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Touch-screen Chinese-character processor launched
OisploLJS neLus Touch-screen Chinese-character processor launched A touch-screen Chinese-character processor was launched recently in the UK. The CP2064B processor from Intech Systems uses a touchscreen CRT and simple phonetics to generate Chinese language documents on a 24-pin dot-matrix printer. The processor gives direct access to 6000 basic Chinese characters, while the memory is expand-hie to 13000 characters, with current development work aiming at making available the 50 000 existing Chinese characters and enabling any symbol to be created. Text can be printed either in the traditional top-tobottom vertical format, or in the m o d e r n left-to-right horizontal format, which is gaining popularity in China. The user generates characters with a three-step procedure. The main menu screen displays the irdtial symbols for Chinese sounds written in phonetic form. The operator selects an appropriate initial symbol, which immediately produces a display of all Chinese sounds beginning with that symbol. For example, to generate the character having the sound 'an' and the meaning of 'peace', the operator first touches the letter 'a'. The screen then displays all sound representations starting with 'a'. Touching 'an' produces a display of all Chinese characters having that basic sound, and the user selects the character expressing the desired meaning. Previously, only keyboardbased processors were available, which required the user to break Chinese characters into component strokes or fragments and to make a number of k e y b o a r d strokes to generate each character. A principal difficulty with the various k e y b o a r d techniques is the necessity for extensive training and practice to achieve and maintain proficiency. The Intech system, however, is 92
Selected characters are queued in three lines at the top of Intech System's screen; the main display, punctuation pads and fimcffon pads are in a r o w at the b o s o m
of ~he screen
claimed to be easy to use, and once used it is not forgotten. The processor is designed for application in businesses, professional practices and institutions within China and Taiwan, as well as in businesses and professions all over the world that work with China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. It also has applications in universities, libraries, and other institutions, and in businesses that deal with local Chinese-speaking populations. Through additional software, the processor can also be used as a Chinese 'front-end' device for personal computers and mainframe units. Further software instructions, scheduled for this year, w~l permit the Chinese to write programs in the Chinese language using the CP2054B. All conventional word pro-
cessor functions are incorporated in the equipment. The selected characters are q u e u e d in three lines at the top of the screen. The main display, punctuation pads and function pads (including cursor movement arrows) are in a row at the bottom of the screen. Editing functions include addition, deletion, insertion or rearrangement of characters before printing. Up to 1 840 characters can be stored and modified by editing without external disc support. An alphanumeric display permits words in English, Greek and other languages to be written along with Chinese. Intech offers screen combinations in four phonetic versions to correspond with methods of representing Chinese sounds in the US, Britain, Taiwan and the DISPLAYS,APRIL1986
Oisplous neLus People's Republic of China. This includes Pinyin (the PRC phonetic representation), CNPA (Taiwan), Yale and Wade-Giles menus. Traditional and/or simplified character sets are available with each version. The user can also prepare text in traditional characters, but have the text print out in appropriate simplified characters. An abacus facility is also available. When the abacus is called up on the menu, it offers calculation capability up to 10~'. It operates precisely as an ordinary abacus when used for addition or
subtraction, but greatly simpl~ies the process of multiplication and division, which are ,41mcult to perform on the ~traditional abacus. Mathematical computations m a d e on the electronic abacus can be transferred automatically to the text of any document being prep a r e d on the character processor. A separate numeric k e y p a d image on the screen allows for westernstyle arithmetic and other calculator kmctions. The processor unit is contained in a cabinet which houses all necessary components and which is d e s i g n e d for easy parts replace-
Backgroud to C~,i-e~e language
b y all. Th~ can be understood in western terms when one thinks of numbers, which are pure ideograms. Thus, Arabic numerals are used and have the same meaning throughout Europe, Scandinavia, and the entire western hemisphere. The principal task involved in adapting C h i n e ~ writing to computer systems is devising a method of extracting any specific character from m e m o r y at will. Unlike languages based on phonetic alphabets, the Chinese script has no particular orderly arrangement of symbols. Telephone books, for example, are a r r a n g e d primarily b y the number of strokes making up the last name of the telephone subscriber. The technique devised b y Intech addresses the problem on the basis of phonetic symbols which are sequentially displayed through use of a touch screen computer interface. The present day Mandarin dialect utilizes 1 ~ 0 phonetically different sounds, all of which can be r e p r e s e n t e d b y various intonatious of 409 phonetic representations, either in romanized form or e x p r e s s e d with specialized c h a r a c t e r . These 40~ sound representations constitute the basis for accessing thousands of different characters stored in the processor memory.
Chinese writing dates from about ~000 BC, and is a pictogram-bused system. Unlike the other ancient languages, it did not evolve into an alphabetic system because it had the limitation of consisting almost entirely of singlesyllable words. Since there is a limit to the number of short sounds the human voice can make, it follows that a limited number of these sounds had to share many ~ifferent meanings (homophones). The Chinese distinguish these homophones by use of different levels of pitch as well as b y context. In Chinese writing, ideograms
and phonograms (phonetic symbois) are often combined to form a composite sign which indicates the context of each of the limited number of sounds. Thus, the Chinese d e v e l o p e d about 3 000 separate signs, which, with their accompanying ideograms, p r o d u c e d a vocabulary in excess of 80000 words. People in China who may be unable to converse verbally can nevertheless understand each other in writing; the Chinese script constitutes a single written language used
DISPLAYS,APRIL1986
ment in the field. The cabinet is of wooden construction, and is available in walnut, mahogany or other finishes. The touch screen is an analogue-resistive device, u f i . ~ ing 2~6 touch-sensitive locations on the screen. It has b e e n in use for industrial process control and fire control applications where an immediate, natural response to screen displays is needed, rather than the less spontaneous use of keyboard. /ntec/~ Systems,/nc., 6801 Wes~ IlOth Street, Mitmeapolis, MI~
55¢~, 0"SA. A printing press with movable letters was invented by the Chinese around 1045 AD, predating Johannes Gutenberg's press b y about 400 years. However, ~ invention could not have the success in China which it had in Europe because of the number of different characters necessary for printing in the Chinese language. This r]~ffi. culty extended to effozts in development of Chinese typewziters, and while impressive mechanical const~tctions have been made for the modern office, the need for an operator to access thousands of different character fonts remains unchanged from the situation more than 900 years ago. The contribution of m o d e r n electronics to reproduction of the Chinese language lies in the simplicity with which characters can be stored as electronic signals, rather than wood or clay or metal type fonts. The difficulty in t ~ l i ~ n g electronically-stored nonalphabetical characters, however, has b e e n in developing a simple process of extraction, so that a human operator can predictably draw any desired character from computer m e m o r y for reproduction by some type of printing device. This is the aim of the Intech touch-screen approach.
93
Selected characters are queued in three lines at the top of Intech System's screen; the main display, punctuation pads and fimcffon pads are in a r o w at the b o s o m
of ~he screen
claimed to be easy to use, and once used it is not forgotten. The processor is designed for application in businesses, professional practices and institutions within China and Taiwan, as well as in businesses and professions all over the world that work with China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. It also has applications in universities, libraries, and other institutions, and in businesses that deal with local Chinese-speaking populations. Through additional software, the processor can also be used as a Chinese 'front-end' device for personal computers and mainframe units. Further software instructions, scheduled for this year, w~l permit the Chinese to write programs in the Chinese language using the CP2054B. All conventional word pro-
cessor functions are incorporated in the equipment. The selected characters are q u e u e d in three lines at the top of the screen. The main display, punctuation pads and function pads (including cursor movement arrows) are in a row at the bottom of the screen. Editing functions include addition, deletion, insertion or rearrangement of characters before printing. Up to 1 840 characters can be stored and modified by editing without external disc support. An alphanumeric display permits words in English, Greek and other languages to be written along with Chinese. Intech offers screen combinations in four phonetic versions to correspond with methods of representing Chinese sounds in the US, Britain, Taiwan and the DISPLAYS,APRIL1986
Oisplous neLus People's Republic of China. This includes Pinyin (the PRC phonetic representation), CNPA (Taiwan), Yale and Wade-Giles menus. Traditional and/or simplified character sets are available with each version. The user can also prepare text in traditional characters, but have the text print out in appropriate simplified characters. An abacus facility is also available. When the abacus is called up on the menu, it offers calculation capability up to 10~'. It operates precisely as an ordinary abacus when used for addition or
subtraction, but greatly simpl~ies the process of multiplication and division, which are ,41mcult to perform on the ~traditional abacus. Mathematical computations m a d e on the electronic abacus can be transferred automatically to the text of any document being prep a r e d on the character processor. A separate numeric k e y p a d image on the screen allows for westernstyle arithmetic and other calculator kmctions. The processor unit is contained in a cabinet which houses all necessary components and which is d e s i g n e d for easy parts replace-
Backgroud to C~,i-e~e language
b y all. Th~ can be understood in western terms when one thinks of numbers, which are pure ideograms. Thus, Arabic numerals are used and have the same meaning throughout Europe, Scandinavia, and the entire western hemisphere. The principal task involved in adapting C h i n e ~ writing to computer systems is devising a method of extracting any specific character from m e m o r y at will. Unlike languages based on phonetic alphabets, the Chinese script has no particular orderly arrangement of symbols. Telephone books, for example, are a r r a n g e d primarily b y the number of strokes making up the last name of the telephone subscriber. The technique devised b y Intech addresses the problem on the basis of phonetic symbols which are sequentially displayed through use of a touch screen computer interface. The present day Mandarin dialect utilizes 1 ~ 0 phonetically different sounds, all of which can be r e p r e s e n t e d b y various intonatious of 409 phonetic representations, either in romanized form or e x p r e s s e d with specialized c h a r a c t e r . These 40~ sound representations constitute the basis for accessing thousands of different characters stored in the processor memory.
Chinese writing dates from about ~000 BC, and is a pictogram-bused system. Unlike the other ancient languages, it did not evolve into an alphabetic system because it had the limitation of consisting almost entirely of singlesyllable words. Since there is a limit to the number of short sounds the human voice can make, it follows that a limited number of these sounds had to share many ~ifferent meanings (homophones). The Chinese distinguish these homophones by use of different levels of pitch as well as b y context. In Chinese writing, ideograms
and phonograms (phonetic symbois) are often combined to form a composite sign which indicates the context of each of the limited number of sounds. Thus, the Chinese d e v e l o p e d about 3 000 separate signs, which, with their accompanying ideograms, p r o d u c e d a vocabulary in excess of 80000 words. People in China who may be unable to converse verbally can nevertheless understand each other in writing; the Chinese script constitutes a single written language used
DISPLAYS,APRIL1986
ment in the field. The cabinet is of wooden construction, and is available in walnut, mahogany or other finishes. The touch screen is an analogue-resistive device, u f i . ~ ing 2~6 touch-sensitive locations on the screen. It has b e e n in use for industrial process control and fire control applications where an immediate, natural response to screen displays is needed, rather than the less spontaneous use of keyboard. /ntec/~ Systems,/nc., 6801 Wes~ IlOth Street, Mitmeapolis, MI~
55¢~, 0"SA. A printing press with movable letters was invented by the Chinese around 1045 AD, predating Johannes Gutenberg's press b y about 400 years. However, ~ invention could not have the success in China which it had in Europe because of the number of different characters necessary for printing in the Chinese language. This r]~ffi. culty extended to effozts in development of Chinese typewziters, and while impressive mechanical const~tctions have been made for the modern office, the need for an operator to access thousands of different character fonts remains unchanged from the situation more than 900 years ago. The contribution of m o d e r n electronics to reproduction of the Chinese language lies in the simplicity with which characters can be stored as electronic signals, rather than wood or clay or metal type fonts. The difficulty in t ~ l i ~ n g electronically-stored nonalphabetical characters, however, has b e e n in developing a simple process of extraction, so that a human operator can predictably draw any desired character from computer m e m o r y for reproduction by some type of printing device. This is the aim of the Intech touch-screen approach.
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