Word: tablets
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...that innovation is: pen and virtual paper. At least, that's the new technology the industry is flogging, as embodied in a slew of tablet PCs hitting the market this month. More than 20 manufacturers, including Fujitsu, Compaq and Legend, have joined in a Microsoft-led initiative to produce laptop computers that double as legal pads. What distinguishes tablet PCs from conventional portables is their ability to capture a user's handwriting - either as an exact digital copy, complete with bad penmanship and doodles, or by converting notes into digital text...
...tablet PC push may come as a surprise to those who thought the tech business was about crushing primitive methods of communication. But geeks have been unsuccessfully trying to develop and market a computerized writing pad for years. Raise your stylus if you remember the Apple Newton, which flopped in 1992. Engineers seem convinced that most of us prefer handwriting to typing and desperately desire to be freed from the shackles of keyboards. And now that computers are getting better at recognizing handwriting - the Newton was laughably inept in that regard - PC manufacturers are once again trying to sell...
...chance to test the industry's hypothesis using the TravelNote C100, the new tablet PC from Acer. Reasonably lightweight (about 2 kg), with a 20-GB hard drive and an 800-MHz Pentium III processor, the TravelNote looks and performs like a normal laptop computer. The screen, however, swivels around and folds back over the keyboard, creating a writing slate. A stylus serves as both a pen for note taking, and as a mouse for operating programs. Using the machine's built-in Wi-Fi (wireless-fidelity) link, for example, you can write a URL into the Internet Explorer browser...
...tablet PC also allows text input via the touchscreen's virtual keyboard - a necessary alternative, because Microsoft's handwriting-recognition software remains irritatingly inconsistent. The Acer works better than the Newton, but it interpreted my handwritten phrase "Jack ran down the hill" as "Jade full dam its lull." I may have earned a C- in second-grade penmanship class, but my handwriting isn't that...
...computer monitors can shrink to almost nothing, why not keyboards? They soon may. Two companies have developed prototype "virtual" keyboards designed to accompany portable devices like PDAs, tablet PCs and cell phones. Here's how they work: a laser beam projects a glowing red outline of a keyboard on a desk or other flat surface. A sensor like those used in digital cameras monitors the reflection of an infrared light projected on the same spot. It can tell which "keys" you are trying to strike by the way that reflection changes. Someday, similar keyboards may be built into the gadgets...