Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!ucbvax!MICA.BERKELEY.EDU!bowles
From: bowles@MICA.BERKELEY.EDU (Jeff A. Bowles)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: New Input Devices (in lieu of Keyboards)
Message-ID: <8901192059.AA04600@mica.berkeley.edu>
Date: 19 Jan 89 20:59:40 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 37


"Is there any way to come up with a new device that will allow you
to input thoughts at this higher-level, rather than letter-by-letter?"

This sounds like a request to do something like what exists for
people who know sign language for the deaf, in which "most common words"
have a sign (or two or three) and others are spelled out when necessary.
Let's look at the one word I remember....

"Not" - Make a fist with your right hand, with thumb resting on top of
	index finger. Put that hand to under your chin, thumb touching
	your throat. Bring hand forward, running thumb along chin, as if
	you're making a rude gesture. (At least, that's what I remember
	'not' being, taken from a play....)

"Not" - N-O-T, signed as three letters. Harder to recognize quickly, takes
	more practice, I suspect.

One immediate difference is that the body gestures require a wider
bandwidth - more than just fingers and possibly wrists. Are we limited
to using 26 letters to talk? Similarly, are we limited to a typewriter
keyboard, QWERTY or not?

A lot has come out of the notion that, for inputting music a music keyboard
is used, or perhaps something that looks like a MIDI sax/clarinet; the mouse
(and touchscreens) are similar examples.

We spend all this time trying to figure out how to present data to make
it as intuitive as possible, but not nearly enough trying to input it easily.

And for letters, I think that what I'd want is a dictating machine, albeit
entirely electronic. For inputting English text, there is little else that
would be analogous.

Put that on your [electronic] desktop.

	Jeff Bowles