vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James) (07/25/90)
In article <2787@uakari.primate.wisc.edu> gdavis@primate.wisc.edu writes:
)From article <1412@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>, by jgsmith@watson.bcm.tmc.edu (James G. Smith):
)>This is a plea for someone to come up with an input device for the off hand/
)>non mouse-using hand. I would suggest a dial or pair of dials. The immediate
)I think the inventor of the mouse, Doug Engelbart, did have an input device
)for the other hand. As I recall it was a simple five-fingered keyboard.
)I'm not sure what the keys did.
)Gary Davis
Others have mentioned chord keyboards, some pointing back to
Xerox and PARC as the source.
I seem to recall that the military was experimenting with chord
keyboards back in the '50s as a fast means of input. And, not surprisingly,
they were faster than QWERTY keyboards. Them proved to be a fast and
accurate means of input, but lost out for the same reason that Dvorak
keyboards aren't all over the place: inertia.
I remember when I first read about these things that I thought
that they would be great for color painting. Give me a chord-mouse
(or chord-stylus, or glove, with the right drivers), a color workstation
and a little practice and I'd have a blast. Hand one to someone who can
paint and stand back...
I now suspect that you would have to watch the design *very*
carefully to avoid creating a situation that would really encourage
carpal tunnel syndrome and other ergonomic nasties. I also suspect
that it could be done fairly easily. (And, come to think of it,
a chord pointer would make some games incredible...)
And, last, with ADB it shouldn't be *that* hard to at least
build a prototype. Talk about the need for a consistant user interface...
--
Later Y'all, Vnend Ignorance is the mother of adventure.
Mail? Send to:vnend@phoenix.princeton.edu or vnend@pucc.bitnet
Anonymous posting service (NO FLAMES!) at vnend@ms.uky.edu
In Fort Madison, Iowa, the fire department must practise for fifteen minutes before going to extinguish a fire.rmh@apple.com (Rick Holzgrafe) (07/27/90)
On the subject of chording... In article <1396@idunno.Princeton.EDU> vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. James) writes: > I now suspect that you would have to watch the design *very* > carefully to avoid creating a situation that would really encourage > carpal tunnel syndrome and other ergonomic nasties. Too right! And I'm the wrong person to pontificate, since I know nothing of the mechanics of the human hand and arm. But... everyone keeps saying "keyboard" - I wonder if the best design wouldn't be something you'd hold in a loosely curled fist, instead of something that sits on your desk. For a first try: take the handle off a joystick that's been well-shaped to fit comfortably in the hand. Add buttons under the four fingers. Make sure that all buttons, including the thumb's, are easy to click and have a short throw. Run a light wire, like a mouse cable, out the bottom. Now you can chord with your hand lying relaxed in your lap. Am I crazy? Or is it a good idea? Ignorant minds (mine!) want to know. :-) ========================================================================== Rick Holzgrafe | {sun,voder,nsc,mtxinu,dual}!apple!rmh Software Engineer | AppleLink HOLZGRAFE1 rmh@apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. | "All opinions expressed are mine, and do 20525 Mariani Ave. MS: 77-A | not necessarily represent those of my Cupertino, CA 95014 | employer, Apple Computer Inc."
jay@argosy.UUCP (Jay O'Conor) (07/27/90)
In article <9440@goofy.Apple.COM> rmh@apple.com (Rick Holzgrafe) writes: ... stuff deleted about chord keyboards and carpel tunnel syndrome ... >Too right! And I'm the wrong person to pontificate, since I know nothing >of the mechanics of the human hand and arm. But... everyone keeps saying >"keyboard" - I wonder if the best design wouldn't be something you'd hold >in a loosely curled fist, instead of something that sits on your desk. For >a first try: take the handle off a joystick that's been well-shaped to fit >comfortably in the hand. Add buttons under the four fingers. Make sure >that all buttons, including the thumb's, are easy to click and have a >short throw. Run a light wire, like a mouse cable, out the bottom. Now you >can chord with your hand lying relaxed in your lap. > >Am I crazy? Or is it a good idea? Ignorant minds (mine!) want to know. :-) > >========================================================================== >Rick Holzgrafe | {sun,voder,nsc,mtxinu,dual}!apple!rmh >Software Engineer | AppleLink HOLZGRAFE1 rmh@apple.com >Apple Computer, Inc. | "All opinions expressed are mine, and do >20525 Mariani Ave. MS: 77-A | not necessarily represent those of my >Cupertino, CA 95014 | employer, Apple Computer Inc." There was something like this in BYTE magazine many MANY years ago. It was a hemispherical shape with one button for each finger and (I think) three buttons for the thumb. You press the proper combination of finger buttons, then one of the thumb buttons to actually transmit the character from the device. Hmmm... this only gives you 48 characters... I must be remembering something wrong. Anyone out there remember this issue? It was the cover article - I do remember seeing the device on the cover. I might be mistaken about the magazine - it might have been Interface Age (how many of you remember _that_ magazine?). Jay O'Conor jay@maspar.com
RCW101@psuvm.psu.edu (The Fiend) (07/30/90)
I once saw a very interesting input device, not sure what it was called,
connected to a Silicon-Graphics workstation. This device has a ball, about the
size of a baseball, which could be moved around on a stick (kind of like a
joystick), plus it had two rows of (I think) 5 buttons in front of it. It's
profile looked something like this:
_ .._ (the .. is the button panel)
___ |_| /
/ \_|_/
Does anyone know what this is called or anything else about it? I was just
walking through the office when I saw it.
/--------------------------\/---------------------------\/--------------------\
| Student Consultant, || --------The Fiend-------- || There is a big |
| PSU CAC Student Support || ----Ronald C. Woodley---- || difference between |
| Senior Consultant, || RCW101@PSUVM.BITNET || those who play in |
| Phoenix Enterprises || RCW101%PSUVM@PSUVAX1.uucp || the dark and those |
| President, || rcw@chopin.psu.edu || who live there. |
| Fiend Productions, Ltd. || rcw@psusun01.psu.edu || |
\--------------------------/\---------------------------/\--------------------/pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu (Eric Pepke) (07/31/90)
In article <90210.161608RCW101@psuvm.psu.edu> RCW101@psuvm.psu.edu (The Fiend) writes: > I once saw a very interesting input device, not sure what it was called, > connected to a Silicon-Graphics workstation. This device has a ball, about the > size of a baseball, which could be moved around on a stick (kind of like a > joystick), plus it had two rows of (I think) 5 buttons in front of it. It's called a Spaceball, which is probably somebody's trademark. The idea is that the ball can be pushed in all 6 orthogonal directions or twisted around I don't remember how many axes. I have played with one, but I was not all that impressed. It's a binary first-derivative device, so one has to push or twist and wait for the object to move around in its own good time. I found this frustrating. Personally, I far prefer a mouse and the virtual trackball algorithm by Michael Chen et. al. With spring-loaded constraints to rotate around the object's and the viewer's major axes and a trackball with inertia, it is almost obscenely pleasant to use. In re. chord keyboards, some years ago there was a hemispherical device that had four buttons for the fingers and eight buttons for the thumb. The four buttons would be played as a chord to determine the bottom four bits of the ASCII code, and one of the eight buttons would be pressed to determine the top three bits. At the time, the price was considerably less than the average price of a QWERTY keyboard, so maybe they sold a few. A long time ago, I played around with a chord-entering system for hexadecimal data using the four fingers of each hand on a TRS-80 Model 1. Eric Pepke INTERNET: pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute MFENET: pepke@fsu Florida State University SPAN: scri::pepke Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 BITNET: pepke@fsu Disclaimer: My employers seldom even LISTEN to my opinions. Meta-disclaimer: Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers.
tag@symbas.UUCP (Arne Gisvold) (07/31/90)
rmh@apple.com (Rick Holzgrafe) writes: >On the subject of chording... >In article <1396@idunno.Princeton.EDU> vnend@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (D. W. >James) writes: >> I now suspect that you would have to watch the design *very* >> carefully to avoid creating a situation that would really encourage >> carpal tunnel syndrome and other ergonomic nasties. >Too right! And I'm the wrong person to pontificate, since I know nothing >of the mechanics of the human hand and arm. But... everyone keeps saying >"keyboard" - I wonder if the best design wouldn't be something you'd hold >in a loosely curled fist, instead of something that sits on your desk. For >a first try: take the handle off a joystick that's been well-shaped to fit >comfortably in the hand. Add buttons under the four fingers. Make sure >that all buttons, including the thumb's, are easy to click and have a >short throw. Run a light wire, like a mouse cable, out the bottom. Now you >can chord with your hand lying relaxed in your lap. >Am I crazy? Or is it a good idea? Ignorant minds (mine!) want to know. :-) Well - you are actually describing the Microwriter keyboard from a company called microwriter Plc. (!?) in England. They make this in severeal forms, one as a very small pocket organizer, and it can be interfaced to the macintosh, and used instead of the Macintosh keyboard. Regards Tor-Arne -- ! Tor-Arne Gisvold - Symbiotic Computer Systems A/S ! adress : Sandgt. 2 , N7001 Trondheim, Norway ! UUCP : ...mcsun!nuug!symbas.UUCP!tag or tag@symbas.uucp ! phone: +47-7-515544 FAX : +47-7-532027 -- ! Tor-Arne Gisvold - Symbiotic Computer Systems A/S ! adress : Sandgt. 2 , N7001 Trondheim, Norway ! UUCP : ...mcsun!nuug!symbas.UUCP!tag or tag@symbas.uucp ! phone: +47-7-515544 FAX : +47-7-532027
tag@symbas.UUCP (Arne Gisvold) (07/31/90)
>There was something like this in BYTE magazine many MANY years ago. It >was a hemispherical shape with one button for each finger and (I think) >three buttons for the thumb. You press the proper combination of finger >buttons, then one of the thumb buttons to actually transmit the >character from the device. >Hmmm... this only gives you 48 characters... I must be remembering >something wrong. Anyone out there remember this issue? It was the >cover article - I do remember seeing the device on the cover. I might >be mistaken about the magazine - it might have been Interface Age (how >many of you remember _that_ magazine?). Microwriter keyboard - Microwriter Systems Plc. Mitcham, Surrey, England - I've got one. Regards Tor-Arne -- ! Tor-Arne Gisvold - Symbiotic Computer Systems A/S ! adress : Sandgt. 2 , N7001 Trondheim, Norway ! UUCP : ...mcsun!nuug!symbas.UUCP!tag or tag@symbas.uucp ! phone: +47-7-515544 FAX : +47-7-532027 -- ! Tor-Arne Gisvold - Symbiotic Computer Systems A/S ! adress : Sandgt. 2 , N7001 Trondheim, Norway ! UUCP : ...mcsun!nuug!symbas.UUCP!tag or tag@symbas.uucp ! phone: +47-7-515544 FAX : +47-7-532027