travis@cs.washington.edu (Travis Craig) (03/06/90)
Index Number: 7068 Has anybody heard of an adaptive device that translates your inputs and then communicates them to a computer via solenoids that actually press keys on the target computer's keyboard? How about communicating them by mechanically rotating the ball on a mouse or trackball or moving a joystick? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Travis Craig, Computer Science, University of Washington USENET: travis@cs.washington.edu -----------------------------------------------------------------
Chita.Cazares@p0.f501.n202.z1.fidonet.org (Chita Cazares) (03/22/90)
Index Number: 7234
Actually, way (WAY) back in the dark ages of personal computing (say
1978-1981) I remember some devices which laid on top of a Selectric
typewriter and hit the keys. It was for people who couldn't afford a
regular computer printer but had a typewriter around somewhere.
I don't offhand remember any brand names, but I bet if you'd visit a
few swap meets or look up OLD computer magazines at a library, you
could find a few ads.
What's your interest in this kind of primitive device?
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!202!501.0!Chita.Cazares
Internet: Chita.Cazares@p0.f501.n202.z1.fidonet.orgEric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org (Eric Bohlman) (03/23/90)
Index Number: 7265
TC> From: travis@cs.washington.edu (Travis Craig)
TC> Has anybody heard of an adaptive device that translates your inputs
TC> and then communicates them to a computer via solenoids that
TC> actually press keys on the target computer's keyboard? How about
TC> communicating them by mechanically rotating the ball on a mouse or
TC> trackball or moving a joystick?
Why would you want to use such a cumbersome, high-cost and failure-prone
arrangement for keyboard emulation? Most keyboard emulators I've seen for IBM
compatibles use serial input and a TSR to translate the input into
keystrokes. For Apple II systems, there's usually an emulation board that
goes between the keyboard encoder and the CPU.
(I'm surprised that developers of keyboard emulators for IBM compatibles
haven't come up with a unit that plugs directly into the keyboard port. This
would eliminate the need for a TSR and would work with programs that use the
keyboard in non-standard ways, e.g. respond to shift keys by themselves.)
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!115!778.1!Eric.Bohlman
Internet: Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org