European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 25, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pen based computers expand to new uses by John Markoff the new York times one of the fathers of so called pen top computing s Gerrold Kaplan is embarrassed about overlooking until recently one of the most obvious uses of these featherweight portable computers that use electronic Quot pens Quot in lieu of keyboards. Kaplan who is the founder of the go corp. Based in Silicon Valley has like Many other pioneers in this fresh Industry Laboured for almost five years to design software intelligent enough to recognize the inconsistent Chicken scratchings of most human writers a so far with Only mixed Success. But earlier this year go s software designers switched tack and built a handwriting word processor that does not try to Quot read Quot cursive script and convert it into computer data but merely stores it As is for later retrieval. This new feature of the company Spenton operating system neatly sidesteps the drawback of earlier systems unless the user had near perfect penmanship the computer was unable to store and process the information. Processing is limited in the new approach but it does enable a user to store edit and retrieve what Kaplan refers to As Quot digital  now the pen top can work with Chicken scratchings easily recognized by humans but which formerly made goes software Cross eyed. The program can even take advantage of the Power of the computer to touch up Messy handwriting making it More readable in subsequent viewings moreover software designers say the pen can offer a variety of options beyond scrawling the childlike machine recognizable Block letters that have been the basis of most pen top computing so far users should be Able to use computer pens designers say the Way people use pens on paper to Jot notes annotate documents and draw simple sketches when such traditional pen and paper attributes Are blended with the sorting storing and communicating Powers of modern microprocessors the result is a powerful new tool designers contend Quot people Haven to pushed this metaphor readers action line hard enough because they have been so interested in recognizing handwriting Quot said Daniel s. Bricklin vice president of the slate corp. Of Scottsdale ariz., a Developer of pen based software. Now instead of worrying about whether a computer can understand what the user has written pen top developers Are paying More attention to letting the computer simply store the handwriting and leave the comprehension skills to the users. Kaplan who has developed artificial intelligence software at to knowledge and the Lotus development corp hides himself for falling into a trap that caught Many pioneers in other technologies. Quot we were trying to replicate the features of existing personal computers Quot he said Quot rather than realizing that this is an entirely new  Esther Dyson an Industry analyst said Quot thinking of the pen As a second rate keyboard is like thinking of a bicycle As a second rate car. The pen works better on its own  desktop computers translate the symbols on a computer keyboard into a series of binary codes in a system known As the american Standard code for information interchange or Asci which represents letters and numbers. Early pen top computers have Laboured to make the same translation a trying to turn say a Handwritten letter Quot a Quot into a binary string of 0 s and 1 s a but with far lower accuracy. Even recognition rates Between 90 and 95 percent which Are frequently demonstrated by today Spenton computers result in one error every 10 to .20 characters a an unacceptable rate for comfortable use. With these limitations the first portable pen based computers have been sold for specific applications like entering sales orders. But now a second general purpose wave of software and hardware products is poised to reach the Market driven in part by the idea of digital Ink. Amid growing interest from such Large corporations As ism and at amp tas Well As japanese consumer electronic giants and Many american Start up companies the idea of digital Ink is fostering a Range of new products from note takers to pen based appointment calendars. The products a some available now others to be ready soon a will offer features that focus on capturing storing and manipulating text uninterpreted by the computer itself. The most recent pen based entry is from the Momenta corp., a heavily financed Silicon Valley Start up that has tried to blend a Laptop computer with both a pen and a keyboard. When the company based in Mountain View calif., introduced its computer this month four of the machine s applications were pen based capabilities that employed no character recognition. Momenta executives estimate that users of their computer will spend approximately one third of their time at the machine each Day using the pen to take longhand notes draw pictures or just Doodle. Quot the real Power of the pen comes when you Combine it with the computer Quot said John Rizzo a Momenta executive. Quot the big leap for us is when you can find a Handwritten note that you wrote months ago by using a computer data  not new laptops merge traditional computer techniques with handwriting  for Fri at Lan Stuhl Hospital what is Tho army s policy on an  to Leiras As far As medical attention is concerned7 a Friend recently told me that the air Force Hospital at Wiesbaden could not refer her to the Lan Stuhl Aimy regional medical Center for use of the Fri Bone scanning machine because the army does not take an Force referrals and that she had to go on the Geiman Economy this is ridiculous would we rather give out Money to the German Economy or have patients Aimy air Force Navy or marines seen where our tax dollars have already been spent7 Kathy Fletcher Wiesbaden Germany it. Col. John r. Barrett medical consultant he 7th medical come replies the magnetic resonance imaging Fri scanner at Lan Stuhl army regional medical Center is the Only one of its Type in a Dod facility in Europe. Its unique capabilities and High demand for its services have created a significant backlog for routine patient consultations. The backlog is aggravated by the current shortage of specifically trained technicians. Due to the High demand and subsequent backlog prioritizing of patient care must be done to ensure those who need the scan the most urgently can be accommodated there is no differentiation Between air Force and army made in the prioritizing specifically the schedule routinely includes air Force personnel and their dependents if the available schedule does not adequately meet the clinical need of the patient then the patient is referred to the Fri scanners available in the civilian sector this is done by both services when a patient needs a scan before the one at Lan Stuhl can accommodate him the army and air Force Are proud of their willingness and ability to cooperate to provide health care to medical beneficiaries in the european come regardless of their service affiliation. Particularly As we draw Down it will be increasingly important to work together to improve the integration of our medical  write us readers action line is the readers a court of last resort a striving to answer some of the questions about life overseas in a military environment or questions about policies and guidelines when other avenues for answers Are hot readily available. If you have a question and Don t know where to turn for the answer write to readers action line co the stars and stripes Apo 09211-4211. All letters must be signed and preference will be Given to those seeking information of general interest to our readers. Page 16 b the stars and stripes Friday october 25, 1991