Photo: Susanna Frohman / Mercury News
"Hewlett-Packard has unveiled a computer keyboard pad that should make typing tasks like Web browsing easier for millions of people in India who read and write languages that don't translate well into a Western alphabet," reports the San Jose Mercury News.
HP's "gesture keyboard" -- a digitized pen and pad packaged with handwriting-recognition software -- allows people to quickly jot down words in Hindi script on the digitized pad that transmits them to a desktop computer screen. Indians can use it to type a report, chat on instant messengers or search the Web. The new system could prove more convenient than tediously typing combinations of characters from the Indian script-based languages that, if assigned their own computer keys, would require a keyboard with close to 1,000 buttons.
The technology was developed by HP's research unit in Bangalore, India. The keyboard costs $45-$50 and is available from a third-party manufacturer for all PCs, says the story. "So far, about 100 units have been sold."
