Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!ncis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!purdue!bu-cs!kwe
From: kwe@bu-cs.BU.EDU (kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent W. England))
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Walkman computers
Message-ID: <27304@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 17 Jan 89 23:19:37 GMT
References: <336@belltec.UUCP>
Reply-To: kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent England)
Followup-To: comp.society.futures
Organization: Boston U. Information Technology
Lines: 34

In article <336@belltec.UUCP> jom@belltec.UUCP (Jerry Merlaine) writes:
>I want a walk-around terminal: Chord keyboard (10 keys for one hand,
>you type many combinations) under my right hand mounted on my belt at 
>my side; and a heads-up display that flashes on my glasses from the side.
>This way I can walk around and run my terminal at the same time.
>The terminal talks infrared or radio to something in the my building.
>It has a voice synthesizer plugged into my ear, which helps me wander 
>around in files.   I move to a file on my glasses and have it read 
>out to me while I'm walking around.
>

	This sounds like my idea of a portable computer- the Sony
WalkMan Computer.  I would want some simple voice input in addition to
the chord keyboard.  The CPU unit would be about the size of a
portable cassette unit- hang it on one side of the belt and the chord
keyboard on the other.

	A cellular phone connection would make it truly portable.  The
heads-up display would be very useful for navigating around,
especially if the unit had a satellite navigation system so it knew
where it was.  (These are all ideas from the Tablet, the U of Illinois
Apple contest winner for the PC of the year 2000.)  I like it.

	Uh, oh.  I just thought of something.  You remember the
pre-calculator nerd with the slide rule hanging on his belt?  I can
see myself with one of these units hanging on my belt with the phones
and display hanging on my glasses-  I get an interesting piece of
e-mail as I'm walking down the sidewalk that I just *have* to reply
to-  I reach down for the chord keyboard hanging on my belt (a little
too low) and start groping it as I type out my reply.  To anyone else
on the sidewalk it's "instant geek".

	Going to have to think of some way to use this thing without
looking like a complete nerd.   :-)