We’ve all seen them, either in person or in courtroom dramas. Those odd looking little machines that appear more like old fashioned adding machines rather than typewriters. I’m talking, of course, about steno machines. They’re used to provide verbatim transcripts of court and other legal proceedings.
When you look at them, there doesn’t appear to be enough keys to let the stenographer capture all the words that might be spoken. If you’re like me, you’ve probably idly wondered how they work and why they’re fast enough to let the stenographer to keep up with oral testimony. It’s certainly knowable but never seemed worth doing the research to find out how they work.
Fortunately, Xah Lee has come to our rescue for a helpful page on steno machines and how they work. It both simpler and more complex than you might have believed. If you have any curiosity about the matter at all, be sure to take a look at Lee’s post.
Of course, Lee being Lee, he explores the question of how the same techniques might make our interactions with computers more efficient. He also considers whether something similar could be done with a standard keyboard on a computer. I’d be surprised if anyone reading these words ever has a need to operate a steno machine or substitute but it is interesting to learn how they work and to consider what we might learn from them.