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From: Dan Wallach <
[email protected]>
Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.med.occupational,comp.human-factors,comp.answers,sci.answers,news.answers
Subject: Typing Injury FAQ (4/6): Keyboard Alternatives (2/2)
Supersedes: <typing-injury-faq/
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Followup-To: sci.med.occupational
Date: 17 Oct 1995 07:52:24 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Lines: 690
Approved:
[email protected]
Expires: 25 Nov 1995 07:52:11 GMT
Message-ID: <typing-injury-faq/
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References: <typing-injury-faq/
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Reply-To: Dan Wallach <
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Content-Type: text/x-usenet-FAQ;
version=1.0;
title="Typing Injury FAQ (4/6): Keyboard alternatives (2/2)"
Summary: everything you ever wanted to know about replacing your keyboard
Originator: dwallach@kastle
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu sci.med:148776 sci.med.occupational:4400 comp.human-factors:15142 comp.answers:14902 sci.answers:3277 news.answers:55417
Archive-name: typing-injury-faq/keyboards/part2
Version: $Revision: 7.26 $ $Date: 1995/10/17 07:41:35 $
URL:
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~dwallach/tifaq/keyboards.html
Answers To Frequently Asked Questions about Keyboard Alternatives (Part 2/2)
Copyright � 1992-1995 Dan Wallach <
[email protected]>
Chording keyboards / speech recognizers / other products
GIF pictures of many of these keyboards can be found via anonymous FTP
ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/typing-injury/gifs
There's another page which specifically covers voice recognition products which
you may want to visit:
http://www.ucar.edu/scd_people/nad/voice.html [- NEW!]
If you're looking for more comprehensive information on voice recognizers, you
may want to track down the December 20, 1994 issue of PC Magazine. They have an
article, "Talk Show" (pages 203 - 219), which covers a number of voice systems,
both navigation-only and true dictation systems. Be careful when you buy a
voice recognizer. Some are only meant for navigation tasks ("File. Save.
Okay."), and are entirely inappropriate for full dictation. Dictation requires
a much larger vocabulary system. If you're planning on dictating something
besides spoken English (say, a C program), then you're going to be hacking lots
of macros, both in your dictation system and in your editor.
This FAQ only covers products aimed at end users. There are a number of
libraries aimed at programmers building voice-recognition into their products.
A nice list of them appears in the PC Magazine article.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AccuKey
AccuCorp, Inc.
Phone
703-961-2001
Address
P.O. Box 66
Christiansburg, VA 24073 USA
Price
$495 + shipping. 60 day lease for $35.
Shipping
Now.
Compatibility
PC, Mac, IBM 3270, Sun Sparc, and TeleVideo 935 and 955.
Doesn't use conventional push-keys. Soft rubber keys, which rock forward
and backward (each key has three states), make chords for typing keys.
Learning time is estimated to be 2-3 hours, for getting started, and maybe
two weeks to get used to it.
Currently, the thumbs don't do anything, although a thumb-trackball is in
the works.
The company claims it takes about a week of work to support a new
computer. They will be happy to adapt their keyboard to your computer, if
possible.
(a picture of the chording patterns is also available)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aria Listener
Prometheus Products Inc.
Phone
800-477-3473 or 503-692-9600
FAX
503-691-1101
Address
9524 SW Tualatin Sherwood Rd.
Tualatin, OR 97062
Price
$169 (includes Aria 16se sound card, no headset)
Compatibility
PC running Windows 3.1 or later
Shipping
Now
Supports navigation with a vocabulary of 125 words.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bat
Infogrip, Inc.
E-Mail
[email protected] [- NEW!]
Phone
800-397-0921 or 805-652-0770
FAX
805-652-0880
WWW
http://www.infogrip.com/infogrip/ [- NEW!]
Address
1141 E. Main St.
Ventura, CA 93001 USA
Price
$495 (dual set - each one is a complete keyboard by itself)
$295 (single)
Shipping
Now.
Compatibility
Mac, PC. Historically, they also made a serial port version which
could be hooked to just about anything, if you had the proper
driver support. Hackers may want to inquire if this is still
available.
A chording system. One hand is sufficient to type everything. The second
hand is for redundancy and increased speed.
30 day money back guarantee, no questions asked.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Braille 'n Speak
Blazie Engineering
Phone
301-879-4944
Address
3660 Mill Green Rd.
Street, Md 21154 USA
(information provided by Doug Martin <
[email protected]>)
The Braille N Speak uses any of several Braille codes for entering
information: Grade I, Grade II, or computer Braille. Basically, letters
a-j are combinations of dots 1, 2, 4, and 5. Letters k-t are the same
combinations as a-j with dot 3 added. Letters u, v, x, y, and z are like
a-e with dots 3 and 6 added. (w is unique because Louis Braille didn't
have a w in the French alphabet.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DataEgg
InHand Development Group
Address
Gary Friedman
10330 Sepulveda Blvd. Suite 140
Mission Hills, CA 91345 USA
Price
$150
Shipping
???
Compatibility
see below
The DataEgg is a round, one-handed, chording computer with a two-line LCD
display (similar to the Microwriter AgendA). It can also serve as an
alternative computer keyboard through a computer's serial port (currently
supporting the PC, although it wouldn't be too hard to support X or a Mac
if they wrote the driver). InHand will be manufacturing the device, which
was originally developed by Gary Friedman of JPL.
More info is available in NASA Tech Briefs, December 1992, Newsweek's
"Technology Supplement" of December 12, 1992, or EE Times, March 8, 1993.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DragonDictate
Dragon Systems, Inc.
Phone
800-TALK-TYP or 617-965-5200
Fax
617-527-0372
WWW [- NEW!]
http://www.dragonsys.com/
E-Mail
[email protected]
FAQ
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/a2x-voice/
Address
320 Nevada Street
Newton, MA 02160 USA
Shipping
Now.
Prices
DragonDictate Starter $395
(5k word active vocab, 1K global macro, 500 app specific macros)
DragonDictate Classic $695
(30K word active vocab, 5K global macro, 2K app specific macros)
DragonDictate Power $1695
(60K word active vocab, 5K global macro, 2K app specific macros)
Upgrade prices from older version are also available.
Also, you can purchase any of these systems with an "ACPA" (Audio
Capture and Playback Adapter) DSP board for an additional $300.
DragonDictate will work fine with a standard "multimedia" sound card,
such as a SoundBlaster 16 or ProAudio Studio 16.
[NEW!] DragonDictate for Windows is now available. Hardware
requirements below.
Also seen on-line in Safe Computing's Internet Store for the same
prices as above.
Compatibility
+ 486/33 (or higher) for DragonDictate
+ 486/66 for DragonDictate for Windows
+ 20 MB RAM minimum
+ 15 MB disk space for softare
+ 3 MB disk space for each user
(3rd party support for Mac)
Free software support for X windows is also available - your PC with
Dragon hardware talks to your workstation over a serial cable or
network. The program is called a2x, and is available via anonymous
ftp:
ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/typing-injury/
software/a2x.tar.Z
ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/a2x.tar.Z (most current)
If you want to use your Dragon product with X windows, you may want
to ask for Peter Cohen, an salesman at Dragon who knows more about
this sort of thing.
Dragon Systems sells a number of voice recognition products. Most (if not
all) of them seem to run on PC's and compatibles (including PS/2's and
other MicroChannel boxes). DragonDictate works with many off-the-shelf
sound cards, or they sell you a hardware board. Their older software sits
in front of a number of popular word processors and spreadsheets. Dragon
has recently announced "DDWIN", which extends Dragon support to all
Microsoft Windows applications.
Each user `trains' the system to their voice, and there are provisions to
correct the system when it makes mistakes, on the fly. Multiple people can
use it, but you have to load a different personality file for each person.
You still get the use of your normal keyboard, too. On the DragonDictate
Classic, you need to pause 1/10th sec between words. Dragon claims typical
input speeds of 30-40 words per minute.
Dragon's technology is also part of the following products (about which I
have little-to-no other info):
o Microsoft Windows Sound System (Voice Pilot)
o IBM VoiceType
o Power Secretary (by Articulate Systems - for Macintosh)
o EMStation (by Lanier Voice Products - "emergency medical
workstation")
Files to check out in the typing injury archive:
o dragon-vocab-size
o dragon-vs-kurzweil
o dragon2.info
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Half-QWERTY
The Matias Corporation
Phone
416-749-3124 (Canada)
FAX
416-740-4132
E-mail
[email protected]
Address
178 Thistledown Boulevard
Rexdale, Ontario, Canada
M9V 1K1
Demo for anonymous ftp
ftp://explorer.dgp.toronto.edu/pub/Half-QWERTY
Also, availble on floppy from the company
WWW
http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/people/ematias/brochure.html
Price
$395 + shipping ($5) (higher in Canada, quantity discounts available)
Shipping
Now.
Compatibility
Mac and PC (but, not Windows)
Half-QWERTY is software that turns your standard keyboard into a
one-handed keyboard. Touch-typists can learn it with little or no
retraining.
When you hold down the space bar, all the keys under your hand change to
those that would normally fall under the same fingers of your other hand.
The space bar is still used for typing spaces. It differentiates based on
the duration you hold it down.
When you're not holding down the space bar, you can use your keyboard as a
normal two-handed keyboard (maybe you want to switch from one to
two-handed typing depending on your task, i.e., whether you're using your
mouse).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IBM VoiceType Dictation (formerly Personal Dictation System)
IBM Corporation
Phone
Contact your IBM sales rep or call 800-TALK-2ME
Shipping
Now.
Price (for VoiceType Dictation)
$999 - Software, microphone, and ISA card
$1099 - Software, microphone, and PCMCIA card
A Microchannel card might also available (it used to be...)
Naming confusion: IBM previously sold a product named VoiceType 2, which
was based on Dragon Systems technology. They also sold the IBM Speech
Server Series (ISSS) and Personal Dictation System (PDS), both of which
were based on IBM technology; ISSS ran on an RS/6000 workstation, and PDS
ran on PC's with OS/2.
The current IBM VoiceType Family is all IBM technology. VoiceType
Dictation is an enhanced variant of PDS, which also supports MS Windows.
VoiceType Dictation supports a 32,000 word dictionary. It's
speaker-dependent, so requires training (1-2 hours).
VoiceType Dictation recognize US and UK English, French, German, Spanish
and Italian (MS Windows support for all these languages will appear in
1995).
VoiceType Dictation can control any X or OS/2 application, and supports
user-customizable profiles for macros. A developer's API is also
available.
Dictation rates of 70-100 words per minute are possible with 95-99 percent
accuracy, including a model of the language to disambiguate words such as
"to", "two", and "too".
IBM also makes some voice products not really intended for the "handicap"
market with continuous speech and speaker-independence but smaller
vocubularies (the IBM Continuous Speech Series - ICSS). They also have a
programmer's API. Call them for more details.
[NEW!]NCC sells an add-on called Digital Dictate which uses IBM's speech
recognition engine and apparently has better integration with MS Windows.
For more information, contact:
NCC Incorporated
5808 E. Turquoise
Scottsdale, AZ 85253
Phone: 602-922-6236
Fax: 602-596-9050
Also, check out ncc-digital-dictate in the typing-injury archive.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN3 (in-cube) Voice Command
Command Corp, Inc.
E-Mail
[email protected]
World Wide Web
http://www.commandcorp.com/incube_welcome.html
CompuServe
75120,431
Phone
404-925-7950
Fax
404-925-7924
Address
3675 Crestwood Parkway
P.O. Box 956099
Duluth, GA 30136-9502 USA
Compatibility
Sun Sparc (SunOS or Solaris) and MS Windows 3.1.
Price
Sun
$495, headset not included
MS Windows
$395 (Pro Version for Windows), headset, but no sound card,
included (?)
For Sun, IN3 provides a complete navigation solution, including voice
macros. A developer API is also available. The native Sparc audio is used
for input. You can find a copy on their web page.
For MS Windows, IN3 provides a solution similar to the Sun. Most 8 and 16
bit sound cards are supported. A developer API is also available. Windows
3.1 and a 386 or better processor are required. Demos can be found on
Compuserve, America On-Line, various comp.binaries.ms-windows archive site
and BBS systems, and their web page.
Command Corp suggests that IN CUBE be used in combination with an
ergonomic keyboard, so you type free text at moderate speed and for
reasonabe periods on the "QWERTY" keys and convert all editing, chording,
and mouse operations to voice input.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KeyBreak
New Zealand Electronic Research
Phone
(+64) 03-365-5434
FAX
(+64) 03-365-5371
E-Mail
[email protected]
Price
NZ$85 (approx. US$70, but who knows these days?)
Shipping
now?
Compatibility
PC now, Mac later
KeyBreak is a hardware device which plugs between your keyboard and
computer and forces you to take regular breaks by first beeping at you and
then locking your keyboard if you don't pay attention.
The device adjusts the break times to train you to eventually take regular
breaks.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kurzweil VOICE
Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, Inc.
Phone
617-893-5151
Fax
617-893-6525
Address
411 Waverley Oaks Road
Waltham MA 02154 USA
Price
$995.
Shipping
Now
The Kurzweil system is a voice recognition system which interfaces with PC
compatibles. You get a board which will support 50,000 words - 10K user
defined and 40K from a 200K word dictionary. The system is reported to
attempt speaker-independence through continuously adapting voice models.
This requires about 12 mbytes of disk space to store its state, however.
MS-DOS and Windows are supported. Requires 486DX/33 or better with at
least 32 MBytes RAM.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Listen for Windows
Verbex Voice Systems Inc.
Phone
800-275-8729 or 908-225-5225
FAX
908-225-7764
Address
1090 King Georges Post Rd.
Bldg. 107
Edison, NJ 08837
Price
$139 (sound card not included, headset included)
Compatibility
PC with Windows 3.1 or later. 486 or better required with
SoundBlaster-compatible cards. 386SX or better required with Verbex
DSP cards (not included).
Shipping
Now
Listen for Windows is a speaker-independent navigation system which can be
customized for specific Windows apps. Out of the box, it supports a number
of common programs like Microsoft Office.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microwriter AgendA
Microwriter Services Ltd
Phone
(+44) 81 715 1023 (U.K.) (voice or FAX)
Address
Unit 1
Seaforth Works
Rear of 8-12 Seaforth Avenue
New Malden
Surrey KT3 6JP
(Info from Carroll Morgan <
[email protected]>)
The AgendA is a personal desktop assistant (PDA) style machine. You can
carry it along with you. It has chording input. You can also hook it up to
your PC, or even program it.
It costs just under 200 pounds, with 128K memory.
[Apparently Microwriter is in some form of bankruptcy right now. The
DataEgg is somehow based on this. You may want to contact InHand for more
information.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Minimal Motion Computer Access System
Equal Access Computer Technology
Phone
508-263-6437
Fax
508-263-6537
Address
Dr. Michael Weinreigh
39 Oneida Rd.
Acton, MA 01720 USA
Price
InfoGrip-compatible
"a few hundred dollars" + a one-handed Bat
For their own system
$300 (DOS software) + "a few hundred dollars"
Shipping
these are custom-made, so an occupational therapist would make
moulds/do whatever to make it for you. You can buy one now.
Compatibility
PC only, although the InfoGrip-compatible version might work with a
Mac.
In a one-handed version, there is exactly one button per finger. In a
two-handed version, you get four buttons per finger, and the thumbs don't
do anything. You can also get one-handed versions with three thumb buttons
- compatible with the InfoGrip Bat. Basically, get it any way you want.
They also have a software tutorial to help you learn the chording, which
can also be used as a one-handed chording system for most DOS apps, using
the standard keyboard.
Works on a PC under DOS, not Windows. Planning on Macintosh and PC/Windows
support. No work has been done on a Unix version, yet.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Octima
Ergoplic Keyboards Ltd.
Phone
972-4-5322844 (Israel)
Fax
972-3-5322970
Address
P.O. Box 31
Kiryat Ono 55100, Israel
(info from Mandy Jaffe-Katz <
[email protected]>)
A one-handed keyboard.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OfficeTalk for WordPerfect
Kolvox Communications Inc.
Phone
800-556-5869 or 416-221-2400
FAX
416-218-3100
Address
4100 Yonge St. #607
North York, Ontario, Canada M2P 2B5
Price
$1395 (includes headset, but not sound card)
Compatibility
PC with WordPerfect 5.1 or later for DOS or Windows (sound card
required)
Shipping
Now
Recognizes 500 voice commands, specially for WordPerfect. Another product,
LawTalk, adds a 30,000 word dictionary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Secretary
Articulate Systems
Phone
800-443-7077 or 617-935-5656
Price
$1995
Compatibility
Macintosh with at least 20 Mbytes RAM
A product based on DragonDictate, but for the Macintosh. Power Secretary
requires at least an 040, but works without any extra hardware, even on
the newer 040 Powerbook's. Call for more info.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rover for Windows
Digital Soup Inc.
Phone
800-793-7356 or 802-254-7356
FAX
802-254-6812
Address
P.O. Box 1340
Brattleboro, VT 05302
Price
$129 (sound card and headset not included)
Compatibility
PC running Windows 3.1 or later
Shipping
Now
Includes a starter vocabulary of 50 words. Macros can generate up to 128
keystrokes each.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step On It! [- NEW!]
Bilbo Innovations, Inc.
WWW
http://www.bilbo.com/tae/bilbo/bilbo.html
E-Mail
[email protected]
Phone
800-203-0092 or 408-736-6086
FAX
408-736-6083
Address
1290 Oakmead Parkway #118
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Compatibility
PC
Availability
Now
Price
$99 (free shipping in US and Canada)
Step-On-It Keyboard Control Pedals add three foot switches which can be
configured to generate any keystrokes from the keyboard including macros.
It works entirely in hardware, so it should also be compatible with X
terminals and other electronically compatible devices.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Telaccount Speech Recognizer for Windows
Telaccount Inc.
Phone
718-824-3493
FAX
718-723-0962
Address
257 Robinson Ave.
Bronx, NY 10465
Price
$79 (sound card and headset not included)
Compatibility
PC running Windows 3.1 or later
Shipping
Now
Supports navigation with a 400 word customizable vocabulary.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twiddler
Handykey
Phone
516-474-4405 or 800-638-2352
Address
141 Mt. Sinai Ave.
Mt. Sinai, NY 11766 USA
Price
$199.
Shipping
Now.
Compatibility
PC, Mac in beta
The Twiddler is both a keyboard and a mouse, and it fits in one hand. You
type via finger chords. Shift, control, etc. are thumb buttons. When in
"mouse" mode, tilting the Twiddler moves the mouse, and mouse buttons are
on your fingers.
The cabling leaves your normal keyboard available, also.
Most applications work, and Windows works fine. DESQview has trouble.
GEOWorks also has trouble - mouse works, keyboard doesn't. OS/2
compatibility coming soon.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks
Thanks go to Chris Bekins <
[email protected]> for providing the
basis for this information.
Thanks to the numerous contributors:
* Doug Martin <
[email protected]>
* Carroll Morgan <
[email protected]>
* Mandy Jaffe-Katz <
[email protected]>
* Wes Hunter <
[email protected]>
* Paul Schwartz <
[email protected]>
* H.J. Woltring <
[email protected]>
* Dan Sorenson <
[email protected]>
* Chris VanHaren <
[email protected]>
* Ravi Pandya <
[email protected]>
* Leonard H. Tower Jr. <
[email protected]>
* Dan Jacobson <
[email protected]>
* Jim Cheetham <
[email protected]>
* Cliff Lasser <
[email protected]>
* Richard Donkin <
[email protected]>
* Paul Rubin <
[email protected]>
* David Erb <
[email protected]>
* Bob Scheifler <
[email protected]>
* Chris Grant <
[email protected]>
* Scott Mandell <
[email protected]>
* John Darragh <
[email protected]>
* Russell Nelson <
[email protected]>
* John Lamp <
[email protected]>
* Paul Roossin <
[email protected]>
* Tom Knotts <
[email protected]>
* Donna Foley <
[email protected]>
* Bob Adams <
[email protected]>
* Gary Karp <
[email protected]>
* Kelly Fairbanks <
[email protected]>
* Peter Bower <
[email protected]>
* Paul Benati <
[email protected]>
* Peter S. Cohen <
[email protected]>
* Steve Wartig <
[email protected]>
* Dave Millman <
[email protected]>
* Mary Lindstrom <
[email protected]>
* John Lees <
[email protected]>
* Carlos M. Puig <
[email protected]>
* Mark Smellie <
[email protected]>
* Bob Weissman <
[email protected]>
* Rocky Khan <
[email protected]>
and everybody else who I've probably managed to forget.
A special thanks to Nelson Minar <
[email protected]> for emacs
html-helper-mode, which made this document possible.
The opinions in here are my own, unless otherwise mentioned, and do not
represent the opinions of any organization or vendor.
--
Dan Wallach Princeton University, Computer Science Department
[email protected] http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~dwallach/ PGP Ready
