rate the system could move the selection highlight 203 from the cluster with cluster boundaries 204 to the cluster with cluster boundaries 206 thereby skipping the letter u201c g u201d more than one letter could be skipped depending upon the navigation rate the navigation pace thresholds can be determined empirically based on user preference in addition the navigation pace thresholds can be configurable by the particular user on his or her device in an alternative implementation of the linear character selection interface the user 39 s speed of navigation does not change how the selection highlight 203 moves in such an implementation the selection highlight always moves according to the clusters of letters and or numbers as described above for the fast pace navigation or always moves one letter at a time as described above for the slow pace navigation the linear character selection interface described herein reduces the amount of linear navigation the user must perform for text input on a device the selection highlight which has multiple characters highlighted at any time requires the user only get the character of interest within the selection highlight window as opposed to accurately selecting just one character this reduces the effort of navigation and character selection and increases the speed with which the user can enter text fig6 illustrates a configuration for an input and or display constrained device utilizing the linear character selection interface described herein for example the device could be a remote control coupled with a television system a portable music player the device has a display 601 and an input interface 604 the input interface can.