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It is well known that the Sholes or 'qwerty' keyboard is deficient in designed, hard to learn, and awkward to use. Alphabetically organized keyboards would appear to be superior for novice typists, but this has not been demonstrated in previous studies of typing. These experiments confirm the lack of virtue for alphabetically organized keyboards over both a randomly organized one and over the standard Sholes keyboard. To take advantage of the alphabetic keyboard requires considerable mental processing on the part of the user, and this processing is neither easy to do nor does it appear to offer much savings over visual search of the keyboard. The novice is faced with a tradeoff between mental processing and visual search, and this tends to make different keyboard layouts equivalent. In addition, many people know at least something about the Sholes keyboard, and even this little knowledge is useful, with the result that their performance will usually be better on Sholes than on alphabetic keyboards (and certainly no worse). The conclusion is that it is not worthwhile to use alphabetic keyboards for novice typists, nor to change to the Dvorak layout for experts. Keyboards can probably be improved, but only though radical redesign of the present physical key configuration.

The following are among the principal findings of 11 experiments on interactive communication: (1) Modes of communication having a voice channel are faster, but much wordier, than those not having a voice channel. (2) Face- to-face communication is not appreciably faster, and is generally wordier, than communication by voice alone. (3) Typing skill per se does not appear to be a significant factor in the kind of communication examined in these studies. (4) Giving communicators the freedom to interrupt has no effect on problem solution time or on the number of words used. When communicators are free to interrupt, they use more messages and messages are shorter; when they cannot interrupt, they use fewer and longer messages. (5) Communicators are much more likely to take control of a communication system if the system has a voice channel. (6) In many realistic tasks, communicators spend as much as 50% of their time in activities other than communicating. (7) College students and high school students do about the same kinds of things in communication tasks, and in the same proportions; however, college students do everything faster. (8) Natural human communication is extremely unruly and often seems to follow few grammatical, syntactic, or semantic rules. (9) Oral communication is highly redundant and most communication can be carried on effectively with a small, carefully selected set of words., Presented at a NATO Advanced Study Institute on 'Man- Computer Interaction,' 16 Sep 76, Mati, Greece.

For research in audio/video pattern recognition, and for experimental modelling of closed-loop hybrid systems, it is found that any one of several different surplus computers can be modified in such a way that input and output data and control signals are electrically accessible. Many of the newer (and more expensive) computers include an interface unit for this purpose. Older machines, available at lower cost, can be upgraded with the addition of a carefully designed interface unit. The interface unit described herein was designed to fit the IBM 1620-Model II computer.

The report describes the development of a 70 millimeter chip camera, which photographically records images of opaque copy inputs at reduction ratios of 3X to 13X. This camera also recorded a machine and human readable identification number on the film. The camera design is based on a Photo Devices commercial microfilm camera. (Author)

The advent of time-shared computer systems has created a need for a flexible and relatively low-cost communication terminal for remote computer access. Most time-shared systems now use mechanical teletypewriters which are slow and unable to present graphic displays--a serious limitation in many sophisticated computer applications. The best candidate for a teletypewriter replacement appears to be a CRT console with an alphanumeric keyboard input which can connect as a 'stand alone' unit to a standard telephone line. The unit uses a direct-view storage tube (DVST) for a display screen and contains a vector generator and a symbol generator for the full ASCII symbol set. It can connect to a central computer via a 1200-2400 baud dataphone line. A manually- controlled electronic cursor for graphical input to the computer can also be added.

JOSS (JOHNNIAC Open-Shop System) is an experimental on-line, time- shared computing service. It is in daily use by staff members of The RAND corporation for the solution of small numerical problems. The users compose stored programs and interact with JOSS through remote typewriter consoles by using a single, high-level language. The system is described with emphasis on those features which have led users to accept it as a convenient new tool. JOSS provides use of familiar typewriters, exact input/output, decimal arithmetic, high-level algebraic language with English punctuation rules, easy modification and repair of programs, and report-quality formatted output., This paper was prepared for presentation at the 1964 Fall Joint Computer Conference, sponsored by the American Federation of Information Processing Societies, San Francisco, 27-29 Oct 1964.

Areas investigated include slow memory data storage, the problem of decoding from an index to a slow memory address, the structure of data lists and data list operators, communications between the human user and the system, processing of retrieval requests, and the user's control over the return of information retrieved. Linear, linked and inverted file structures are considered. Empirical data from the Repository of the Association for Computing Machinery are used for illustrative purposes. These data are also used in the portion of the decoding mechanism study which deals with the effects of truncation of index terms. Following the file organization study, the necessary list structures and list operators are designed. An editing language for use by the human operator in communicating with the system is specified, as are requirements for the execution of 'background' programs when a user's information retrieval request is not being processed. Finally, a simple sequence of man-machine communications which allow the user of the system to specify what classes of data are to be returned to him is outlined.

Research concerned a syllable communication system, voice to voice or voice to print, utilizing the phonetic typewriter developed by RCA and a speech synthesizer which proceeds from pre-recorded spoken syllables. Such a system when ultimately developed should allow transmission of the spoken word at an extremely low rate such as 23 bits/sec calculated for a language of 2000 syllables and a normal speaking rate. Apparatus assembled analyzes and synthesizes 50 syllables or words and has the resolving power and memory capacity to print-out an even larger number of words selected for this purpose when set up for a given speaker. For 50 words the information for printout or speech synthesis is transmitted at a channel capacity of 6 bits/word. Tests were made using list of words other than those originally suitable for machine processing. One series of tests was made with a phonetically balanced list of words as used for standardized articulation testing. Other tests were made with the words representing the current phonetic spelling alphabet and with other words chosen for their military significance. Apparatus was assembled to investigate the usefulness of processing envelope information. Studies were made of the rates of growth and decay and the duration of intra-syllable pauses.

An operating manual for a programming system for numerically controlled flame cutting of ships parts is presented. Computer programs, complete with operating instructions, flow diagrams, and program listings, are included. Sample programs and special instructions are provided to clarify the use of the system. The system presented has been developed using: (1) IBM-1620 computer, 60K memory, with card and tape input and output; (2) California Computer Products No. 560 digital plotter, connected on-line to the computer; (3) IBM No. 026 printing key punch; (4) Flexowriter No. NC-1; and (5) Air Reduction Company 'Tape O-Graph' flame cutting machine, with General Electric Co. Mark Century director. Because this equipment was used in developing the system, the programs presented are for these specific units. The System Flow Diagram, using the AUTO MAP II parts programming language and the equipment specified above, is shown. (Author)

This report describes in detail the use of the Project 617 radar for making incoherent scatter measurements of the ionosphere. The data processing and analysis methods are fully explained, including all the assumptions, interpolations, and extrapolations. Two new major computer programs were implemented. Portions of the radar hardware that are especially important to the incoherent scatter measurements and portions that have been developed, modified, or improved during the past year are also described. The development and implementation of a digital autocorrelator, in combination with new computer software, has resulted in an order-of-magnitude improvement in data processing time, as well as a significant improvement in measurement accuracy. (Author)

Contents: Some remarks on the tasks and prospects of MT (to stimulate discussion) by R. Pal'm The parts of speech of the Estonian Language, by T. Tobias The syntactic analysis of Estonian locutions, by T. Tobias The combination of words in the Estonian sentence, by T. Tobias Algorithm of identification of Estonian designa tions of moments of time, by M. Ollissaar One method of ''compact'' alphabetic coding, by R. Pal'm The morphological analysis of the Russian sentence, by R. Pal'm One pattern of automatic compilation of a binary translation algorithm on the basis of a study of parallel texts, by R. Pal'm Survey of works on MT at the Tartu State University, by A. Korjus A translating machine in Tallin in 1924, Trans. of Soobshcheniya po Mashinnomu Perevodu (Estonian SSR), 1962, no. 1, pp. 3-96. Also from OTS for $2.75 as rept. 63 31091.

Russian Stenotype systems provide a rapid and efficient method for converting textual or oral Russian language source matrials into machine readable form. One important aspect of this method is the training of stenotypists. A Teaching Machine was designed and built to aid in this training. This report describes the training procedures that would be employed with the Teaching Machine. While the Teaching Machine itself has not yet been tested, the training procedures described in this report have been hand-simulated in the successful training of students who have had no previous knowledge of Russian. Further work is recommended to determine the actual effectiveness of these procedures in the Teaching Machine environment. (Author), See also AD-629 694.