Design of an interface between a shorthand machine and a word processing microcomputer

Machine shorthand is basically simplified phonetic spellings. It has long been a fast and efficient way to record as many messages of a speech as possible within a limited span of time. Since the machine shorthand can be executed at a much faster speed than pen writing, it provides a direct high speed interface between the stenographer and a word processing system.

The suggested automated system of machine shorthand consists of an Apple II Plus 48K microcomputer, a TV/CRT monitor, one or two floppy disk drivers, a printer, and an Electronic Stenotype Machine (ESM). The ESM has three main portions : (1)keyboard, (2)encoder circuit, and (3) interface card circuit. It was designed to interface between the stenotype machine and the microcomputer. A software package was created to translate the stenotype code into correctly spelled English. The strategy used was an one-to-one translation using a look-up table. A flexible and user-defined dictionary is included in the software package for efficient translation.

The realization of the ESM and the supporting software package makes machine shorthand a potential word processing instrument in business office applications.