© Mark Ollig
I came across an interesting YouTube video the other day.
It featured two people enjoying breakfast at an outdoor cafe while reading the news using a sleek, flat-screened computing tablet.
One of them held a stylus pen to interact with the display screen, tapping on it to pull up news stories and ads.
What’s unusual about this? Well, the video was recorded 30 years ago, in 1994 – 16 years before the first Apple iPad touchscreen tablet was released.
In 1994, Roger Fidler, a journalist and newspaper designer, produced a video showing how people would interact with a digital “electronic newspaper” in the future using a layout mimicking a print newspaper.
The video suggests transitioning to a digital format would allow readers to be able to “clip and save articles or send them electronically to a friend,” and for advertisers to reach a larger audience.
Fidler’s technological vision aligns with how we consume news and information today using various computing tablets, iPads, and smartphones.
In August 1972, computer scientist Alan C. Kay, while working at the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in Palo Alto, CA, authored an educational paper about an educational handheld tablet computer, the DynaBook, which encapsulates the idea of a “dynamic” and interactive digital “book.”
Kay included descriptions and diagrams of the DynaBook in the document “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages.”
The paper acknowledges his ideas about personal computing aligned with education had been forming before his time at Xerox PARC, which he joined in 1970.
Kay’s DynaBook was to be a portable “carry anywhere” interactive tool for student learning.
One paragraph describing the means to process information on the DynaBook mentioned LSI (Large Scale Integration) chips, and near it “Intel 4004” had been handwritten into the paragraph, which led me to believe Kay wanted to use cutting-edge technology.
In 1971, the Intel 4004, a four-bit processor chip, was one of the first commercially available microprocessors.
He described the DynaBook personal computer as having a flat display screen covering its surface, with flexible input options, including both physical and virtual keyboards, and a touch screen interface.
Kay depicted the DynaBook’s keyboard as thin, with no moving parts, and sensitive to tactile pressure screen sensors for both input and output.
The DynaBook would have wireless communication capabilities and could network with other DynaBook’s and obtain information wirelessly from “centralized information storage units,” which seems to represent today’s cloud computing data servers.
Kay’s 1972 paper didn’t specifically define the exact ways of interacting with the DynaBook, like using one’s index finger for touch-based input, a stylus pen, or voice recognition; however, the diagrams and sentences in the paper suggest these methods.
The DynaBook diagram features “Files,” implying basic file management. The document suggests 8K memory as the minimum requirement, with 16K enabling advanced features.
Diagrams of the DynaBook show a rectangular device measuring 12 inches by 9 inches, 0.75 inches thick, and weighing less than four pounds.
The 1972 paper states, “A combination of this “carry anywhere” device and access to a global information utility such as the ARPA [Internet] network or two-way cable TV, will bring the libraries and schools of the world to the home.”
The 52-year-old document explores the possibility of the Dynabook using phase transition liquid crystals (liquid crystal display) for its display due to its low power requirements, image quality, and suitability for viewing in different lighting conditions.
The 1972 paper describes how the development of rechargeable battery technology would produce a DynaBook capable of operating for an extended duration.
Kay’s work was said to have influenced tech companies, including Apple and Microsoft.
From 1966 to 1969, the TV series Star Trek showed crew members obtaining information from rectangular electronic clipboards with flat display screens they would operate using a stylus pen.
The clipboard resembled a modern computing tablet, which, surprisingly, accurately depicted “the future” in the late 1960s.
From 1987 to 1994, crew members on the TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation” used small, rectangular handheld computing devices with touchscreens.
Star Trek lore refers to them as PADDs (Personal Access Display Devices), with some having a sleek touchscreen and others containing illuminated square buttons.
PADDs reportedly inspired the development of real-world computing tablets, including the first Apple iPad, which was sold to the public April 3, 2010.
With features likely to impress Captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard, this year’s Apple iPad Pro is a sleek, rectangular device measuring 11.09 inches by 8.48 inches and a half-inch thick. It has a 13-inch diagonal touch display and comes with a stylus called the Apple Pencil.
Alan Curtis Kay, born in Springfield, MA, is 84 years of age. His 1972 paper, “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages,” can be read at https://bit.ly/46ZDiit.
Roger Fidler, born in Mount Vernon, WA, is 81. His 1994 13-minute video, “The Tablet Newspaper: a Vision for the Future,” can be seen at https://bit.ly/3SWi3II.
These are two of the visionaries who helped to shape our digital world.
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| Alan Kay and the prototype of the Dynabook Nov. 8, 2008 (Wikimedia Commons) |