The Sylvania data tablet: a new approach to graphic data input

Abstract

Advances in the computer field have been spectacular and profuse. Sophisticated software can lead multiple users through a time-sharing maze while hardware developments offer increasing speed and flexibility. Research into the man-machine interface, however, uncovered serious deficiencies in equipment available to input graphical data into a computer. This fact prompted work by H. Teager at MIT and others, and by the Rand Corporation which resulted in an ingenious device known as the Rand Tablet. This equipment allows the user to enter two-dimensional information with a free moving electronic pen and flat, pad-like tablet. One simply prints alphanumeric data or sketches circuit diagrams, structural diagrams, or waveforms on the tablet. The computer is continuously supplied with X-Y pen coordinates and can therefore "see" what the operator has drawn.