THE QUILL KEYBOARD REPLACEMENT SYSTEM

THE FIRST PROJECT OBJECTIVE IS TO IDENTIFY THE PRODUCTIVITY ADVANTAGES OF A NEW APPROACH TO THE "KEYBOARD" PROBLEM OF TYPEWRITERS AND COMPUTERS, AND, MOST IMPORTANT, A COMPUTERIZED METHOD OF TEACHING THIS SYSTEM. TWO HANDGRIPS WITH FIVE FINGER ACTUATED SWITCHES ARE USED. THUS, 1,024 (2(10) INDIVIDUAL BINARY COMMANDS ARE AVAILABLE WITHOUT THE HAND MOVEMENTS NEEDED WITH STANDARD KEYBOARD SYSTEMS WHILE THE OPERATOR RETAINS POSITIONAL CONTROL OF THE HANDGRIPS. PRODUCTIVITY MAY BE IMPROVED BY A FULL ORDER OF MAGNITUDE. THE SECOND PROJECT OBJECTIVE IS TO DEFINE A SYSTEM THAT WILL PROVIDE THE OPERATOR OF A VEHICLE OR WEAPON SYSTEM WITH OVER 1,000 SEPARATE COMMANDS DIRECTLY FROM HANDGRIPS. A HELICOPTER PILOT COULD SELECT ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS, RADIO CHANNELS AND CALL UP SPECIFIC DATA DISPLAYS WITHOUT TAKING HIS HANDS OFF THE CONTROLS. A PRIMARY OBJECTIVE COMMON TO BOTH OF THE ABOVE IS THE DEFINITION OF THE TRAINING/-RETRAINING PROGRAM THAT MUST BE INVESTIGATED VIS A VIS THE AVERAGE USER. THESE OBJECTIVES WILL BE ACHIEVED BY CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT MODEL WITH TWO HANDGRIPS (INCORPORATING MOVABLE "BUTTONS" UNDER THE COMMAND OF THE TEAHCING PROGRAM) INTERFACE WITH A STANDARD IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER WITH AUDIO/VISUAL SUPPORT.