Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu!crest.crhc.uiuc.edu!conte
From: conte@crest.crhc.uiuc.edu (Tom Conte)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Crazy dreams of HP48's with touchscreens
Message-ID: <1991Jan24.052410.7061@roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu>
Date: 24 Jan 91 05:24:10 GMT
References: <38125@cup.portal.com> <1991Jan21.163755.9569@ugle.unit.no> <38408@cup.portal.com>
Sender: news@roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu
Reply-To: conte@crest.crhc.uiuc.edu (Tom Conte)
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois
Lines: 55

In article <38408@cup.portal.com>, jpser@cup.portal.com (John Paul Serafin) writes:
> akcs.falco@hpcvbbs.UUCP (Andrey Dolgachev) writes:
> >... Jake             
> >Schwartz makes a good point when he talks about a Hypercard-like keyboard     
>  
> >with keys that can be whatever shape and location we wish.  I think that      
>  
> > ....
>  
> >          ----Falco
> ...
> I've always thought it would be nice if keycaps were displays.   The small
> size would allow much better contrast for LCD's, there would be a menu
> selection for every key, and the entire main display would be available
> for other uses.   ALL key labeling could be done this way, allowing more
> or larger keys, since the space between them wouldn't be needed for
> labels. The displays could change whenever a shift key is pressed.
> Alternatively, the label area above each key could be a display.   This
> would take care of the finger print problem, perhaps at the cost of reducing
> the density of keys.   I suspect this idea has come up before, but I can't
>			 ^^^^^^^
> recall a reference.
> John Serafin
> jpser@cup.portal.com

Ok.  I'll bite: from my comments on the (then) new 48SX in March, 90...

> Article 1626 of comp.sys.handhelds:
>Path: umd5!haven!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!crest.csg.uiuc.edu!conte
>From: conte@crest.csg.uiuc.edu (Tom Conte)
>Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
>Subject: 48SX ergonomics and stray comments
>Keywords: 48SX, hp
>Message-ID: <1990Mar16.194217.21647@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
>Date: 16 Mar 90 19:42:17 GMT
>Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
>Reply-To: conte@crest.csg.uiuc.edu (Tom Conte)
>Organization: CRHC, University of Illinois
>Lines: 116
>
> ...  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... ;-)

[ Not to toot me own horn or nothing.]

Heck, maybe HP will see this as a public outcry for such a machine and
build it.

------
Tom Conte	  Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing
 conte@uiuc.edu   University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
 I worry about insects: I bet the dinosaurs had `mammal exterminators'