Evolution of 'Riting + 'Rithmetic
by Louis Carol

Once upon a time, long, long time ago, there was a young writer named Louis Cave-era Carol. He would tell wonderful stories to the children in his cave-community and write them on clay slates with sharp, pointed stones. Later, Louis developed better writing tools, like chisels, and transcribed his works. He kept records of his writings and income with pebbles and sticks.

Several centuries later, Louis Renaissance-era Carol, great, great, .... grandson of Louis Cave-era Carol, continued his family tradition and wrote essays and letters on canvas with quilts. He maintained accounts and records by using an abacus.

A few centuries later, Louis Modern-era Carol followed his forefathers and wrote essays on a typewriter, with carbon copies, and solved numerical puzzles with his slide-rule and mechanical tools.

At the end of the 20th century, during the 1980s, Louis Computer-era Carol, a bright student and son of Louis Modern-era Carol, wrote plays and scripts on a wordprocessor. Louis wrote stories on a laptop that could later send files, like a keyboard, to a computer - an expensive solution for the time. He did his numerical work on an expensive calculator.

Louis Present-era Carol, son of Louis Computer-era Carol, wrote letters to his principal, teachers and parents, on portable keyboards available at his school. He learnt arithmetic using paper, a pencil and a simple, inexpensive calculator. Now he has grown and is in Middle School; his writing has matured. He needs advanced tools. He writes longer paragraphs and solves problems by writing and solving long mathematical expressions.

Louis wishes that his smartpad had a larger screen, to see more text, and he yearns for a calculator which could save his work so that he can revise the math-files without having to retype the equations.

Louis searches the Internet and discovers the CalcuScribe. He is clearly a sophisticated student. He finds that it can save math-files, which can later be revised and CalcuScribe auto-computes the results and prints them. Moreover, Louis can copy/paste the math expressions, and the results, into a text-file to explain how he solved the problems and whether the results make sense.

Louis introduces his computer-teacher, Mr. Skeptic, to the CalcuScribe. To Mr. Skeptic, portable word-processors don't make sense. He responds that a used computer can do much more but costs only about 3 times as much. He forgets that used computers have no warranty; are not portable; his school would have to pay fees for the software; provide electrical connections; tie-up peripheral equipment; add furniture and real-estate; students would have to work in noisy computer labs; and, there would be extra costs for maintenance and staff salaries.

So, Louis asks his parents - pioneers of the digital age - if they could purchase a CalcuScribe for him. They say, they just cannot afford it. Louis then decides to meet the school principal, Mrs. Confucius. He shares with her information about CalcuScribe that he printed from the Internet. She attentively listens to him and is impressed with his grasp and presentation of the subject-matter.

Later, the same afternoon, Louis introduces his friend, Rich Rockafella, to the CalcuScribe while browsing the Internet. Rich, wanting to be the first in his school to own one, quickly purchases a unit to impress his friends and brings the novel, exciting laptop to the school.

Then one day, the following week, Mrs. Confucius, finds Rich working on the CalcuScribe instead of politicking in the halls. At about the same time she also receives a book titled "Evolution of 'Riting + ‘Rithmetic" in mail. She investigates and realizes that CalcuScribe may very well be the answer to her budget constraints.

She figures that her kids can compose essays and learn math on CalcuScribes while the computers are used for multimedia learning, Internet access, designing, publishing, etc. Files composed on CalcuScribes can be transferred to computers for formatting and publication. She likes the fact that the work drafted on CalcuScribes would be transferred to computers for presentation and publication. She is certain that her kids must master the powerful computer applications to get jobs in the future.

Mrs. Confucius also realizes that since CalcuScribe is portable, students can take one home and work during non-school hours or take one to the school library where it is conducive for thinking and researching. She calls the CalcuScribe company and requests to test-drive one. Mrs. Confucius is indeed very wise!

After receiving an evaluation unit, she works with it and finds it enormously useful. She envisions the kids creating ‘what-if’ scenarios and math constructs, on the CalcuScribe, solving basic numeric problems and answering their own questions.

Without hesitation, she sets a meeting with Mr. Skeptic and other teachers and convinces them that CalcuScribe will help the school integrate the curriculums - their long standing mission and goal - and is a promising solution for their school. Excited about the new tool, the school purchases 50 machines and becomes technologically the most progressive school in the district.

Louis and his friends are happy and productive using the new assets. Being a motivated student, Louis borrows a CalcuScribe and brings it home. His younger sibling, Louis Nexgen-era Carol, at the elementary school, experiments with the CalcuScribe. Nexgen-era is smart and quickly grasps the benefits of CalcuScribe. He invites his principal, Mrs. Cautious, to his home and demonstrates the benefits of CalcuScribe over the smartpad that is used at their school.

Mrs. Cautious is reluctant. But, young Louis explains that CalcuScribe is as simple and easy to use as the smartpad. He demonstrates that he can write better essays and transfer them to a PC or a Mac, wirelessly, into any application, by pressing one key on the CalcuScribe. He also shows her the Spellchecker and the cut/copy/paste features. But, Mrs. Cautious worries about CalcuScribe's durability, reliability and serviceability and about having to convince others at her school to adopt the CalcuScribe. She decides it is too much work and since she is satisfied with the smartpad, she passes up the opportunity.

Young Louis would write better stories on a machine with a larger screen and become proficient at math by writing expressions to solve the problems in his text book. If only Mrs. Cautious would test-drive a CalcuScribe she would realize that her fears were unfounded.

Then, one day, Mrs. Cautious receives a book titled "Evolution of 'Riting + 'Rithmetic" via mail. She reads it and feels compelled to test-drive a CalcuScribe. She has also recently learnt that her school must now pay for applets (application software) if she continues to invest in other smart-pads. She realizes that it will take a lot of time to install the applets on to the smartpads. She notes, however, that the applications come pre-installed on CalcuScribe - at no extra cost; no extra installation.

So, Mrs. Cautious takes advantage of the temporary offer: Buy 3; Get 1 free. She adopts a class set of 30 CalcuScribes. After a few months she realizes that CalcuScribe is in fact simple and easy to use, that it has several additional but simple benefits and that it is durable and BUG-FREE!

Now, Louis Nexgen-era Carol and his friends come to school enthused about using the CalcuScribes every day - their work shows it. Mrs. Cautious and Mrs. Confucius have become good friends and recommend the CalcuScribe to other schools in their district and the state. Both women use the CalcuScribe for their work and take it with them to conferences to showoff their discovery. They get parents involved, those who can afford it, to purchase one in order to help the schools meet the technology challenge cost- effectively.

Mrs. Confucius and Mrs. Cautious are now well-known nationally as technology champions and have won awards for adopting excellent products in their schools.



Shouldn’t you too champion the CalcuScribe?

Get a free CalcuScribe by sharing with us information about a product or a publication, pre-1991, that describes the smart keyboard or a dual keyboard (keyboard that functions with more than one platform) and is not covered in the story below.

Story of the Portable, Smart Keyboard
September 17, 1999



What's a smart keyboard?
It's a portable keyboard that lets users enter data, via a keyboard; has a memory to store typed information; a screen to view and edit the data; batteries to power the device; a microprocessor and program-code, an editor to revise the text, and the device can transfer data to a computer via the computer's keyboard port.

In 1982 and 1984, Trace Research Center, at the University of Wisconsin, published several articles - including: "Computers can Play a Dual Role for Disabled Individuals" in BYTE magazine and "A Portable Computer-Based Writing ... Access Aid for Severely Motor Impaired Individuals" in RESNA Proceedings, proposing the benefits of portable keyboards for Assistive Technology. Trace bundled the Epson HX-20 with Prentke Romich’s emulator and called it the TRINE System. It sent data to computers without having to install communication software on the computer. Laptops could be used as powerful, intelligent keyboards to control more powerful computers and to send data into open (active) applications on the computers.

In 1982 Zygo Industries introduced the TetraScan - a portable, smart, alternate keyboard for people with special needs. In 1983, the product was refined and called the ScanWriter. It communicated with computers like: Apple, IBM-PC and clones, Commodore, and others.

Also in 1983, Tandy introduced the Model 100 - a portable keyboard - through Radio Shack. It was loved and widely used by journalists, writers and computer enthusiasts. Users installed a program on their computer which enabled the Model 100 to use its powerful features to send data directly into the open application, seen on the computer-monitor, and to control the computer from the Model 100, just like the keyboard does.

However, since portable computers have always been rather expensive, they have been used as smart keyboards mostly by individuals, with special needs, requiring the power of a laptop to control a computer and to feed it data in special ways which a dumb keyboard is not able to do. Not until the early 1990s, when technology (LCD screen, memory, microprocessor, board fabrication, software development, etc.) costs reduced significantly and when computer platforms converged to the Mac and the IBM-PC did it make sense to build dedicated, smart, simple keyboards cost-effectively.

During the late 1980’s Apple dominated the education market and was deriving most of its revenues from schools and colleges. Apple discovered that public schools’ limited funds (and the slow growth in funding computer technology) could affect Apple’s growth. Thus, in 1988, Apple investigated the potential for smart keyboards to solve the schools’ budget constraints. After prototyping the Intelligent Keyboard (the IKe) Apple abandoned the project because VTech and Tandy were offering similar products and Apple had other fish to fry - such as the eWorld, the Mac, the PowerBook, the soon to arrive Newton, and to compete against the Windows OS. There was also the risk that its smart keyboards might cannibalize the low-end version of the PowerBook.

In 1989, Douglas Kelly (user of the Model 100) discovered that no patent had been filed for a smart keyboard. So, he took the liberty to file one. The Patent Office (PTO), unaware of existing devices, granted him one. In 1992 two former Apple employees took the IKe idea from Apple and introduced a smart keyboard using the casing for VTech’s PC-4 product.

In March 1995, SmartPad, Inc. introduced the Lexmark’s sub-notebook computer (manufactured in 1992 and 1993) to the education market.

After receiving information on preexisting smart keyboards, in 1997, the PTO issued a decision that the claims of the Kelly patent were not patentable and the PTO invalidated the patent.

The latest and the greatest innovation of the portable keyboard is the CalcuScribe. It is a well-designed, cost-effective, reliable and durable machine. Teachers, students and the special-needs community can now look forward to competition, lower prices, and a variety of smart keyboards offered by several manufacturers. We are certain that most of you will like the CalcuScribe and endorse it to those who could benefit from this simple but powerful product.

If you have additional information about the origins and the development of smart keyboards, please let us know.