USB TYPEWRITER - Resquing Antique Typewriters From Dusty Attics And Giving Them a New Life In The Digital Age.

"A GROUNDBREAKING ADVANCEMENT IN THE FIELD OF OBSOLESCENCE!"

Meet the new invention : the "USB TYPEWRITER" invented by Jack Zylkin .USB Typewriter circuitry can transform your old manual typewriter into a retro-futuristic marvel. Use a gorgeous

vintage typewriter as the computer keyboard for your Mac or PC, or type with ink-on-paper while electronically recording your keystrokes! The USB Typewriter also makes an outstanding keyboard dock for your iPad or tablet PC.

USB Typewriter can still write on a paper. Infact, you can write on paper while recording your keystrokes to a computer -- that way you will have both a hard copy and a soft copy. You don't even need to turn on your monitor.

The USB Typewriter not only has built-in Control, Alt, Cmd, and Backspace keys, but also a "Fn" key which, when held down, accesses secondary functions for all the keys, so that the typewriter keyboard supports a full complement of modern functions.

The USB Typewriter is designed so that tablet computers such as the iPad act as virtual "paper" when placed on the platen. Any tablet that has a "USB On-The-Go" feature (also called "USB OTG") will work with the USB Typewriter.The USB Typewriter works conveniently with many smartphones -- any phone that supports "USB On-the-go" -- but will not work with the popular iPhone and Nexus phones.

HOW IT WORKS :

The USB Typewriter system consists of three main components: the Sensor Board, the USB Interface Board, and the Reed Switches.

1) The Sensor Board :

The sensor board is a long strip of flexible metal contacts which clip easily underneath the keys of the typewriter. Each contact is attached to a different pin on a chain of shift registers, which act like a fireman's "bucket brigade", passing a signal down the line from one pin to the next (see the animated picture below). When the signal being passed down the row of shift registers is intercepted by one of the keys the microcontroller is alerted to a keypress.

2) The USB Interface Board :

The USB Interface Board features an Atmega168P microcontroller (i.e. an Arduino chip), a USB socket, and some supporting components. By sending the CLK and SER signals, it controls the operation of the Sensor Board (again, refer to the animation below), and by monitoring the "chassis" signal, it can detect keypresses. The animation shows that the Interface Board can tell which key has been pressed, based on which pin of the sensor board was active when the chassis signal was detected. The interface board also controls the USB jack that connects to your computer.

3) The Reed Switches :

Because the Sensor Board only detects keys that strike the crossbar, several important keys go undetected. These include Shift, Space, and Return. To deal with those keys, we use tiny switches that close when in the presence of a magnet.

WHY JACK WORKED ON THIS? (in his own words)

"The idea for USB Typewriter all began in late 2009, when I found a clunky old Royal typewriter on the side of the road. After a little spit polish and elbow grease, I was really amazed by how pristine this machine was underneath its century's worth of rust and dust. And even more amazing: it still worked!

Typewriters are just really beautiful and elegant pieces of technology, and it has always struck me as sad that they are now neglected and almost forgotten, especially considering that most computer stuff today is so disposable and utilitarian. People love typewriters, and lots of people have them on their mantlepiece or in their attic, but there is just no place for them on a modern computer desk. So, with the USB Typewriter project I am trying to help people rescue typewriters from garages and attics and put them to use again.

USB Typewriter has been in business since June 2010, and since then has helped to rescue almost 1,000 typewriters, while constantly improving the conversion process to make it as easy as possible. The USB Typewriter has been featured by NPR's Morning Edition, The Martha Stewart Show, CNN HLN, WIRED, Gizmodo, and many others. It was named one of the "Top 10 iPad Accessories" by PC Magazine."

MOUSELESS

         Mouseless is an invisible computer mouse that provides the familiarity of interaction of a physical mouse without actually needing a real hardware mouse.

         As the computer mouse has remained largely unchanged over the last decades, we have become increasingly proficient at operating the two-button mouse. Recently, various multitouch and gestural interaction technologies have been explored as means to implement alternative methods to interact with a computer. Despite these advances in computing hardware technologies, the two-button computer mouse has remained the predominant means to interact with a computer. 

         The Mouseless invention removes the requirement of

having a physical mouse altogether but still provides the intuitive interaction of a physical mouse that we are familiar with. Mouseless consists of an Infrared (IR) laser beam (with line cap) and an Infrared camera. Both IR laser and IR camera are embedded in the computer. The laser beam module is modified with a line cap and placed such that it creates a plane of IR laser just above the surface the computer sits on. 

         The user cups his hand, as if a physical mouse was present underneath, and the laser beam lights up the hand which is in contact with the surface. The IR camera detects those bright IR blobs using computer vision.

The change in the position and arrangements of these blobs are interpreted as mouse cursor movement and mouse clicks. As the user moves their hand the cursor on screen moves accordingly. When the user taps their index finger, the size of the blob changes and the camera recognizes the intended mouse click.

         As computer vision algorithms is improved, an extensive library of gestures could be implemented in addition to mouse movement and mouse clicks. Typical multitouch gestures, such as zooming in and out, as well as novel gestures, such as balling one’s fist are all possible. In addition, the use of multiple laser beams would allow for recognition of a wider range of free hand motions, enabling novel gestures that the hardware mouse cannot support.

         The manufacturers implemented a fully functional working prototype system of 'Mouseless' that costs approximate $20 to build.

COMPUTER GENERATIONS.

     "Generation" in computer talk provides a framework for the growth of computer industry based on key technologies developed.Originally, it was used to distinguish between hardware technologies but was later extended to include both hardware and software technologies.
       The custom of referring to computer era in terms of generations came into wide use only after 1964.There are total five computer generations known until today.
       Below are given some images showing five computer generations with their key technologies and characteristics:

 HERE IS MY ITC ASSIGNMENT ON COMPUTER GENERATIONS :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-jHIiHMYfdqaUNtMHhjaFFwLXM/view?usp=sharing

WHAT IS COMPUTER ?

DEFINITION:

              

A DESKTOP COMPUTER

The term 'computer' is derived from the Latin term ‘computare’, this means to calculate or programmable machine. A Computer is a general purpose device that can be programmed to carry out a set of arithmetic  or logical operations automatically.

WHAT MAKES UP COMPUTER??

                              A computer system consists of two major elements: hardware and software. You need both hardware and software for a computer system to work.

COMPUTER HARDWARE:

                 Computer hardware is the collection of all the parts you can physically touch.Some hardware components are easy to recognize, such as the computer case, keyboard, and monitor. However, there are many different types of hardware components.The following figure points out the various hardware components of a computer.

Diagram of the various hardware components of a desktop computer

         The computer case contains a power supply unit (#6) to convert general-purpose electricity to direct current for the other components. The most critical component is the motherboard (#2), a plastic board on which several essential components are mounted. This includes the central processing unit, or CPU, (#3), the main memory (#4), and expansions slots (#5) for other hardware components.
     
         The internal hard disk drive (#8) serves as the mass storage device for data files and software applications. An optical disk drive (#7) makes it possible to read from and write to CDs and DVDs. Other hardware components typically found inside the computer case (but not shown in the figure) are a sound card, a video card, and a cooling mechanism, such as a fan.

          A computer system also needs input devices, such as a keyboard (#9) and a mouse (#10). To interact with a user, a computer system also needs a display device, such as a monitor (#1).

COMPUTER SOFTWARE:

                Computer software, on the other hand, is not something you can touch.The term 'software' refers to the set of electronic program instructions or data a computer processor reads in order to perform a task or operation.
                Software can be categorized according to what it is designed to accomplish. There are two main types of software: systems software and application software.

System Software:

              Systems software includes the programs that are dedicated to managing the computer itself, such as operating system, file management utilities, and disk operating system (or DOS). The operating system manages the computer hardware resources in addition to applications and data.

Application Software:

             Application software, or simply applications, are often called productivity programs or end-user programs because they enable the user to complete tasks such as creating documents, spreadsheets, databases, and publications, doing online research, sending email, designing graphics, running businesses, and even playing games!

         
            Application software is specific to the task it is designed for and can be as simple as a calculator application or as complex as a word processing application. When you begin creating a document, the word processing software has already set the margins, font style and size, and the line spacing for you. But you can change these settings, and you have many more formatting options available.

       
            A machine-level example of software is Basic Input/Output System or BIOS. When you start the computer, the BIOS loads and runs before your hard drive even connects. BIOS checks connection to hardware and looks for the operating system to load.     

       
           Microsoft Word is a popular word-processing application that is included in the software suite of applications called Microsoft Office. A software suite is a group of software applications with related functionality. For example, office software suites might include word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation, and email applications. Graphics suites such as Adobe Creative Suite include applications for creating and editing images, while Sony Audio Master Suite is used for audio production.

HOPE SO YOU LIKED THIS ARTICLE...I WILL POST MORE INFORMATION ABOUT COMPUTER IN NEXT POSTS INSHA ALLAH!!

ITC ASSIGNMENT :

Finally done with the ITC assignment.Completed and submitted it last night. It was very time taking, searching on the internet for the right information is quite tough job but thanks to Allah Almighty that inspite of all hurdles I was able to complete it.The topic was "Computer Generations". Now I am waiting for my teacher's remarks. so fingers crossed !! Lets see what happens !!

PF ASSIGNMENT :

So, the first assignment of PF has been announced...so excited because its my first chance to show my ability and programming skills to my Teacher.I think its going to be a bit tough for me as I don't know about programming. That's why its going to be a challenge for me. I hope I will be able to solve it. I am going to start it tommorow. Lets see how far I will be able to solve it !!!