On Mon, 7 Jan 2002, Michael Turner wrote:
> The user could adapt somewhat -- writing larger characters, with a wide-nib
> felt-tip, if nothing else. Those who like to write tiny characters would
> opt for some other system. Enthusiasts might buy purse-size whiteboards,
> erasers and magic markers, to save on paper. (And learn about the "whisper
> mode" mic setting on their keitais.)
Oh, now I'm starting to get it. Sometimes it takes me a bit of time to
catch up to a Consultant of Michael's caliber. Let's see if I truly
understand what he's proposing here. The demonstration scenario,
please....
Sitting on the Yamanote line one day, I suddenly remember a item I need
to add to my list of things to do. So I haul my palm-sized whiteboard and
pen out of my jacket pocket and I write, in large, easy-to-read script,
six of the eight characters of my to-do item on to it. As I put the the
pen back in my pocket and haul out my keitai, people start looking at
me with interest, especially because my writing is so easy to read from
a distance.
Now I can flip through the menus on my keitai until I get to the
"text recognition snapshot" mode. Asking the person in front of me
to move aside a bit so I can get the right focal length, I place the
whiteboard in front of my keitai camera and snap a picture. Examining the
display I see it's a little out of focus, but not too bad, so I hit the
"recognise" button. The keitai prompts me to say what I've just written,
and so I put it up to my ear and say, clearly and distinctly, what I
just wrote down. Those with poor vision or who didn't get a good look
at the whiteboard now also start to clue in about what's going on here.
I put the keitai back and haul out the whiteboard again, for the
last two characters. Of course, first I have to get out my eraser and
erase the whiteboard. Or I suppose I can just use the edge of my hand;
the black marks it leaves will help others recognise me as one of the
technologically elite.
Anyway, I go through the procedure again for the last two characters,
I consider buying a larger whiteboard. It wouldn't fit in my pocket,
but perhaps I could hang it around my neck. All done, I press the save
button on my keitai, and voila! I am the latest beneficiary of the
"all mod cons" approach to organising my life. The people around me,
I can see, are staring with slack-jawed incredulty, astonished at the
ease with which I entered my to-do item. I get off at the next station,
cross the platform, and wait with smug satisfaction for a train going
back to the station that I missed.
Thoughout all of this everyone ignored the obvious technological
loser who just pulled out his Palm Pilot, brought up the ATOK window
(http://www.justsystem.co.jp/), stroked in his kanji, and a few seconds
later was done.
cjs
--
Curt Sampson <cjs_at_cynic.net> +81 90 7737 2974 http://www.netbsd.org
Don't you know, in this new Dark Age, we're all light. --XTC
Received on Tue Jan 8 08:53:55 2002