Has the stylus lost its style? What next for rugged data capture?

Posted on 27 September 2011

Are smartphones and tablets changing the way we input data into rugged mobile computers?

Back in the bad old days, we entered everything through the keyboard, and on hand held rugged devices it was tough, sometimes involving three key depressions to input one alpha character. Then came a mini version of Microsoft Windows complete with a touch screen and stylus. The display became more graphic, the drop down selection boxes and menus became more fiddly, hence the ingenious stylus. Using the stylus meant you could be precise about your selection, double tapping to confirm. But, the stylus was often difficult to find!

Many users easily overcame the problem; everyone carried the instant stylus replacement tool, the ballpoint pen.  To the user this was an ideal, dual function, replacement for the evasive stylus, although the benefit would be short lived. The ballpoint pen left deep scratches on the sensitive touch screen and quickly made the screen more opaque than transparent. After a few weeks of this abuse the device would become unusable and the reputation of its manufacturer tarnished, through no fault of its own.

Could the latest smartphone and tablet technology provide a more effective input mechanism than the stylus? Finger swipes and gestures have replaced many selections previously  carried out by stylus stabbing, but can they be used in our rugged Auto-ID environment?

As you know it’s the operating system that provides the interaction between the user and the application software it runs, but as yet it doesn’t provide “gesture” support.  In the future Rugged/Enterprise devices will use Windows Embedded Handheld or Windows Embedded Compact. These are derivatives of the old Windows Mobile and Windows CE (respectively). The latest versions are Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5 (a rename of Windows Mobile 6.5) and Windows Embedded Compact 7.

While these future versions of the older Windows CE operating system will provide compatibility with older legacy applications, the basic input mechanisms appear unchanged. This will ensure ease of transition to newer versions but is unlikely to accommodate gestures or swiping. But is this such a bad thing?

As I’ve been pondering this conundrum and what appears to be neglect of adopting new technologies in rugged handhelds, I’ve become increasingly aware that when using gesture and finger based input devices, inaccuracies become a more common occurrence. A poorly executed gesture here or there and the device interprets data input rather than the intended gesture. Perform this a few times in any given day, completely unaware and suddenly the data captured has lost integrity.

Perhaps then gesture based and finger input solutions are not the way to go with rugged devices and their array of applications. Perhaps, with advances in OSs, we should be looking forward to accurate, hands free, voice input, rather than stabbing capacitive displays (such as those used on iOS devices and many other smartphones) with a special stylus which is less accurate or versatile than its traditional stylus roots. Lose your capacitive stylus whilst out on the road and there will be no ballpoint pen to save you!

Do you or your mobile workforce already have a smartphone solution that enjoys your gestures or do you prefer stylus stabbing?

Let me know or, if you’d prefer, leave a comment below. Of course, if you’d like to discuss a possible mobile computing solution deployment for your business, drop me an email or call the Codegate office on +44 (0)845 345 0808.