However, new touch and optical technologies are appearing in products that could radically change how we communicate with PCs–promising not only better ergonomics but also new applications. Many notebook owners have learned to use little touchpad’s in place of mice, but a company called Finger Works is using large touchpad’s in place of keyboards as well.

Instead of traditional keys, Finger Works’ touchpad’s have silk-screened diagrams representing keyboards: You simply touch the area marked “Space”, “Enter”, or “8″, for example. The company claims this light touch approach decreases stress on your fingers.

Another vision for the future: an infrared transmitter to bounce a beam off an object and onto a small charge-coupled device, like those found in digital cameras and camcorders. But this CCD has a chip that can measure precisely when the infrared beam hits each pixel. By comparing the infrared beam’s time of flight to different parts of the CCD, the chip can form 3-D image maps.

Automated data entry services will offer a highly efficient method of converting paper to digital form. Using automated character recognition and comprehensive data verification, reduces data entry costs, shortens cycle time, manages peak processing, and provides virtually unlimited processing capacity.

The future offers these benefits without the capital investment in systems and personnel traditionally required. High-speed data capture systems will process thousands of forms hourly, without errors and rework. It will be possible to handle structured forms such as claim forms, enrollment forms, and surveys, and unstructured forms such as invoices, and bills of lading.