Management Workstation Concept

摘要

David Taylor Naval Ship R&D Center is designing an automated, paperless environment for logistics functional managers at HQ, Naval Supply System Command. This paper asserts that technology is currently available to radically change the way that the logistics or financial manager deals with his business environment. The change would affect both quantitative and qualitative aspects of his work environment. In principle, the manager could summon up large volumes of data with a touch of a finger and gain analytical insight by interacting with and interpreting graphics displays. He could instantaneously communicate his newly-found perceptions and decisions through voice and hand-drawn sketches to a select, remote audience without benefit of keyboard and paper. As a practical matter, however, the separate technologies that would accommodate such office power still need to be integrated at a marketable price. Moreover, keyboard and paper may be preferable modes of entry for some managers. Until continuous speech and unconstrained hand-lettered recognition become practical realities for large vocabularies, mundane activities such as editing (formatting, composition, publication, distribution) may best be left to a support staff.