CHAPTER 2

The Computer
1. TEXT ENTRY DEVICES

The alphanumeric keyboard

The keyboard is still one of the most common input devices in use today. It is used for entering textual
data and commands. The vast majority of keyboards have a standardized layout, and are known by the
first six letters of the top row of alphabetical keys, QWERTY. There are alternative designs which have
some advantages over the QWERTY layout, but these have not been able to overcome the vast
technological inertia of the QWERTY keyboard. These alternatives are of two forms: 26 key layouts and
chord keyboards. A 26 key layout rearranges the order of the alphabetic keys, putting the most
commonly used letters under the strongest fingers, or adopting simpler practices. In addition to
QWERTY, we will discuss two 26 key layouts, alphabetic and DVORAK, and chord keyboards.
 Handwriting Recognition

Handwriting is a common and familiar activity, and is therefore attractive as a method of text entry. If we were able
to write as we would when we use paper, but with the computer taking this form of input and converting it to text,
we can see that it is an intuitive and simple way of interacting with the computer. However, there are a number of
disadvantages with handwriting recognition. Current technology is still fairly inaccurate and so makes a significant
number of mistakes in recognizing letters, though it has improved rapidly. Moreover, individual differences in
handwriting are enormous, and make the recognition process even more difficult. The most significant information
in handwriting is not in the letter shape itself but in the stroke information – the way in which the letter is drawn.
This means that devices which support handwriting recognition must capture the stroke information, not just the
final character shape. Because of this, online recognition is far easier than reading handwritten text on paper.
 Speech recognition

Speech recognition is a promising area of text entry, but it has been promising for a number of years and is still only
used in very limited situations. There is a natural enthusiasm for being able to talk to the machine and have it
respond to commands, since this form of interaction is one with which we are very familiar.

Note also that this performance is usually quoted only for a restricted vocabulary of command words. Trying to
extend such systems to the level of understanding natural language, with its inherent vagueness, imprecision and
pauses, opens up many more problems that have not been satisfactorily solved even for keyboard-entered natural
language. Moreover, since every person speaks differently, the system has to be trained and tuned to each new
speaker, or its performance decreases. Strong accents, a cold or emotion can also cause recognition problems, as can
background noise.
2. POSITIONING, POINTING AND DRAWING

Central to most modern computing systems is the ability to point at something on the screen and thereby manipulate it,
or perform some function. There has been a long history of such devices, in particular in computer-aided design
(CAD), where positioning and drawing are the major activities. Pointing devices allow the user to point, position and
select items, either directly or by manipulating a pointer on the screen. Many pointing devices can also be used for
free-hand drawing although the skill of drawing with a mouse is very different from using a pencil. The mouse is still
most common for desktop computers, but is facing challenges as laptop and handheld computing increase their market
share. Indeed, these words are being typed on a laptop with a touchpad and no mouse.
The Mouse

The mouse has become a major component of the majority of desktop computer systems sold today, and is the little
box with the tail connecting it to the machine in our basic computer system. Invented in 1964 by Engelbart, his mouse
used 2 wheels that slid across the desktop and transmitted x; y-coordinates to the computer. There have been
experiments with foot-controlled mice.

The first mouse.

Optical mice

Optical mice work differently from mechanical mice. A light-emitting diode emits a weak red light from the base of
the mouse. This is reflected off a special pad with a metallic grid-like pattern upon which the mouse has to sit, and
the fluctuations in reflected intensity as the mouse is moved over the gridlines are recorded by a sensor in the base of
the mouse and translated into relative x, y motion. Some optical mice do not require special mats, just an appropriate
surface, and use the natural texture of the surface to detect movement. The optical mouse is less susceptible to dust
and dirt than the mechanical one in that its mechanism is less likely to become blocked up. However, for those that
rely on a special mat, if the mat is not properly aligned, movement of the mouse may become erratic – especially
difficult if you are working with someone and pass the mouse back and forth between you.
Infrared (IR) or radio frequency cordless mouse

 With both these types, the mouse relays a signal to a base station wired to the computer’s mouse port. The cordless
mouse requires power, which comes in the form of batteries.
Touchpad

Touchpads are touch-sensitive tablets, operated by sliding the finger over it and are mostly used in notebook computers.
Performance can be increased using
accelerators.
Trackball and thumbwheel

A trackball is an upside-down mouse: instead of moving the device itself, the ball is rolled to move the cursor. A
weighted ball faces upwards and is rotated inside a static housing, the motion being detected in the same
way as for a mechanical mouse, and the relative motion of the ball moves the cursor. Because of this, the
trackball requires no additional space in which to operate, and is therefore a very compact device. It is an
indirect device, and requires separate buttons for selection. It is fairly accurate, but is hard to draw with,
as long movements are difficult.

Thumbwheels are different in that they have two orthogonal dials to control the cursor position. Such a device is
very cheap, but slow, and it is difficult to manipulate the cursor in any way other than horizontally or vertically.
This limitation can sometimes be a useful constraint in the right application.
 Joystick and Keyboard Nipple

the joystick is a simple device with which movements of the stick cause a corresponding movement of the screen
cursor. There are two types of joystick: the absolute and the isometric. In the absolute joystick, movement is the
important characteristic, since the position of the joystick in the base corresponds to the position of the cursor on the
screen. In the isometric joystick, the pressure on the stick corresponds to the velocity of the cursor, and when
released, the stick returns to its usual upright centered position. This type of joystick is also called the velocity-
controlled joystick, for obvious reasons.

A smaller device but with the same basic characteristics is used on many laptop computers to control the cursor. Some
older systems had a variant of this called the keymouse, which was a single key. More commonly a small rubber nipple
projects in the center of the keyboard and acts as a tiny isometric joystick. It is usually difficult for novices to use, but
this seems to be related to fine adjustment of the speed settings. Like the joystick the nipple controls the rate of
movement across the screen and is thus less direct than a mouse or stylus.
 Touch-sensitive screens (touchscreens)

Touchscreens detect the position of the users finger or stylus on the screen itself and are therefore very direct. They
work by having the finger/stylus interrupting a matrix of light beams, making capacitance changes on a grid
overlaying the screen or by ultrasonic reflections. It is a direct device: no mapping is required. However the selection
of small areas is difficult and intensive use can be tiring.

The touchscreen is very fast, and requires no specialized pointing device. It is especially good for selecting items
from menus displayed on the screen. Because the screen acts as an input device as well as an output device, there is
no separate hardware to become damaged or destroyed by dirt; this makes touchscreens suitable for use in hostile
environments.
Stylus and Lightpen

For more accurate positioning (and to avoid greasy screens), systems with touch sensitive surfaces often employ a
stylus. Instead of pointing at the screen directly a small pen-like plastic stick is used to point and draw on the screen.
This is particularly popular in PDAs, but they are also being used in some laptop computers.

An older technology that is used in the same way is the light pen. The pen is connected to the screen by a cable and, in
operation, is held to the screen and detects a burst of light from the screen phosphor during the display scan. The light
pen can therefore address individual pixels and so is much more accurate than the touchscreen.

Both stylus and light pen can be used for fine selection and drawing, but both can be tiring to use on upright displays
and are harder to take up and put down when used together with a keyboard. Interestingly some users of PDAs with
fold-out keyboards learn to hold the stylus held outwards between their fingers so that theycan type whilst holding it.
As it is unattached the stylus can easily get lost, but a closed pen can be used in emergencies.
Digitizing Tablet

A device used for freehand drawing. A resistive tablet detects point contact between two separated conducting
sheets. Magnetic, capacitive and electrostatic tablets use special pens. The sonic tablet requires no pad: an
ultrasonic sound emitted by the pen is detected by 2 microphones.
Eyegaze

Eyegaze systems allow you to control the computer by simply looking at it! Some systems require you to wear
special glasses or a small head-mounted box, others are built into the screen or sit as a small box below the screen. A
low-power laser is shone into the eye and is reflected off the retina. The reflection changes as the angle of the eye
alters, and by tracking the reflected beam the eyegaze system can determine the direction in which the eye is looking.
The system needs to be calibrated, typically by staring at a series of dots on the screen, but thereafter can be used to
move the screen cursor or for other more specialized uses.

Eyegaze is a very fast and accurate device, but the more accurate versions can be expensive. It is fine for selection
but not for drawing since the eye does not move in smooth lines. Also in real applications it can be difficult to
distinguish deliberately gazing at something and accidentally
glancing at it.
Display Devices

Technologies

Cathode ray tube

The cathode ray tube is the television-like computer screen still most common as we write this, but
rapidly being displaced by flat LCD screens. It works in a similar way to a standard television screen. A
stream of electrons is emitted from an electron gun, which is then focused and directed by magnetic
fields. As the beam hits the phosphor-coated screen, the phosphor is excited by the electrons and glows.

The electron beam is scanned from left to right, and then flicked back to
rescan the next line, from top to bottom. This is repeated, at about 30 Hz (that
is, 30 times a second), per frame, although higher scan rates are sometimes
used to reduce the flicker on the screen. Another way of reducing flicker is to
use interlacing, in which the odd lines on the screen are all scanned first,
followed by the even lines. Using a high-persistence phosphor, which glows
for a longer time when excited, alsoreduces flicker, but causes image smearing
especially if there is significant animation.
Liquid crystal display

Liquid crystal technology are smaller, lighter and consume far less power than traditional CRTs. These are also
commonly referred to as flat-panel displays. They have no radiation problems associated with them, and are
matrix addressable, which means that individual pixels can be accessed without the need for scanning.

a thin layer of liquid crystal is sandwiched between two glass plates. The top plate is transparent and polarized,
whilst the bottom plate is reflective. External light passes through the top plate and is polarized, which means that
it only oscillates in one direction. This then passes through the crystal, reflects off the bottom plate and back to
the eye, and so that cell looks white.
Large Displays and Situated Displays

There are several types of large screen display. Some use gas plasma technology to create large flat bitmap
displays. These behave just like a normal screen except they are big and usually have the HDTV (high definition
television) wide screen format which has an aspect ratio of 16:9 instead of the 4:3 on traditional TV and monitors.

Possibly the large display you are most likely to have encountered is some sort of projector. There are two
variants of these. In very large lecture theatres, especially older ones, you see projectors with large red, green
and blue lenses. These each scan light across the screen to build a full color image. In smaller lecture theatres
and in small meetings you are likely to see LCD projectors. Usually the size of a large book, these are like
ordinary slide projectors except that where the slide would be there is a small LCD screen instead. The light
from the projector passes through the tiny screen and is then focused by the lens onto the screen.
Memory

Like human memory, we can think of the computer’s memory as operating at different levels, with those that have
the faster access typically having less capacity. By analogy with the human memory, we can group these into
short-term and long-term memories (STM and LTM), but the analogy is rather weak – the capacity of the
computer’s STM is a lot more than seven items! The different levels of computer memory are more commonly
called primary and secondary storage.

RAM and short-term memory (STM)

Most current active information is held in the random access memory (RAM). RAM is volatile:
contents are lost when the power is turned on. However, there are more expensive or low-power
consuming memory techniques that can hold their contents when the power is on.

Most currently active information is held in silicon-chip random access memory (RAM). Different
forms of RAM differ as to their precise access times, power consumption and characteristics. Typical
access times are of the order of 10 nanoseconds, that is a hundred-millionth of a second, and
information can be accessed at a rate of around 100 Mbytes (million bytes) per second. Typical
storage in modern personal computers is between 64 and 256 Mbytes.
Disks and long-term memory (LTM)
For most computer users the LTM consists of disks, possibly with small tapes for backup. The existence of
backups, and appropriate software to generate and retrieve them, is an important area for user security.

There are two main kinds of technology used in disks: magnetic disks and optical disks. The most common storage
media, floppy disks and hard (or fixed) disks, are coated with magnetic material, like that found on an audio tape,
on which the information is stored.
Optical disks use laser light to read and (sometimes) write the information on the disk. There are various high
capacity specialist optical devices, but the most common is the CD-ROM, using the same technology as audio
compact discs. CD-ROMs have a capacity of around 650 megabytes, but cannot be written to at all. They are
useful for published material such as online reference books, multimedia and software distribution. Recordable
CDs are a form of WORM device (write-once read-many) and are more flexible in that information can be written,
but (as the name suggests) only once at any location – more like a piece of paper than a blackboard. They are
obviously very useful for backups and for producing very secure audit information. Finally, there are fully
rewritable optical disks, but the rewrite time is typically much slower than the read time, so they are still primarily
for archival not dynamic storage.
ACTIVITY #2

 What is the basic architecture of a computer system?

 How do you think new, fast, high-density memory devices and quick processors have
influenced recent developments in HCI? Do they make systems any easier to use? Do they
expand the range of applications of computer systems?
PROCESSING AND NETWORKS

Speed of processing can seriously affect the user interface. These effects must be taken into account when
designing an interactive system. There are two sorts of faults due to processing speed: those when it is too slow,
and those when it is too fast!

The processing speed of an interactive system can effect the user by being too slow (which can be avoided by
using buffers) or too fast. The faults can be functional, in which the program does the wrong action. Slow
responses from the system can also cause the so called cursor tracking and icon wars. If the system is too fast, the
user will not have enough time to interpret the system’s output.
Limitations on Interactive Performance

Several factors that can limit the speed of an interactive system. They can be:

 Computation bound: Make sure the user has an indication of the system’s progress.
 Storage channel bound: Select the best .tting kind of memory and access technique.
 Graphics bound: The actual time of graphic operations can di¤er much from the estimates.
 Network capacity
Network Computing

Networked systems have an effect on interactivity, because the large distances may cause a noticeable delay in
response from the system. The actions of other users may also influence your own interaction with the connected
computers.