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From: Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org (Eric Bohlman)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Adaptive communication and computer use
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Date: 22 Mar 90 19:41:42 GMT
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 TC> From: travis@cs.washington.edu (Travis Craig)

 TC> Has anybody heard of an adaptive device that translates your inputs
 TC> and then communicates them to a computer via solenoids that
 TC> actually press keys on the target computer's keyboard?  How about
 TC> communicating them by mechanically rotating the ball on a mouse or
 TC> trackball or moving a joystick?

Why would you want to use such a cumbersome, high-cost and failure-prone  
arrangement for keyboard emulation?  Most keyboard emulators I've seen for IBM  
compatibles use serial input and a TSR to translate the input into  
keystrokes.  For Apple II systems, there's usually an emulation board that  
goes between the keyboard encoder and the CPU.

(I'm surprised that developers of keyboard emulators for IBM compatibles  
haven't come up with a unit that plugs directly into the keyboard port.  This  
would eliminate the need for a TSR and would work with programs that use the  
keyboard in non-standard ways, e.g. respond to shift keys by themselves.)
 

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