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Touch
typing made easy. Introducing the TACTUS™ Keyboard…
Arguably the most important innovation since the typewriter
was invented.
San
Antonio, Texas - June 2002 - Tactus Keyboard Corporation
has released a new keyboard which greatly facilitates
the task of touch typing. The product was presented
at the NECC2002 in San Antonio, Texas, and is available
directly from the company.
"Given
the universal benefit that the TACTUS keyboard offers
and the fact that the keyboard works for touch typists
as well as two finger typists, there is no reason"
said Alberto Sabato, inventor and founder of Tactus
Keyboard Corporation, "why from now on, all computer
keyboards should not be designed like TACTUS".
The
computer revolution has placed a computer in virtually
every office and most homes. There are over 400 million
computers in use worldwide. But most people cannot use
the keyboard efficiently, that is, they cannot "touch
type", in typist's language. They use the keyboard
with the "hunt and peck" method, that is,
they look at the keyboard, searching for the key they
need and then "peck" on the required key.
The hunt-and-peck method is inefficient and tasks can
take well over four times the time that they should.
Programs
to teach people to touch type exist and touch typing
is taught in elementary schools. However, in spite of
this, most people cannot touch type. The reason? "The
computer keyboard is too difficult to use", says
Sabato, noting that touch typing was already a difficult
skill to learn on the manual typewriter and is virtually
impossible on the computer keyboard.
The fact that most computer users cannot touch type
has resulted in a huge loss of productivity which, because
decision-makers generally do not know about the benefits
of touch typing, has, so far, gone unnoticed.
Yet,
the gain in productivity, if all computer users could
touch type, would be enormous and would easily surpass
gains from any upgrade of software or hardware. "In
the U. S. alone, the productivity gain could be as large
as $6 billion/year for each minute saved," said
Sabato, noting that it could be achieved with minimal
cost. "The TACTUS keyboard requires no more material
to manufacture than a standard keyboard and thus the
production cost of TACTUS is virtually the same as for
a standard keyboard. Therefore, the investment required
to achieve the productivity gain is almost nil. And
because computers have an average life of 3-5 years,
it would take just this long to have a TACTUS keyboard
in front of every user, adult and child, and the productivity
gain would follow".
The
TACTUS keyboard is the subject of several studies in
schools and universities. In a recent study with 8-year
old students of an elementary school in Sydney, Australia,
the improvement in the touch typing skills of the children
who used the TACTUS keyboard was more than twice as
large as the improvement in the control group, who used
a standard keyboard.
"We
need to accept the fact," said Sabato, "that
a new way to design the computer keyboard has been invented
and that the old keyboard is gone".
The
Tactus keyboard retails for only $49 and can be purchased
from the company's website.
Tactus
Keyboard Corporation is a privately owned company based
in Sydney, Australia. The company owns the world rights
to the DigiGuide™ Key System for computer keyboards.
The DigiGuide Key System is a method of designing the
keys of computer keyboards and other data entry devices
and is the subject of international patents.
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