led a sheltered life!). It does away with needing two fingers as in my earlier suggestion and enables any number to be dialled accurately with just 1 stroke per required digit.
ITEM 1
First you need to have a visual display of the value you are assigning at the location of the control being edited. This needs to be a separate item to the method of data entry as a designer might have created a dense panel with little room for integrating the numerical display and method of data entry into 1 item, maybe because of space constraints or size of digit displayed at the control point (too small). However, the two functions should be available as a single control at designer discretion (combine ITEM 1 & ITEM 2).
ITEM 2
The second item is the method of data entry which could be used globally as a fixed data input item on a page (maybe as a floating moveable panel) usable with any control that has a changeable numerical value. It could be (at a suitable size) the control itself. You could potentially end up with a panel that consists of a collection of labels alongside digital displays showing values held by controls that once selected are only editable via a single context sensitive data entry panel - touch the label and up pops the related data entry panel!
For each required digit you have a small, finger tip sized button which you press, hold and move your finger to the right or left depending on the placement of the panel. If there is more space to the right you swipe to the right an vice versa for the left or both if centrally placed. This swiping to the left or right would change the value of the digit for that button. A good idea would be to have the buttons display their held value in addition to any display that is part of the control being edited. I visualise the buttons as being like a single digit LCD without a back light for unused state, illuminated for edited or existing value, and a different colour for currently editing.
The good thing is that using 1 digit as a building block, you can have as many buttons as you require digits or letters as this could suit any number base (hex, binary, octal etc.), user definable.
But then again you could ditch the whole idea and instead have a single button that calls up the inbuilt numerical or qwerty keypad of the host device - but that's not the point and they're not very pretty are they?
