The easy chair test

The "easy chair test" requires a hardware / software combination that is lightweight, portable, and handwriting based. People prefer to update and review their journal when they are most reflective―not when they are sitting at their computer. Most of us prefer journaling at times of undisturbed concentration―sitting in an easy chair, or in bed reflecting on our day just before drifting off to sleep.

Now & Then's design recognizes that the medium is the message. Although a new communications media, Now & Then combines a comfortable and intuitive user interface with a familiar journal form factor that is easily recognizable from its clothbound predecessors.

As with every new media, Now & Then's special capabilities and advantages will be understood and further extended as it gains familiarity with users and developers. To meet our basic design requirement, Now & Then needed to closely approximate the experience people have writing in, and reviewing their clothbound journals.

All the requisite technologies have, only now, reached the levels of technical maturity and affordability required to make Now & Then a reality. Forth generation pad computers are now available that are lightweight, generate little heat, and have a long battery lives. These pad computers have the processing power necessary to support accurate handwriting recognition, advanced context-aware search, intelligent information mining, and to turn information presentation into an unforgettable visual experience.

Handwriting recognition, information entry, search queries, page layouts, formatting, and navigation commands now are accomplished using a pen / stylus.

 

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