KEYBOARDING AND DOCUMENTS PROCESSING

7
“History of Keyboard”

Ranielle T. Lodronio
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents Processing

History of Keyboard

• Concepts associated to the history of

keyboard
NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents Processing

History of Keyboard
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents Processing

(depends on the handling teacher)

 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents Processing

The history of the modern computer keyboard begins with a direct inheritance from
the invention of the typewriter. It was Christopher Latham Sholes who, in 1868, patented the
first practical modern typewriter. Soon after, in 1877, the Remington Company began mass
marketing the first typewriters. After a series of technological developments, the typewriter
gradually evolved into the standard computer keyboard your fingers know so well today.

The QWERTY Keyboard

There are several legends around the development of the QWERTY keyboard layout, by
Sholes and his partner James Densmore in 1878. The most compelling explanation is that
Sholes developed the layout to overcome the physical limitations of mechanical technology at
the time. Early typists pressed a key which would, in turn, push a metal hammer that rose up
in an arc, striking an inked ribbon to make a mark on a paper before returning to its original
position. Separating common pairs of letters minimized the jamming of the mechanism.
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents
Processing

Early Breakthroughs
One of the first breakthroughs in keyboard technology was the invention of the teletype machine.
Also referred to as the teleprinter, the technology has been around since the mid-1800s and was
improved by inventors such as Royal Earl House, David Edward Hughes, Emile Baudot, Donald Murray,
Charles L. Krum, Edward Kleinschmidt, and Frederick G. Creed. But it was thanks to the efforts of Charles
Krum between 1907 and 1910 that the teletype system became practical for everyday users.
In the 1930s, new keyboard models were introduced that combined the input and printing
technology of typewriters with the communications technology of the telegraph. Punch-card systems
were also combined with typewriters to create what were known as keypunches. These systems became
the basis of early adding machines (early calculators), which were hugely commercially successful. By
1931, IBM had registered more than $1 million in adding machine sales.
Keypunch technology was incorporated into the designs of the earliest computers, including the
1946 Eniac computer that used a punch-card reader as its input and output device. In 1948, another
computer called the Binac computer used an electro-mechanically controlled typewriter to input data
directly onto magnetic tape in order to feed in computer data and print results. The emerging electric
typewriter further improved the technological marriage between the typewriter and the computer.
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents
Processing

Video Display Terminals

By 1964, MIT, Bell Laboratories, and General Electric had collaborated to create
a time-sharing, multi-user computer system called Multics. The system encouraged
the development of a new user interface called the video display terminal (VDT),
which incorporated the technology of the cathode ray tube used in televisions into
the design of the electric typewriter.
This allowed computer users to see what text characters they were typing on
their display screens for the first time, which made text assets easier to create, edit,
and delete. It also made computers easier to program and use.
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents
Processing

Electronic Impulses and Hand-Held Devices

Early computer keyboards were based either on teletype machines or keypunches but
there was a problem: having so many electro-mechanical steps necessary to transmit data
between the keyboard and the computer slowed things down considerably. With VDT
technology and electric keyboards, the keys could now send electronic impulses directly to the
computer and save time. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, all computers used electronic
keyboards and VDTs.
In the 1990s, handheld devices that introduced mobile computing became available to
consumers. The first of handheld devices was the HP95LX, released in 1991 by
Hewlett-Packard. It had a hinged clamshell format that was small enough to fit in the hand.
Although not yet classified as such, the HP95LX was the first of the Personal Data Assistants
(PDA). It had a small QWERTY keyboard for text entry, although touch typing was practically
impossible due to its small size.
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents
Processing

The Pen Is Not Mightier Than the Keyboard

As PDAs began to add web and email access, word processing, spreadsheets, personal
schedules, and other desktop applications, pen input was introduced. The first pen input
devices were made in the early 1990s, but the technology to recognize handwriting was not
robust enough to be effective. Keyboards produce machine-readable text (ASCII), a necessary
feature for indexing and searching by contemporary character-based technology. Minus
character recognition, handwriting produces "digital ink," which works for some applications
but requires more memory in order to save input and is not machine-readable. Ultimately,
most of the early PDAs (GRiDPaD, Momenta, Poqet, PenPad) were not commercially viable.
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents
Processing

Why Keyboards Persist

The problem with all of these alternative keyboard technologies is the data capture takes
more memory and is less accurate than with digital keyboards. As mobile devices such
as smartphones grew in popularity, many differently formatted keyboard patterns were
tested—and the issue became how to get one small enough to use accurately.
One fairly popular method was the "soft keyboard." A soft keyboard is one that has a visual
display with built-in touchscreen technology. Text entry is performed by tapping on keys with
a stylus or finger. The soft keyboard disappears when not in use. QWERTY keyboard layouts
are most frequently used with soft keyboards, but there were others, such as the FITALY,
Cubon, and OPTI soft keyboards, as well as a simple listing of alphabetic letters.
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents
Processing

Thumbs and Voice

As voice recognition technology has advanced, its capabilities have been added to small
hand-held devices to augment, but not replace soft keyboards. Keyboard layouts continue to
evolve as data input embraced texting, which is typically is entered via some form of a soft
QWERTY keyboard layout (although there have been some attempts to develop thumb-typing
entry such as the KALQ keyboard, a split-screen layout available as an Android app).
NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents
Processing

MD.2.1-1
“History of Keyboard Activity”

Pen & Paper

none
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents
Processing

MD- 2.1-1

.
 NO. 7
Keyboarding and Documents
Processing

MD - 2.1-1

For Flexible Distance Learning:

• Screenshot of hand written answer on bondpaper and uploaded at Edmodo
Apps
For Modular Distance Learning:
• Handwritten bondpaper and submitted at AISAT Campus

• November 13, 2021

 NO. 7
Software Engineering 1

“Ang estudyanteng di nakapag-aral. Multiple Choice

ang inaabangan.”

– Papa Bong