Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!sugar!ficc!karl
From: karl@ficc.uu.net (karl lehenbauer #)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Human Factors: Paper-Like Interface
Summary: typing on a paper-like interface
Message-ID: <2508@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 20 Dec 88 15:58:31 GMT
References: <2690003@hpdsla.HP.COM> <88Dec14.210656est.10862@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu>
Organization: Ferranti International Controls
Lines: 30

> In article <2442@ficc.uu.net> I wrote:
> >An obvious answer is to draw a typewriter keyboard on your LCD display
> >and use its touch sensitivity to determine what "keys" you type.
 
In article <88Dec14.210656est.10862@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu>, bradb@ai.toronto.edu (Brad Brown) writes:
> That's not a very good answer -- have you ever tried to type on a membrane
> keyboard (one that has no tactile feedback) before?  It's not easy or
> accurate.  ...

I think the problem with membrane keyboards is more one of accuracy than
feedback, that is, you hit the keys and the keyboard doesn't register them.
A paper-like interface, one that can record where a stylus is, should easily
overcome that part of the problem.  To provide some feedback, perhaps a
click sound could be played, and of course the text would usually be shown
as it was typed, somewhere on the "paper."

As a simple test, move your hands off the keyboard and try typing on your
desk as if it were a keyboard.  It seems like it would work OK for me, again
if the paper-like interface was highly accurate and responsive.

Also, it makes custom keyboards and non-standard key arrangements, like
Dvorak, really a snap to prototype and implement, and does so without 
locking anyone into anyone else's keyboard decisions.

I understand your complaints, but I do not think they can be construed as
an overwhelming indictment of the concept until more work has been done.
-- 
-- uunet!ficc!karl	"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious
-- karl@ficc.uu.net	encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without 
			understanding." -- Justice Louis O. Brandeis