From: dplatt@cellar.org (Douglas Platt)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.tech
Subject: Wearable PC w chord keyboard + Private Eye
Date: 7 Sep 92 03:45:25 GMT
Organization: The Cellar BBS and public access system

In 1984 I purchased a strange handheld computer made by a British company by
the name of Microwriter. It had only six keys yet boasted full word 
processing
capabilities by utilizing "chords" (key combinations) to create letters,
numbers, punctuation, control characters, and everything else you would
want to do with a keyboard. Surprisingly, the mnemonic aids and the perhaps
inherently easy to learn nature of this type of input combined to allow me
to learn the basic combinations for the letters in about a half hour, and I 
was up to 30 wpm after just a few weeks. I also found that it did not 
interfere with my regular touch typing skills, though I soon found myself
favoring chording over typing for several reasons. It is a touch typing 
friendly system, because your fingers are always over the same keys. Each key
belongs to just one finger, so you never need to look. I found it very nice
to be able to lie in bed in the dark and record my thoughts in a very flowing
and comfortable way. I enjoyed word processing while driving, and being able
to take notes on a phone call with one hand on the phone, and one on my 
Microwriter. I found it easy to teach friends how to use, even....no 
especially people who were not touch typists. The E, for example, requires 
pressing your Easy finger(index finger) by itself. The F, on the other hand, 
requires all First Four digits(all except the pinky). Order of depressing the 
keys doesn't matter...keystrokes are only entered upon release of all keys.

Anyway, since then I have yearned for a wearable computer with a chord 
keyboard, and when I read about Reflection Technology's Private Eye headband 
mounted miniature display I thought that it might be just the ticket for
a serious wearable computer. Well, I took a chance and got one, and was 
surprised at the quality and comfort of the device. It is a little white box 
- about the size of a matchbox car, weighing under three ounces, that fits on 
the end of an articulated arm attached to an adjustable headband. The image 
appears to be a sharp 12" red on black display seen from about a foot. You 
get a full 80 x 25, and it is DOS compatible with monochrome or cga graphics, 
though the image looks much better than cga.....its resolution is 720 x 280.

So for about the last year, I have been developing prototypes and testing 
market reaction at the major pc trade shows. My present unit is mounted in a 
fanny pack, weighs about 4 lbs w batteries, is a 286/16mhz with ultra-rugged
20 meg 1.8 inch hard drive(can withstand 20 g's while operating) w 2megs of 
ram and standard ports. the chord keyboard is adjustable...I usually wear it
right on my stomach....

This unit has been a lot of fun, quite reliable, and quite powerful. Its  a 
rush to be the only one at a trade show capable of getting the information of 
of a nametag and into hard drive storage, while a: standing, b: holding a 
plastic bag of literature in one hand, and c: maintaining eye contact (don't 
need to look at hands or screen with chord keyboards, and i position the 
Private Eye above my line of sight). I also enjoy driving and writing, or 
reading directions to where I'm going.....and I perform these tasks in ways 
that actually improve my safety.

Now I want a headset cellular phone integrated into my system so that I could 
literally be standing on a ladder painting my house and handling a tech 
support call simultaneously, or walking in the woods while its raining with 
umbrella in one hand and one hand free to run my business.

My company Select Tech Inc. should have development kits available this fall.
For chord keyboard skeptics, I have created software that lets them learn and 
use a cheap pc keyboard as a chord keyboard. This is real nice for 
windows...so you can have one hand on the mouse, people who use handset 
phones and need to run contact management software, and for people who need 
to develop decent speed on the keyboard in a hurry.

If any of this stuff really jazzes anyone in this group please give me a 
phone call.


Doug Platt
215-277-4264


------
dplatt@cellar.org (Douglas Platt)
The Cellar BBS - (215) 654-9184