A novel calculator interface makes solving tricky sums easy, as users can simply write them onto a screen and then watch the answer appear. The device could easily be incorporated into stylus-controlled handheld computer and its inventors say it reduces the number of errors that users make.
This is because the interface does away with the awkward and unnatural syntax of conventional button-based calculators, says Harold Thimbleby at the University of Swansea, in Wales, UK. These often require data to be entered in a non-intuitive order. In contrast, calculations on the new interface are written exactly as they would be on paper.