From alb@sct.gouv.qc.ca Tue Sep 2 22:38:53 1997 Received: from riq.qc.ca (socrate.riq.qc.ca [199.84.128.1]) by dkuug.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id WAA26786 for ; Tue, 2 Sep 1997 22:38:46 +0200 Received: from riq.qc.ca (se-lab1.sct.gouv.qc.ca [204.19.44.190]) by riq.qc.ca (1.0/8.8.5) with SMTP id QAA13447; Tue, 2 Sep 1997 16:28:39 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.1.16.19970902162845.5037de02@riq.qc.ca> X-Sender: alb@riq.qc.ca X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.1 (16) [F] Date: Tue, 02 Sep 1997 16:28:45 To: Harald Greiner From: Alain LaBonté SCT Subject: Fwd: Individual key identification Cc: sc18wg9@dkuug.dk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >From: Harald Greiner >Subject: Individual key identification >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > >Alain, > >in one of your replys to the unicode mailing list you mentioned [Alain] : >> In absence of LCD >> keys, it would also be desirable that keyboards identify what set is >> engraved on keys (that is a requirement if keyboards are to be portable and >> "plug-and-play", how it is done is soemething else [there are many >> economical ways to do this and we, in JTC1/SC18/WG9, have already seen >> Japanese calculators in which you could completely scramble the detachable >> individual keys, put the digits in any order in the matrix, and that still >> worked as engraved on the keys -- DIP swiches automatically set by one >> keycap could also be used], in particular for handicapped people who switch >> to different environments). [Harald] : >This sounds facinating. I would like to learn more about the method(s) used >to detect that a key with a specific engraving was pressed no matter how >the keys are scrambled in a matrix. I would appreciate any hint from you >on how, where or from whom I could get more information. [Alain] : This was (I believe I remember that this was the explanation) a 4-bit magnetic identification of each key imbedded in the plastic keys which looked like those on the patience games that we used to play with when we were young (with a magnetic detector in each place holder). I saw this in Japan in 1990, during an SC18/WG9 meeting (my first trip to Japan). It was a RICOH (or was it Toshiba? I don't remember) employee, I believe, who brought this to us, a real device of which one was given to our rapporteur, Yves Neuville, who lives in Paris. I never saw one again (even in stores in japan, where I have been 6 times since that time). He said that the technology was limited to 4 bits at the time. That's all what I know. No more precise details. For the DIP switch mechanical setting, it is my idea (unpatented but I don't miss such ideas of inventions which I don't have the money to patent (; ) Alain LaBonté Québec cc SC18/WG9 ______________ > >Best regards, >Harald > > ____________________________________ /_ __ H E W L E T T > / //_/ P A C K A R D >___ Harald Greiner, Dipl. Ing. (BA) / > Patient Monitoring Division, R&D ____________________________ > Project Manager > Low Cost Monitors & Networks Hewlett-Packard GmbH > Medizinelektronik > Phone (49) (7031) 14-3261 Schickardstrasse 4 > Fax (49) (7031) 14-1835 D-71034 Boeblingen > Email hg@hpbbm.bbn.hp.com > PO BOX 1427 > Telnet 778-3261 D-71004 Boeblingen > Germany > >P.S. During the Unicode conference Gerhard Tivig will show and talk > about our low cost patient monitor which is based on Unicode. > > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com