The Essessoni Computer: Input

As mentioned yesterday, one of the items that Rei brought along with him in Rome's Revolution was his data tablet, aka computer. Look carefully at the picture of the computer and you will see a pair of red dots in each of the upper corners:



When activated the dots use lasers to project a full keyboard onto a flat surface so you can type like normal without an actual keyboard:



In Rome's Evolution, Rome learns to use this very quickly although its arrangement confuses her:

     “Where is the input surface?” Rome asked.
     “It’s a touch-screen,” Rei said. “But if you really need to do some typing…” He pressed the upper left hand corner and two thin laser beams shot out and stroboscopically drew a keyboard on the dust-covered surface of the desk.
     “Let me look,” Rome said. Rei stood up and Rome sat down in his place. She scratched her head. “The keyboard must have gotten damaged from disuse,” she said in a dead serious tone.
     “Why do you say that?” Rei asked.
     “Look at the layout of the letters,” Rome said, pointing at the glowing red virtual keys. “Q W E R T Y,” Rome read out loud. “A nonsensical arrangement.”
     Rei laughed. “Everybody says that before they learn to touch type,” he said.
     “What do you mean?”
     “They are arranged in the order of convenience.”
     Rome shook her head.
     “In my language, E is the most commonly used letter followed by T and the rest of the vowels. The people who designed the keyboard made it so that you did the least amount of work during the course of the day reaching the keys you use the most.”

Rome finds this perplexing and she is not alone. The QWERTY keyboard still confuses people today but we touch-typists love it. Tomorrow I will give you the actual specs of the remarkable and powerful Essessoni computer.