Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpdslab!hpdsla!garye
From: garye@hpdsla.HP.COM (Gary Ericson)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Human Factors: Paper-Like Interface
Message-ID: <2690009@hpdsla.HP.COM>
Date: 10 Jan 89 22:33:51 GMT
References: <316@cui.UUCP>
Organization: HP - Pacific Technology Park
Lines: 36

> Agreed, having one keep
> one's arm raised, Tai-Chi style, is no fun, but I still think color
> flat touch screens are the way to go.  

Assuming that you use a technology that doesn't require you to keep your arm
out of the way (i.e., infra-red lines would be interrupted by your arm if
you set it down on the screen), I was talking with someone about how it
might be possible to distinguish between a small touched area (pen/finger
point) and a large touched area (side of hand or forearm resting on the
screen).  If you can identify the pen/finger point, maybe you can let the
user rest his arm or hand or elbow on the screen for support.  This would
make it much easier to use, at least for a semi-horizontal screen. 

> 	What does everyone think of having a touchscreen keyboard if the
> application isn't very typing-intense?  Seems that a color, flat, horizontal,
> touch display could quite easily pop up a keyboard window for some short
> typing when necessary, then make it go away when not needed.  

For me, if it was a small amount of text and I already had a pen in hand for
pointing, I think I'd rather write out the text in longhand on the screen
with the pen.  Typing on a non-tactile-feedback screen would be more tedious 
to me than writing the words out by hand.

> Surely  there's
> been discussions of the agonies of touch-typing in this group in the past-
> could someone post the issues and verdicts?

I think the conclusions have been that the lack of tactile feedback would
make it difficult to be real efficient on a keyboard window.  Some people
say they would abhore the thing while others wouldn't mind using it (at
least for small amounts of text).

> kevin

Gary Ericson - Hewlett-Packard, Workstation Technology Division
               phone: (408)746-5098  mailstop: 101N  email: gary@hpdsla9.hp.com