Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!mucs!logitek!grep!frank
From: frank@grep.co.uk (Frank Wales)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Crazy dreams of HP48's with touchscreens
Message-ID: <1991Jan25.155855.5483@grep.co.uk>
Date: 25 Jan 91 15:58:55 GMT
References: <38125@cup.portal.com> <1991Jan21.163755.9569@ugle.unit.no> <38408@cup.portal.com> <1991Jan24.052410.7061@roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: frank@grep.co.uk (Frank Wales)
Organization: Grep Limited, LEEDS, UK
Lines: 19

In article <1991Jan24.052410.7061@roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu> 
 conte@crest.crhc.uiuc.edu (Tom Conte) writes:
> ...  Some day maybe we'll see a
> redefinable keyboard with LCD legends that change above the keys as
> the modes change.  If anyone ever does this, most of the problems I
> mentioned above would disappear.  The engineering of such a machine
> is probably a little tricky... ;-)

A simple version of this kind of thing was done a couple of years back
by TI (I don't recall the exact machine identifier).  It was a vertical
folding machine whose right keyboard had a large thumb-operated mode switch
which mechanically changed the legends written above all the keys on that
half of the machine (switching from stat mode to scientific, I think).

Of course, it wasn't as flexible as zillions of little displays might be,
but I suppose it could be regarded as a simple trial of the basic idea.
--
Frank Wales, Grep Limited,             [frank@grep.co.uk<->uunet!grep!frank]
Kirkfields Business Centre, Kirk Lane, LEEDS, UK, LS19 7LX. (+44) 532 500303