The Origami Project

Throw Away Your Keyboard

The following articles and photograph appeared in the Cambridge Evening News on Tuesday 8 October 1996 and are reprinted with the kind permission of the science editor, Steve Farrar. The photograph is by Richard Patterson.

Hi-tech wizardry could change the face of the office

Throw away your keyboard

By Steve Farrar Science Reporter
CAMBRIDGE: Pioneering research by university computer scientists could help change the face of the office of the future.
The experts have unveiled the world's first computer-animated book which, when combined with a range of related ground-breaking projects, could herald the death of the keyboard.
The technology, devised at the Computer Laboratory in Pembroke Street, also deals a blow to the vision of a paper-free office.
In their prototypes, the keyboard and mouse currently used to control the computer are replaced by a camera mounted above the desk which simply reads what is put in front of it.
In addition, a projector allows the computer to "talk back" by beaming images down on to the page.
"The book comes to life in front of you," Dr Peter Robinson, who is leading the research, said.
"It actually becomes part of the computer, blurring the distinction between everyday objects and computerised objects.
The maths text book, developed with Dr Robert Harding of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, demonstrated these new capabilities at a recent conference in Glasgow.
Readers can flip through the pages as normal, but can also test their own ability by attempting problems, such as sketching graphs under the gaze of the camera, which are then marked by the computer.
The Rainbow Graphics Group in the Computer Laboratory has been collaborating with the Rank Xerox Research Centre, in Cambridge, to develop these ideas.
The basic set-up is being used to combine paper and computerised information on the office desk top, with the user controlling the computer simply by writing commands or selecting projected options with a pen.
A person with no expert knowledge using a conventional pen and paper can gain access to the world of computerised information.

Book mark ... Dr Peter Robinson shows off the technology which could spell the end for the keyboard.

How pen and paper are striking back

THE humble pen and paper have struck back in the struggle against the keyboard and mouse.
New techniques being developed by the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, and the Rank Xerox Research Centre, have snatched the initiative in the race to shape the computerised office of the future.
By bringing in the camera and the projector, the pioneering work mau just reprieve more traditional techniques of communication.
"Some predicted that the paperless office would dominate within a few years, but the trouble is that people like paper," said Dr Robinson, a leading member of the Rainbow Graphics Group in the Computer Laboratory.
"It's portable, tactile and easier to read than a screen - today computers are used to generate far more paper than they replace."
Through the camera lens, the computer can read normal documents and anything written by the user on a standard white board using a normal pen.
It can also project images alongside or even over the writing. The user can control their computer by pointing with their pen to one of the options projected on to the desk, or even by simply writing the command.
The keyboard and mouse are completely redundant.
One of the prototypes in the Computer Laboratory will, for example, allow the user to take a document, select the part of it the user is interested in, write additional notes, summon additional information from the Internet and then automatically fax the new package to another person using just pen and paper.
The scientists are calling this "augmented reality", combining the best of both worlds.
The maths text book is an example of how this can be practically used.
But the next project for the team is even more dramatic.
The reader will this time be looking at Shakespeare, leafing through an ordinary, printed copy of one of the Bard's plays.
"You might wonder how a particular scene might look, and so you could just point at the text and get several video clips showing how different people have interpreted it," Dr Robinson said.
The Rainbow Group is set to turn this into a reality.
For further details contact Dr Peter Robinson, pr@cl.cam.ac.uk, telephone +44 1223 334 637.