Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sri-spam!sri-unix!hplabs!pesnta!valid!markp From: markp@valid.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Flat Displays and Portable Computers Message-ID: <938@valid.UUCP> Date: Mon, 26-Jan-87 15:43:53 EST Article-I.D.: valid.938 Posted: Mon Jan 26 15:43:53 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 28-Jan-87 22:17:14 EST References: <1191@ucbcad.berkeley.edu> <191@its63b.ed.ac.uk> <38@cerebus.UUCP> <1052@ius2.cs.cmu.edu> <275@netxcom.UUCP> Organization: Valid Logic, San Jose, CA Lines: 127 > In article <1052@ius2.cs.cmu.edu> ralphw@ius2.cs.cmu.edu (Ralph Hyre) writes: > >In article <38@cerebus.UUCP> ronc@cerebus.UUCP (sysadm) writes: > >>In article <191@its63b.ed.ac.uk> bob@its63b.ed.ac.uk (Bob Gray) writes: > >>>Make it with a touch sensitive screen, Throw away the > >>>keyboard and the pointer (mouse)... > >... > >>Ickkk! I have a small problem with this. I can not write. > >>I can at best print slowly and painfully. > >... > >How about adding a connector for a optional keyboard and pointing device > >on the side of the machine? Mechanical support for attaching it (directly > >or with a detached cable) would be straightforward. > ... > No, don't add a keyboard on the end! It was designed with the idea in mind > that it would be about the size of a notebook. If you add an auxiliary > keyboard you defeat the design intent. False for reasons to follow... > > If you need a keyboard, then use the touch sensitive screen to create one. > I seem to remember that with the resolution given in the original design, and > with the room available on the surface of the screen, you could have a full > 80x24 character screen, and still have enough room for a keypad. The key > layout would be entirely programable, since it is displayed on the screen! > This would allow everyone to customize the keypad into a form that they want, > instead of being stuck with whatever the manufacturer wanted to give them. Okay, imagine yourself in a note-taking situation. It has been mentioned in this newsgroup that it is generally possible to type faster than handwrite, that is, at least for people who have become somewhat proficient in typing. I would certainly have to be hard-pressed to print 90wpm, legibly, that is. This "on-screen keyboard" of yours is worthless for this purpose. There is no feel, and the spacing will be all wrong-- completely wrong for touch-typing, and a waste of valuable screen area that would be better used by providing more lines than just 24 (I normally use my Ann-Arbor in 36x80, and this is barely tolerable). > > Keep the idea of an 'electric pencil', since it is rather difficult to type > graphics into the screen. This would allow you to type or write notes, since > you have either form of data entry, and would keep the capability to sketch > all those pretty pictures that professors are so fond of drawing! > > What do you think? > -- > > Edwin Wiles I think that you should concentrate your mind on the application, not on what sounds like the neatest way to apply the technology. The largest LCD displays for consumer applications are much smaller than a typical sheet of paper used for note-taking. Hand-written text large enough to be resolved by the electric pencil interface will be prohibitively large, and the limitation on resolution may even impair the CPU's ability to decipher the characters. For times when the information is flying by, there is no substitute for a keyboard. It must be quiet, but with a good tactile feel. It must be designed especially for lap-top use, since the small area typically occupied by student desks will be filled by the display/base unit. People don't need to watch their fingers as they type, anyway. Dealing with the physical size issue should not be a problem. Students are used to carrying backpacks or similar devices. The overall size of this device can be made to be no thicker than 3 or 4 stacked 8x11 notebooks. The keyboard, rotated 90 degrees and inverted, fits against the display unit and latches to it. The size of the keyboard unit allows its cable to retract inside. The 'electric pencil', with cable, fits into the space between the keyboard and the display. This assembled unit fits into a soft case, suitable for packing into a backpack or attache (or legal attache), or carrying about by the soft case's handle. Yes, you do need the pencil. You also need fairly sophisticated software to compress the digitized images into a form more readily stored than bit-map. Memory, while cheap, is not infinitely cheap. Keyboard entry will eliminate much of the CPU bottleneck here. To insure higher-quality drawings (perhaps even entered more quickly) and to further reduce the data compression problem, an on-screen graphics menu may be appropriate. This would resemble MacDraw/ MacDraft, and would include such things as rubber-band lines, rectangles, and circles. A button is needed on the electric pencil, preferably near the pointing end where your index finger normally rests. One problem introduced by this is the proliferation in the user interface. He/she now has to deal with a keyboard, free-form entry, and structured graphical entry. Barring a major breakthough in flat display size and pointing-device resolution (perhaps one bit-pad technology could be leveraged here, with the pointer being a receiver which detects variations in a 2-dimensional electric field!), choices are limited. Another major user-interface question involves the use of the keyboard to annotate figures. Normally, keystrokes are placed at the cursor position (with automatic margin detection). There must be a quick, intuitive, facility for moving the cursor to a new position. As mentioned by someone earlier, the ability to dump to a host computer is essential. Considering that the thickness of the base unit (the one with the display in it) will be finite, a standard RS-232 connector will suffice. The notebook now becomes a terminal, with the added capability of downloading and uploading. The keyboard is even more useful now, since the arm strain associated with poking each letter can be gruesome. Essentially, then, we have: (aspect ratio is faulty, but you get the picture) +-------------+ / === o o /| <-- RS-232 connector, keyboard and pointer connector +-------------+ | | This space | | | occupied by |O| <-- Power connector for recharging | electronics | | |+---------+-+| | || |M|| | || Flat |E|| | || Panel |N|| | || Display |U|| | Pointing device (same shape as ball-point pen) || | || + _/^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\_________________ |+---------+-+|/ \__##_______________________/ thin flexible cable +-------------+ button Anyway, I have tried to come up with some more constructive ideas. Such an electronic notebook could be a useful product, but I fear that its price would dictate a fairly small market, considering the utility of its prime competitor, the "analog" notebook. In the meantime, it certainly makes for interesting discussion. :-) Mark Papamarcos Valid Logic hplabs!{ridge,pesnta}!valid!markp