Short Cuts: Roaming Around the Mobile Computing Industry

CIC to Complete Chinese Recognition

One of the early promises of pen computing was the opportunity to overcome the significant language and cultural barriers that the mainstream computer revolution simply seemed to reinforce, if not amplify. Personal computers are ideal for the English-speaking world, quite suitable for use with the romantic languages, but less valuable for countries that use a non-roman alphabet.

This is one explanation for the relatively poor penetration rates for personal computers in many Asian nations, technology-crazed Japan included. Pen computing was supposed to change that. By designing a computer system that matches the way people perform every-day work tasks, the pen was supposed to be the great equalizer, enabling countries to leapfrog into the mainstream information generation.

In working on advanced handwriting recognition for the Chinese language, Communication Intelligence Corp. hopes to remove an important psychological and physical barrier. Recently, the company renewed its cooperative agreement with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program to continue its research and development effort.

NIST, being a part of the US government, is clearly interested in lowering barriers to the development and commercialization of products that have a chance of enhancing US exports to this region. The total grant, awarded over a two year period starting from November, 1993, equals $1.5 million. Of this, $670 thousand is earmarked for the second year of the grant.

Chinese handwriting recognition presents some interesting challenges. Not only are there literally thousands of individual characters, but some characters require up to 30 strokes to be drawn in a complex pattern. By building character recognition, CIC hopes to create what it calls the first truly Chinese computer.

To bolster its position, CIC entered into a joint venture in 1993 with the Ministry of Electronic Industries of Jiangsu province, in the People’s Republic of China. For more information, please contact Beverly Scott of CIC at (415) 802-7888, (415) 802-7777 (fax).

Inspect-Write from Kalidor and PenFact

What do you get when you partner a leading developer of stylus-based applications with a privately-held subsidiary of a Fortune International 500 manufacturer of ruggedized pen computers? Well, you get something like Inspect-Write, a new portable electronic data collection solution for inspection, maintenance, and calibration.

Kalidor, a manufacturer of rugged pen computers, has teamed with Boston, Massachusetts-based PenFact, Inc. to create a data collection system for factory, field, and lab managers that will work in nearly any type of environment. Using Inspect-Write, mobile workers can complete a documented inspection of items ranging from products and calibrated gauges, to field inspection of power generation facilities.

Inspectors collect their Kalidor pen computers from a docking station complete with the information for the shift. At the end of the day, the collected data is transferred, analyzed, and reported. Companies save money by reducing form storage, both before and after data collection, and data entry costs and errors. Inspect-Write uses a friendly interface with database driven selection lists, check boxes, handwriting, on screen typing, and toolbars.

Inspect-Write consists of a series of Windows application modules accessing data in Microsoft’s Access database. Some parts of the system run on a desktop PC, the rest on the pen computer using Windows for Pen Computing. Complete Inspect-Write systems are available for $19,995 and include a Kalidor K2100 pen computer. For more information, please contact Fred Gladney of Kalidor at (909) 931-3888, (909) 931-3885 (fax), or Matthew Keith of PenFact at (617) 482-6900, (617) 482-5155 (fax).

Fujitsu and Karhu Automates Sales Force

Proving that pen-based automation is suitable for just about any type of sales operation, Fujitsu has teamed with Toronto-based VAR Filbitron to develop a sales force automation system for Lachine, Quebec-based Karhu Canada. The system, which is based around Fujitsu’s Stylistic 500 tablet computer, will enable the maker of hockey and outdoor sports equipment to reduce paperwork and order cycle time by over twenty-five percent.

Prior to adopting the Fujitsu-based solution, Karhu representatives took customer orders by hand and mailed them to the company’s headquarters where they were keyed into the computer system. Using the automated system, Karhu’s 45 sales representatives for their hockey division can now record orders directly into the computer, transfer them to the main office via modem, and check inventory and order status while at the customer’s office.

Karhu cited the Stylistic 500’s rugged design, long battery life, and its easy-to-carry size in making its decision. As you’ll recall, the Stylistic 500 is a 2.6 lbs. (1.2 kg) tablet computer powered by an Intel 486DX2-50 processor. It is designed to operate on standard Lithium-Ion batteries which are available in most consumer electronic retail outlets.

For more information, please contact Susan Wald at Fujitsu Personal Systems, Inc. at (408) 982-9500, or Michael Liquornik of Karhu Canada at (514) 636-5895 ext. 212.

SystemSoft Offers a CardWizard

The task of installing and configuring PC Cards has, for the most part, overcome a lot of the hurdles seen in the early days. However, problems remain and technical support calls to MIS departments and card manufacturers continue to be a significant expense. Enter on the scene SystemSoft Corp., with its first end-user packaged product, CardWizard Pro.

CardWizard Pro is an intelligent PCMCIA tool that diagnoses and often solves PC Card configuration problems. The product uses a PCMCIA expert system to solve tricky issues, guiding the user through dialog boxes that help identify the source of the problem, whether it be missing software drivers, incorrectly installed software, or resource conflicts within the host computer.

CardWizard Pro is based on SystemSoft’s existing and popular Windows 3.1-based CardWizard software currently licensed to several leading computer and PC Card manufacturers. SystemSoft claims that CardWizard Pro is compatible with over 400 PCMCIA cards currently available.

CardWizard Pro is available direct from SystemSoft for $69.95. For more information, please call (508) 870-0050.

Ex Machina Helps Wireless Developers

With the proliferation of wireless communication options in the past few years, the number of technologies fighting to capture the imagination and mindshare of developers and users have multiplied. However, the most common wireless service today still centers around wireless paging and its close cousin, wireless messaging.

Fully aware of this, New York-based Ex Machina, Inc. has released a new set of paging Software Developer Kits (SDKs) enabling Windows developers to integrate paging features into their applications. Using the SDK, developers can embed paging and wireless messaging into systems such as sales automation, dispatching, alarm-based network management systems, and information delivery applications.

One of the first developers employing the SDK is Toronto-based Delrina, the leading developer of PC fax and communication software. Delrina will incorporate paging features into its products to enable people to establish a more direct communication with a recipient, enabling a person to be paged when a message is marked as important.

Ex Machina actually introduced three distinct SDKs:

• SDK Notification, a base level product to transmit short messages to pagers
• SDK Messaging, for sending messages to pagers and PC card pagers
• SDK Data, enabling developers to take full advantage of wireless messaging including encryption, compression, error correction, and the upcoming PCS networks

The SDKs support all shipping PC data cards including Motorola’s NewsCard, Wireless Access’ Access Card, and Socket’s Page Card. For more information, please contact Scott Samios of Ex Machina, Inc. at (212) 843-0000 ext. 12, or at [email protected].