The edge of reasonable.
I’m completely boggled when supposedly smart people continue in their attempt to reinvent the wheel. Especially when it’s a wobbly wheel in the first place. Yet another pen-based text input system has been developed, this time by the folks over at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human Computer Interaction Institute (a fancy name for a place that studies what happens when ordinary people can’t figure out how things work). The EdgeWrite system uses a square template which is laid over the usual touchpad portion of a PDA, the same area normally used for Graffiti input. While I understand the concept of making input of standard character an easier process for those you have motor impairments, that EdgeWrite is touted as better than Graffiti for users without those same impairments is laughable if only for the fact that the Newton’s built-in handwriting recognition blows any shape-derived input system out of the water. I experienced a particularly good giggle when I read the following passage from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article Text With An Edge: “…the system also could help any user of a PDA who is trying to write while walking or riding in a vehicle – people with so-called situational impairments.” Heh. I think the impairment is called ‘trying to do too many things at once…’
Categories:
Bernie