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to the interpretation of individual characters entered into distinct boxes displayed for the purpose of text entry, and where the recognition process would fail, the opportunity would be present to perform further training of the system for the misinterpreted character. Thus, recognition accuracy reportedly improved over time, although a "deliberate, childlike" style was regarded as beneficial. Each character would take about one second to process.
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printed on the border above the screen, provided access to a collection of functions including an alarm clock, world clock, anniversary and appointment management, and utilities for monitoring the battery level and communicating with a personal computer. Another icon provided access to a pop-up calculator.
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The product itself was designed for
Amstrad by the Eden Group, employing character recognition algorithms developed by Texas Instruments, with the hardware being designed by Mutech Ltd. The project manager, Cliff Lawson, had helped develop Amstrad's previous computing products. Eden Group also wrote
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Interaction with the device's software was conducted using a supplied stylus to point at the icons around the edge of the screen and to user interface elements on screen, with text entry being performed by writing with the stylus on the screen itself. The recognition of handwritten text was limited
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but also emphasising the specialised, appliance-like nature of the product. Its five main applications, featured on the tabs or "section dividers" were a phone/address book, diary, to-do list, notepad, and a measurement conversion tool. A separate desktop application, accessible via a desk icon
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The software supported a single form of gesture, this leveraging familiarity with the six-ring
Filofax binder system. When tapped, the rings caused the current page to be removed from the application, equivalent to unclipping the page in a paper organiser, with the page then being drawn as a
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model reference, was launched in March 1993. Positioned as a replacement for a traditional pocket organiser, reviewers remarked on its small size - around 6.3 by 4.5 by 1 inches - and weight of 14 ounces, noting that it was "as close to being comfortably portable as any available computer".
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Over time, the rubber coating on the outside of the PenPad turns into a sticky substance which requires the user to scrape off the coating as heavy washing of skin that comes into contact with the PDA600 would be required if the user attempts to use it with the coating still on the system.
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The
Amstrad PenPad, like the Apple Newton, struggled in a time where these early PDAs were expensive to produce and did not manage to capture enough interest and eventually production was discontinued. The remaining UK units being sold off to
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bespoke software for the PDA600 that run on PCMCIA memory cards, in addition to the standard PIM applications. The PDA600 could be synchronized and backed-up via
Windows with the optional extra "PC-Organiser for Windows".
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Development of end-user applications was possible but required investment in a card-writer in addition to the forms software from Eden Group, which restricted end-user development.
130:"half-size replica" on the display. This replica could then be dragged off the display to be deleted, or the rings could be tapped again to clip the page back into the application.
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who retailed the stock through their chain of stores at £50 per unit, half the price they had cost
Amstrad to build. It wasn't until the launch of the
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The device employed a "wholly proprietary multiprocessor architecture" employing three microcontrollers. One of these was a low power version of the
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type I slot for use with memory expansion cards permitted up to 2 megabytes of additional storage. A proprietary
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32:, such as the PenPad M200 handwriting terminal, and the PenPad M320 handwriting/gesture recognition tablet for
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CPU, the Z8S180, clocked at 20 MHz. Storage was provided by 128 KB of non-volatile RAM, and a
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The PenPad had a reflective LCD screen with dimensions of 2.88 by 3.62 inches and a resolution of
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adapter cable. Three AA batteries powered the unit for a claimed 40 hours of use.
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Annotated bibliography of references to handwriting recognition and pen computing
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products by different companies in the 1980s and 1990s. The earliest was the
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in 1996 that the first truly successful PDA relying on pen input was born.
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Amstrad did invest in R&D for a successor to the PDA600, called the
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contains a history of pen computing from approximately 1917 to 1992.
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Notes on the
History of Pen-based Computing (YouTube)
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with handwriting pen input, and a competitor to the
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81:firm with a history of successful involvement in
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20:was used as a product name for a number of
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101:The Amstrad PenPad, also known by the
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313:The Unknown History of Pen Computing
244:Greenberg, Jeff (12 October 1993).
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145:offered the ability to link to a
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282:Pountain, Dick (August 1993).
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355:Personal digital assistants
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117:", providing an example of
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334:Video Review of the PDA600
64:personal digital assistant
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47:in product names include
246:"Amstrad Pen Pad PDA600"
70:. It was an attempt by
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284:"Amstrad's Modest PDA"
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62:was an early portable
28:series of products by
97:Amstrad PenPad PDA600
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336:twenty-seven minutes
173:Being discontinued
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83:personal computing
38:personal computers
180:Tandy Corporation
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292:. Retrieved
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68:Apple Newton
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294:18 February
256:18 February
250:PC Magazine
165:Development
143:serial port
79:electronics
349:Categories
324:PDA600 FAQ
222:References
187:Pilot 1000
135:Zilog Z180
36:and other
211:Tablet PC
111:240 x 320
16:The term
200:See also
360:Amstrad
216:Pencept
149:via an
115:Filofax
72:Amstrad
53:Toshiba
49:Amstrad
30:Pencept
194:PIC700
151:RS-232
139:PCMCIA
103:PDA600
89:PDA600
60:PenPad
45:Penpad
34:MS-DOS
26:Penpad
18:PenPad
296:2023
288:Byte
258:2023
184:Palm
74:, a
51:and
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147:PC
76:UK
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