Hand to mouth
The keyboard has had a stranglehold on how people communicate
with computers. Now a host of new technologies -- especially
voice-recognition software -- are challenging its painful dominance.
Thursday, November 26, 1998 SIMON TUCK Technology Reporter
Ottawa -- When the venerable Captain Jean-Luc Picard commands "Computer, get me Sickbay" and the machine follows the order, fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation are supposed to be getting a
glimpse into the 24th century.
The forecast, however, is probably off by about four centuries. Experts say this science-fiction-level technology, which allows computers to understand and obey spoken commands, is likely just a few
years off. In fact, technology already exists that allows us to tell our homes -- or at least a voice-recognition software package embedded into the personal computers in our homes -- to perform
straightforward tasks such as changing the thermostat, turning on an appliance.
Voice-recognition software is just one of the many
technologies that are promising to break the keyboard's stranglehold on how people interact with computers. It's a welcome prospect for many, since the keyboard is considered to be one of the
worst-designed products in modern history, a monstrosity that's been able to resist a radical makeover only because there's been no viable
alternative to date.
That doesn't even touch on the arrangement of the keys, a 19th-century relic that can be traced back to the typewriter's origins when frequently used keys had to be separated so the type bars wouldn't jam.
"It's a necessary evil," says Steve Kleynhans, a vice-president of Meta Group Inc., a Stamford, Conn.-based technology research group. "No end user could just sit down at a keyboard and start
using it -- you have to learn how to type."
Or at least you did. Today, a range of alternatives to the keyboard -- particularly voice-recognition software -- is gaining strength and poised to make a dent in the keyboard's crown.
While some industry officials say the keyboard will always be one of the most common avenues for getting data into a computer, others are predicting its demise. "I think in 10 years everything [with
voice-recognition software and other competing technologies] will be smooth enough, you won't need a keyboard," said Glenn Rogers, a vice-president of marketing at IBM Canada Ltd. -- and the executive in
charge of promoting the company's voice-recognition software.
Other alternatives to the keyboard include touch programming, handwriting recognition, gesture recognition, electronic scanning devices, eyeball tracking, and -- newest and most direct of all -- tiny brain implants designed to allow those with severe physical disabilities to communicate with computers.
All have made drastic technological gains in recent years and are expected to get better and cheaper.
""This is the next big step. We're on the verge of a whole new set of interfaces, which are natural interfaces," says Mr. Kleynhans.
For two-fingered typists, that's great news. But it will also mean a major leap in our abilities to get computers to do what we want, similar in magnitude to when computing graduated from punch cards to
real-time interaction, Mr. Kleynhans says. "The real big advances have come when we've fundamentally changed the way humans interact with computers." Don DePalma, a technology analyst with Forrester
Research Inc. in Chicago, says the new interfaces will "be anything that takes advantage of senses we already have without having to learn a new skill."
"The bottom line in all of this is there's far more people who talk, touch and point than who actually type."
While still in their infancy, these technologies have already made their way out of the lab and are poised to play increasing roles in our lives. Touch screens have been around for at least a few years and are already in use in bank machines and at beer stores, for example.
Handwriting recognition has been around for years but is starting to fulfill its potential with the growing popularity of the electronic note pad, which offers a tiny writing screen and a special pen-like instrument to communicate with the computer.
These popular handheld products offer many of the same services as a PC, with applications such as Internet access, E-mail and word processing.
Gesture recognition, however, may hold only minimal potential. Experts say its use will likely be limited to tasks such as automatically activating the PC's screen saver when you walk away from the machine or turning down the stereo when you move to answer
the phone. Scanning devices are already in widespread use in the retail sector but are seen to have limited use in the home.
Although unlikely to ever offer the same speed or market penetration as some of their rival technologies, eye-controlled software and brain implants offer potential breakthroughs for anybody
whose ability to communicate is limited by illness or injury. Eye-controlled software, still in limited use, moves the cursor around the screen by sending a low-level laser from the machine to the user's eyeball to track the eye's focal point.
International Business Machines Corp., which is
working on the technology in its "Project Blue Eyes,"
says it's accurate within about 1.1 centimetres on the
screen. Manual manipulation is needed to do the
rest.
Brain implants, first tried six months ago by
researchers at Emory University in Georgia, allow the
user to communicate by moving a cursor through
signals transmitted from an antenna-like coil placed
on the head.
"New interfaces for computers is going to be a huge
growth market," Mr. Kleynhans says. "This is just the
tip of the iceberg."
Many, particularly those who don't type, will not
lament the keyboard's demise. Using a mix of
technology from as far back as 1714 and as new as a
few months ago, it's a device that relies on cryptic
terminology (ALT, CTRL, ESC) and keystroke
combinations that lack any intuitive basis.
There's no shortage of contenders to replace or
augment the much-maligned keyboard. Of the seven
leading challengers, voice-recognition software
seems to have made the greatest gains and may
also offer the most potential for widespread use.
Some industry experts are already predicting its
dominance.
"Speech recognition will eventually replace the
keyboard," said Pierre Boisseau, manager of
marketing and communications for Northern Telecom
Ltd., a leader in the field. "It's so easy. It's more
interactive, more natural, more user-friendly. It's the
easiest way to communicate."
Mr. Boisseau said technology has outraced
consumers' demand for it over the last 10 years and
must now, in many cases, wait for buyers to catch
up. "Ten years ago, R & D [research and
development] was all about how fast you can get a
technology, but now it's not so fast," he says. "We
could come up with the ultimate speech recognition
product but if the market isn't ready for it, it's of no
use."
In the short term, Mr. Boisseau says,
voice-recognition software will merely enhance the
PC, as the mouse has done since its inception.
However, it will become a staple. "People found a
computer a lot easier to use with a mouse. So they
used it."
Forrester's Mr. DePalma cautions that the
technology, while ahead of its expected schedule, is
not ready to knock off the keyboard. "What these
guys are doing is taking advantage of the rapid
improvement of the processing power that we
wouldn't have thought possible even two or three
years ago."
Some consumers are less restrained. "I'm sure the
keyboard is eventually going to disappear," says
Ottawa resident Tim Sullivan, who recently added a
microphone and Dragon Systems Inc.'s
NaturallySpeaking voice-recognition software to his
PC arsenal. "It's great for someone who can't type --
I'm a two-finger guy."
Mr. Sullivan, 42, who also sells computer equipment,
says he's amazed how fast -- 160 words a minute --
and accurately the software works. "Nothing will ever
be perfect with voice recognition," says the
technophile. "[But] I think it's come a long way in a
couple of years."
But there are numerous critics of the current
generation of voice-recognition software, who say it is
neither accurate nor fast enough to replace a
keyboard and that it still forces to alter their speech
patterns to accomodate the computer.
Manufacturers say much of today's market for voice
recognition software is comprised of lawyers, doctors
and other professionals who need to document their
work using only a single, steady voice.
"I'd be lost without this thing," says Frank Roth, a
Toronto lawyer who's been through at least six
different IBM upgrades since buying his first
voice-recognition system about three years ago. Mr.
Roth, an independent corporate lawyer, says the
technology saves him vast amounts of time and
money. "It's made an enormous difference to how I
can respond to my clients."
Mr. Roth, an IBM loyalist, says he's noticed a vast
difference in the quality -- and price -- of the systems
he's bought over the years. With his first
voice-recognition system, which cost about $1,400,
he had to pause between words. With the latest
ones, which start as low $69, he doesn't.
"The only downside is it's outdated about 10 minutes
after I get it out of the box."
IBM Canada's Mr. Rogers says the technology has
"come a huge, huge way. We all kind of have a
concept of Star Trek, but it's here today."
IBM, one of the long-time leaders in the field, and
Dragon, which has a licencing arrangement with
Ottawa-based Corel Corp., are two of the three key
players in voice recognition. The other is Lernout &
Hauspie Speech Products N.V., whose
Brussels-based language services division makes
VoiceXpress.
The technology has made rapid progress over the last
20 years and is still evolving.
Meta Group's Mr. Kleynhans says there are four
distinct levels of speech recognition software, though
only two are widely available. The first involves
close-ended queries from the computer, which the
user answers verbally.
The second is dictation, or simply making text out of
a single user's structured speech.
Mr. Kleynhans says the advancements mean
bundled software packages that can help with
domestic tasks such as opening a garage door or
setting a home security system will likely be on the
market within about 18 months. "It's probably
possible right now. It's a question of how much
money and energy you want to put into it."
Results at the third level, transcription, or turning
less-structured speech into text, are still spotty. The
fourth level, "natural language processing," the
computer's ability to understand and process normal
conversation, is even further away.
Beyond that, there is the truly Star Trek scenario of
artificial intelligence -- where computers can think
and sort through problems like humans.
The prospect of computers that think like humans is
at least a generation away, says Mr. Kleynhaus. "It's
not going to be in your lifetime or mine."
He says the development of more sophisticated ways
of communicating with computers, however, is an
important step in transforming the machines from
idiot-savant tools to assistants that don't need
detailed instructions. "A computer today basically
acts like a moron."
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE KEYBOARD
1714 -- First recorded patent for a typewriter taken
out in England by Henry Mill.
1829 -- First practical writing machine patented in the
United States by William Austin Burt.
1833 -- Improved machine produced in France. Like
other early models, machine is designed chiefly for
the blind.
1873 -- The first practical typewriter is invented by
Christopher Latham Sholes and his associates and is
marketed by the Remington Arms company. As the
type bars tend to jam frequently, Mr. Sholes
rearranges the keyboard so the most common letters
are spread fairly far apart, creating the modern
"QWERTY" keyboard, named for the letters along the
on the top row, on the left. As all typists at this time
use the "hunt-and-peck" method, the new keyboard
slows them down enough to prevent jamming.
1874 -- Remington typewriter hits the market. It offers
only capital letters for the first four years.
1878 -- Mrs. L.V. Longley, head of a Cincinnati
school for stenographers, starts promoting ten-finger
typing as a substitute for the two-finger method.
Frank E. McGurrin, a federal court clerk in Salt Lake
City, teaches himself to touch-type without looking at
the keys. After winning a typing contest billed as a
battle between the world's two fastest typists, the
method begins to catch on.
1924 -- IBM produces the Electromatic typewriter.
Electric typewriters come into wider use over the next
decade, offering greater speed and less effort than
manual machines.
1961 -- IBM produces the Selectric, which replaces
type bars with a metal globe that moves across the
surface of a stationary paper holder. It replaces the
moving carriage of the traditional typewriter and
allows for a variety of typefaces and special symbols.
This, in turn, opens the market to scientific writing
and various languages.
1970s -- IBM begins voice-recognition research.
1977-1981 -- Personal computers, such as the Apple
II and the Commodore PET, hit the market but
continue to integrate the keyboard into the computer
case. Commodore PCs offer small, flat keys that are
cramped together, similar to those on a calculator.
1986 -- The Macintosh Plus offers visual changes,
including a numerical keypad and cursor keys.
1998 -- Cost of voice-recognition software falls to as
low as $69. Other competitors to the keyboard
include: Touch programming, handwriting recognition,
gesture recognition, electronic scanning devices,
eyeball tracking and brain implants.
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