eric@snark.UUCP (Eric S. Raymond) (12/24/88)
In article <8939@ut-emx.uucp>, osmigo@emx.UUCP (Ron Morgan) writes: > A monitor as described is a ways down the road, for sure, but I don't know > why a wireless keyboard would be far-fetched. It'd only have to send a > hundred or so infrared (or other) pulses: one for each ASCII character. Where you been, boy? Hidin' in a hole? There was this machine called the `PC Junior', made by a little itty bitty company name of IBM. It *had* a keyboard that worked almost exactly as you describe. It was a flop. Too bad. The IR keyboard was indeed a nifty idea, it was the rest of the machine that sucked rocks (IBM did things like deliberately crippling the ROMs so you couldn't run the serial ports at >2400bps, and that chiclet-style keyboard...aargh!). Of course, it would have worked a whole lot better in multiple-machine environments if there'd been frequency selectors on the keyboards and machines that you could dial to different values to prevent crosstalk... On the postive side, I understand that at some of these sites `keyboard wars' got to be a real popular computer game...:-) -- Eric S. Raymond (the mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews) Email: eric@snark.uu.net CompuServe: [72037,2306] Post: 22 S. Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355 Phone: (215)-296-5718
bradb@ai.toronto.edu (Brad Brown) (12/26/88)
In article <eX91V#3rLMNU=eric@snark.UUCP> eric@snark.UUCP (Eric S. Raymond) writes: > >There was this machine called the `PC Junior', made by a little itty bitty >company name of IBM. It *had* a keyboard that worked almost exactly as you >describe. > >It was a flop. Too bad. The IR keyboard was indeed a nifty idea, it was the >rest of the machine that sucked rocks... Whether the IR keyboard really worked on the PC-Jr is debatable -- it *was* a cool idea but required a line-of-sight from the keyboard to the computer. This was *not* nice. If you could put the IR reciever on the NeXT monitor it would be OK, but then you'd still have to worry about paper getting in the way or the desk covering the LED when you type on your lap. Give me a nice old wire, just make it long and flexible! (-: Brad Brown :-) bradb@ai.toronto.edu
rfm@sun.com (Rich McAllister) (12/28/88)
In article <88Dec26.153341est.10798@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu>, bradb@ai (Brad Brown) writes: >Whether the IR keyboard really worked on the PC-Jr is debatable -- it *was* >a cool idea but required a line-of-sight from the keyboard to the computer. >This was *not* nice. If you could put the IR reciever on the NeXT monitor >it would be OK, but then you'd still have to worry about paper getting in the >way or the desk covering the LED when you type on your lap. Give me a nice >old wire, just make it long and flexible! This just means that the IR transmitter was anemic. A really *bright* IR source can bounce off walls, ceilings, etc. to get to the sensor. Think of flashing a strobe light in a dark room. Steve Wozniak's CL9's "Tyron" remote control booster is an example. Obviously this makes crosstalk between two systems in the same room even worse, but at the cost of a little more processing power in the keyboard, one could do a packet-based scheme (like Ethernet) to address the keyboard packets and get retransmission after a collision. -- Rich McAllister (rfm@sun.com)
srw%pws1@Sun.COM (Scott Wiesner) (12/28/88)
Back in '83, I was at IBM Boca as a summer student. I got to play 'dumb user' for PC Jr's while they watched over me. The comments here about line of sight requirements for the keyboard's IR-link are true. When I first sat down at the PC Jr, the keyboard was right next to the machine, but slightly offset so the IR transmitter didn't line up with the receiver. I was only getting about 50% response to key presses. The people monitoring me finally told me to move the keyboard away from the machine a bit to give it a better chance of picking up the signal. I decided to relax and put the keyboard in my lap. Unfortunatly, this put the table edge between the transmitter and receiver, and nothing worked! I'll stick to cords. Scott
c60a-2di@e260-2d.berkeley.edu (The Cybermat Rider) (12/28/88)
In article <83073@sun.uucp> rfm@sun.com (Rich McAllister) writes: >In article <88Dec26.153341est.10798@ephemeral.ai.toronto.edu>, bradb@ai (Brad Brown) writes: >>Whether the IR keyboard really worked on the PC-Jr is debatable -- it *was* >>a cool idea but required a line-of-sight from the keyboard to the computer. >>This was *not* nice. If you could put the IR reciever on the NeXT monitor >>it would be OK, but then you'd still have to worry about paper getting in the >>way or the desk covering the LED when you type on your lap. Give me a nice >>old wire, just make it long and flexible! > >This just means that the IR transmitter was anemic. A really *bright* IR >source can bounce off walls, ceilings, etc. to get to the sensor. Think of >flashing a strobe light in a dark room. Steve Wozniak's CL9's "Tyron" >remote control booster is an example. Heck, you don't really need a booster anyway! Assuming you're sitting at a comfortable distance from the monitor, the IR system found in standard TV remote controls should do quite well. I've got a remote-controlled TV that seems to be able to receive signals from the control quite well - in fact, my last act before bedtime nowadays is to BOUNCE an IR beam off the wall AND ceiling behind me to switch the TV off! And this is STANDARD EQUIPMENT! If IBM had only taken a look at the systems TV manufacturers use...... >Obviously this makes crosstalk >between two systems in the same room even worse, but at the cost of a little >more processing power in the keyboard, one could do a packet-based scheme >(like Ethernet) to address the keyboard packets and get retransmission after >a collision. Sounds feasible, but we may then have to address the problem of response time. In a particularly IR-noisy environment (or even with about 3 IR keyboards sitting next to each other), the delay caused by repeated retransmissions could become pretty annoying. Perhaps someone with experience in designing IR control systems could comment on this? An alternate solution would be to arrange the receivers appropriately (say, at right angles). If you're in a cubicle, there shouldn't be much of a problem (unless, of course, you accidentally orient your keyboard to fire a stream of IR pulses that ricochet all over the shop and hit your co-worker's receiver - but the pulses would probably be too weak or garbled to register anyway). > >-- >Rich McAllister (rfm@sun.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adrian Ho a.k.a. The Cybermat Rider University of California, Berkeley c60a-2di@web.berkeley.edu Disclaimer: Nobody takes me seriously, so is it really necessary?
mac@ardent.UUCP (Mike McNamara) (01/01/89)
Metaphor of Mountain View CA builds front end workstations for large IBM type data bases. Their terminal looks like a bitmapped wyse 50 with the keyboard linked to the terminal via IR. There is also a mouse, also IR. The key board stores in a slot under the monitor when not in use. I used it a bit, it looked good. -mac