One of the principal input devices that will be used with telereader terminals is a digitizing tablet, a simple electronic notepad/pen/eraser combination that will enable the user to communicate and interact with the computer that is serving and supporting the telereader. When operating inside the telereader's completely controlled visual and aural environments, the user will not be looking directly at the tablet. Instead, he or she will see an image that accurately represents the notepad and the stylus (electronic pen and eraser), as well as the movement and input of the stylus, on the telereader's pair of displays.

The telereader tablet will differ considerably from the integrated tablets used with pen-based computers. The telereader tablet will be an input-only device. The two-layered input/output tablets used with pen-based computers are much more complex because they display computer-generated images on the same surface on which the user writes. The kind of single-layer tablet that will be used with the telereader is simpler, costs less to manufacture, and is easier to use and maintain than two-layered tablets.

In presenting the images of the tablet and stylus, the telereader displays will serve the function served by the output layer of an input/output tablet. The image of the tablet on the displays can include any kind of computer-generated image that might be desired, along with the user's input data. For example, a questionnaire or instruction set might be presented on the tablet image, plus any input the user might provide. Or a graphic image that can be manipulated or modified by the user could be presented within the image of the tablet.

Another advantage of the telereader tablet is that complementary images can be displayed alongside the tablet on the telereader's desktop. This will permit the user to employ the tablet in combination with many other tools. The user can do such things as make a signature, make notes, make sketches, draw figures, or make embellishments and add them to, or incorporate them in, any documents or graphic images created with any of the other tools on the desktop.

Further, entries made on the tablet can be compared with or coordinated with other elements on the desktop. For example, a user might compare his or her responses on tests, questionnaires, or other data collection instruments with the responses of others. Or, in a panel displayed alongside the tablet image on the desktop, the user might have pictorial, graphic, or video images presented. The user could then provide comments on, or reactions to, the images shown in the adjoining panel. For instance, a scientific observer could make comments on the tablet while watching behaviors or processes shown in a video or time-lapse presentation in another panel. Or, a composer might score a film on a musical tablet while watching the movie in an adjoining panel. Many other such uses can be envisioned - and other uses that cannot now be imagined will be found.

The telereader tablet will also be used for simple notetaking. The face of the physical tablet (that is, the hardware - not the image) will show the input data provided by the user. The tablet can be operated with batteries and its memory will be able to store the user's input. This will permit the user to detach the tablet from the telereader terminal and take it to a classroom, meeting, interview, press conference, game, concert, or other event where one would not need or want to take other telereader components. After the event, the tablet user will be able to take the notes, sketches, or other input back to the telereader terminal for review, transcription, and/or treatment with the full system.

The telereader tablet will offer the most to those who use a language for which effective handwriting recognition software has been developed. Such software has been developed for the major natural languages that are now in use, notably English, Chinese, Japanese, and a number of Indo-European languages. But the language that will, in the future, permit the best use of the tablet is Easy, the human/computer language propounded by The Mudoc Corporation. Easy will be designed to make writing, reading, and speaking as easy and efficient as possible. Easy writers will be able to communicate with computers and with each other through digitizing tablets far better than is possible with any natural language. (For more information about Easy see "Languages of the Future," Chapter IV in The Mu Primer, the "Easy Development" section of The Mudoc Technology, "The Mudoc Corporation's New Tools for Learning, Reading, Working," "The New Computer Marketing Paradigm," "How Tomorrow's Movies Will Differ," and other documents in this website.)

In addition to being an input device that is high in effectiveness and low in cost, the telereader tablet will provide users with a number of special benefits. One of the major benefits will be that users can employ their far-point vision when using the telereader tablet, where users of direct-view tablets must use their near-point vision. (For an explanation of this visual benefit see pp. 33-34 in The Mu Primer.) Further, the images presented on the telereader displays will have better definition and be more readable than the images seen on the tablets used with today's pen-based computers. (For an explanation of this benefit see "The Telereader Terminal: The High-Definition Muvie Machine".)

Our forests may also benefit from use of the telereader tablet. This electronic surrogate for paper could possibly reduce the demand for and use of paper. The worldwide production and use of paper is continually increasing. The endless supply of digital notepaper that can be torn from telereader tablets could help reduce the need for paper derived from wood and other fibers. If all the other nations were to catch up with the United States in the use of paper, the world's forests would be in peril. But with tools like the telereader terminal and the telereader tablet, the world may learn to function well with less paper.

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