Jump to content

Keypad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rboatright (talk | contribs) at 03:14, 27 November 2016 (Re-write eliminating duplication of information, poor ordering, and grammar / intelligibility problems). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A telephone keypad

A keypad is a set of buttons arranged in a block or "pad" which bear digits, symbols or alphabetical letters. Pads mostly containing numbers are called a numeric keypads. Numeric keypads are found on alphanumeric keyboards and on other devices which require mainly numeric input such as calculators, push-button telephones, combination locks, and digital door locks.

Invention

The invention of the Push-button telephone keypad is attributed to John E. Karlin, an industrial psychologist at Bell Labs in Murray Hill.[1][2]

Uses and functions

A calculator

A computer keyboard usually has a small numeric keypad on the side, in addition to the other number keys on the top, but with a calculator-style arrangement of buttons that allow more efficient entry of numerical data. This number pad (commonly abbreviated to "numpad") is usually positioned on the right side of the keyboard because most people are right-handed.

Many laptop computers have special function keys which turn part of the alphabetical keyboard into a numerical keypad as there is insufficient space to allow a separate keypad to be built into the laptop's chassis. Separate external plug-in keypads can be purchased.

Keypads are also a feature of some combination locks. This type of lock is often used on doors, such as that found at the main entrance to some offices.

Key layout

The first key-activated mechanical calculators used "parallel" keys with one column of 0 to 9 for each position the machine could use.

Mechanical calculators used 10-key input first beginning with the Facit-T in 1932.[3] The Facit had two-rows of digits 24579 and 13068. Olivetti introduced the "MC 4S Summa" with the 789, 456, 123 top to bottom order in 1940.[4] The Olivetti ordering became standard so that the keys on modern calculator-style keypads are arranged so that the digits 0 through 9 increase from bottom upwards with 0 on the lowest row and 123 on the next row increasing from left to right.

On a telephone keypad, the numbers 1 through 9 are arranged from left to right, top to bottom with 0 in a row below 789 and in the center. Telephone keypads also have the special buttons labelled * (star) and # (octothorpe, number sign, "pound", "hex" or "hash") on either side of the zero key. The keys on a telephone may also bear letters which have had several auxiliary uses, such as remembering area codes or whole telephone numbers.

There is no standard for the layout of the four arithmetic operations, the decimal point equal sign or other more advanced mathematical functions on the keypad of a calculator.

Origin of the order difference

Although calculator keypads pre-date telephone keypads by nearly thirty years, the top-to-bottom order for telephones was the result of a research study conducted by Bell Labs published in 1960: "Human Factor Engineering Studies of the Design and Use of Pushbutton Telephone Sets" by R. L. Deininger.[5][6] This study concluded that the adopted layout was best.

Despite that, there are several popular theories and folk histories explaining the inverse order of telephone and calculator keypads.

  • One popular theory suggests that the reason is similar to that given for the QWERTY layout, the unfamiliar ordering slowed down users to accommodate the slow switches of the late 1950s and early 1960s.[7]
  • Another explaination proposed is that at the time of the introduction of the telephone keypad, telephone numbers in the U.S. where commonly given out using alphabetical characters for the first two digits. Thus 555-1234 would be given out as KL5-1234. These alpha sequences were mapped to words. "27" was given out as "CRestview", "26" as "ATwood", etc. By placing the "1" key in the upper left, the alphabet was arranged in the normal left-to-right descending order for English characters. Additionally, on a rotary telephone the "1" hole was at the top, albeit at the top right.

See also

References

  1. ^ Fox, Margalit (February 8, 2013). "John E. Karlin, Who Led the Way to All-Digit Dialing, Dies at 94". The New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  2. ^ "Monmouth man, inventor of touch-tone keypad, dies at 94". The Star-Ledger. February 9, 2013. Retrieved 2013-02-09.
  3. ^ Nöring, Christofer. "History of the Facit Calculators". XNumber World of Calculators. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  4. ^ "Olivetti Elettrosumma 22R and other Olivetti add-listers". Vintage Calculators Web Museum. Nigel Tout. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  5. ^ Deininger, R. L. (July 1960). "Human Factor Engineering Studies of the Design and Use of Pushbutton Telephone Sets" (PDF). The Bell System Technical Journal (July, 1960): 995. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  6. ^ Feldman, Dave (1987). Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise. New York: Harper & Row.
  7. ^ "Why is the keypad arrangement different for a telephone and a calculator?". How Stuff Works. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
Look up keypad in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keypad&oldid=751660196"