Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!sunic!kth!draken!ianf
From: ianf@nada.kth.se (Ian Feldman)
Newsgroups: comp.std.misc
Subject: Re: chord keyboard faster than traditional keyboard?
Message-ID: <1690@draken.nada.kth.se>
Date: 18 Sep 89 02:06:59 GMT
References: <2925@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: ianf@nada.kth.se (Ian Feldman)
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Lines: 41

In article <2925@ndsuvax.UUCP> nukim@ndsuvax.UUCP (kyongsok kim) writes:
>
>   once we discussed chord keyboard and since then i have read more than
>ten related papers.  the most recent paper i read was published in 1978.
>although many papers claim that chord kbd may be faster than tratitional
>kbd (e.g., querty, dvorak), I have not seen any ACTUAL EXPERIMENTAL data
>supporting such a claim.  in most cases, the difference in speed was
>negligible.
>
    It is not, for fully trained chord-typists, that is.  The increase
    in speed is very significant, upwards of 200%


>   1.  i wonder if any related paper has been publshed after 1978.
>I would like to get a list.   
>   
>   2.  Does any paper show an actual experimental data supporting the
>claim that chord kbd is much faster than traditional one?


    There are no such things as "generic chord keyboards" as implied
    by your question; there are only function-specific ones and no two
    are alike.  The chord-keyboard applications that I've seen include:
    coding of machine-readable address-strips on envelopes in a high-
    speed postal sorting machine; real-time transcription in the court
    of law & parliament (replacement for stenographing machines) and
    the most promising of all: television-subtitling in real-time!
    The latter technology, originally developed by the BBC in the UK
    (for teletext applications), uses a special syllabic-chord keyboard
    that promises to make simultaneous transcription of spoken words an
    everyday commodity.

    There has been a number of articles about chord-keyboards in the
    Brittish ergonomy/ related magazines.  Try browsing the last
    couple of volumes of "Applied Ergonomics" (UK); shouldn't be hard
    to find. 

-- 
---- You just survived another load of gross exaggerations from
------- Ian Feldman, the ASCII hacker  /  "I work to live, not the
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