Historical Overview of Consumer Text Entry Technologies

This chapter provides an historical overview of consumer text entry technologies. Textual information and communication are an essential part of lives and text entry is much more than a feature in modern computers. In fact, the wide variety of culture that can be seen today is enabled by textual communication. The invention of writing, which is the most specific and flexible way to store information, accelerated cultural development because individuals could store their ideas for later use and for use by the following generations also. Even over long distances, writing has also allowed the communication of information or emotions. There are four cornerstone devices in the text entry arena: typewriter, personal computer, mobile phone, and handheld computer. While text entry methods within each of these four devices are very consistent, the intradevice differences are very clear. While the typewriter and its successor, the personal computer, have been operated mainly through the keyboard, the newer devices use different techniques. This suggests that despite the apparent conservatism within existing devices, the emergence of radically new device forms creates discontinuity points that give ground to new text methods.