New steno gadget?

Anything GoesCarlos4

Here: http://www.phonetic.com.br/ and http://software.phonetic.com.br/
we can see what looks like a stenographic keyboard.
“Steno Digital System uses special phonetic keyboard. PSDS uses iPad to record meetings in real-time”
What do you think about it?
The pictures show what looks like a stenographic keyboard, with shorthand symbols instead of letters – both in virtual keyboard (Ipad) and a real shorthand keyboard. I don’t know how well it works, but I thinks that it is a kind of stenotype. I’m not sure if it’s really better than using a shorthand system with a computer keyboard.

(by Shorthandeiro for group greggshorthand)


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4 comments Add yours

  1. Hm, from what I can see I think the sounds that make up the beginnings of words are inside the blue squares and the endings of the words are on the outside grey ones (go to the demo section). Though I don't know how you would press down multiple keys like on a stenotype since I've heard that iPads can't handle that much input.

  2. Where's the demo section? (What letters spell "demo" in Brazillian?)

    Interesting premise, but the one picture I see of hands looks very cramped. The fingers can't spread out, and individual keys are too small to hit confidently.

    I'd like to see something like that in English and larger, and to know how it compares to the traditional stenotype.

  3. The demo version ("versão demo" or "versão de demonstração") is at http://software.phonetic.com.br/demo.php
    However, I thinks that this is not a "real demo" – only one picture with the keyboard, with tooltips showing the meaning of each key, and two short texts in portuguese with two pictures showing the keystrokes (what on earth does [FS] is used to?). My first impression is that this is a very-very condensed shorthand. I'm sure it would be very difficult to translate it without the accompaning software.
    It seems that there will be versions in Spanish and English (according to the notice in portuguese in
    http://comunidade.maiscomunidade.com/conteudo/2010-09-04/educacao/2240/TAQUIGRAFIA-NA-ERA-DIGITAL.pnhtml)
    And I think that it was not designed to use multiple keys, it looks more like a traditional typewriter/computer keyboard than a stenotype.
    Another problem is that it uses the Rogerio Mascarenhas shorthand system. It seems that some symbols are used to represent 4 sounds. There are some shorthand systems that uses onde symbols to represent two sounds (like B/P, T/D, F/V). It's not too complicated to translate, because the sounds are very alike. But I don't know if it's a good idea to use 1 symbol with more than 2 sounds.
    And of course the transcription of beginnings and endings (grey keys) depends a lot of the context.
    I agree that the keyboard looks cramped; it would be far better to use a more ergonomic layout. But I think that the biggest problem is that there is no Gregg version – but nothing is perfect! 🙂

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