Douglas C. Engelbart. Study for the Development of Human Augmentation Techniques. Final Report under Contract NAS1-5904, SRI Project 5890 for NASA Langley Research Center, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, Ca., July 1968.

I. INTRODUCTION

1 In the Augmented Human Intellect (AHI) Research Center at Stanford Research Institute a group of researchers is developing an experimental laboratory around an interactive, multiconsole computer-display system, and is working to learn the principles by which interactive computer aids can augment the intellectual capability of the subjects.

2 For the first part of the project, the Center's experimental facility consisted of a CDC 3100 computer that was equipped with one CRT console.

    2A The basic strategy of the AHI research program is to use its own augmentation-system developments for its own work. Earlier AHI-Center projects had developed an interactive system (see English et al., 1965; English et al., 1967; and Engelbart, 1967), and this was improved considerably during the first six months. Although we developed some very effective working aids on this facility, it became apparent that effective utilization of on-line aids requires considerably more console-service accessibility than this facility provided. This limited accessibility handicapped our research approach of building, using, and evolving our own augmentation system.
2B Relatively early in the contract period, this limited-access handicap received enough recognition to bring about a readjusted level of support (from ARPA, channelled through an RADC contract) and a shift in our activity. For the last 18 months the main activity has been the planning and implementation of a multiconsole system dedicated to the AHI Center's "bootstrapping" activity.

3 For its laboratory facility, the Center now has the following:

    3A An SDS940 time-sharing computer (65K, 24-bit core) with a 4.5 megabyte swapping drum and a 96 megabyte file-storage disk. This simultaneously serves 12 CRT work stations.

    3B The display in a user's office (see Frontispiece) or workroom appears on a commercial television monitor (high resolution -- 875 lines) and provides both character and vector portrayals. An SRI mouse (cursor device) allows screen pointing and selection, and a keyboard is used for entering both data and control information.

    3C The user features being first developed for this facility are essentially the same as on the prototype 3100 system. (See the section below on "User Systems".)

    3D There are several notable features in the design of this experimental facility.

      3D1 Specially developed hardware enables the I/O for these highly interactive CRT work stations to be carried out with almost no overhead on the central processor.
      3D2 The display system uses a unique mix of conventional, refreshed, random-deflection CRTs and commercial television equipment to obtain overall economy, black-on-white displays, and the ability to superimpose different TV images on one display.
      3D3 Special-purpose high-level languages and associated compilers provide rapid, flexible development and modification of the repertoire of service functions and of their control procedures (the latter being the detailed user actions and computer feedback involved in controlling the application of these service functions).
      3D4 Developed under an earlier project to facilitate these controlling actions are the SRI mouse (a hand-held X-Y transducer usable on any flat surface) and a five-key handset for one-handed entry of control codes and literal input.
4 User files are organized in hierarchical structures of data entities, each composed of arbitrary combinations of text and figures. A large repertoire of coordinated service features enables a skilled user to compose, study, and modify these files with great speed and flexibiliy, and to have searches, analyses, data manipulation, etc. done for him. In particular, special sets of conventions, functions, and working methods have been developed to aid programming, documenting, retrieval, project management, group interaction, logical design, and hard-copy production.

5 Before describing in more detail the design of the hardware and software for these systems, this report discusses the purpose and approach for our coordinated "bootstrap" program, where our emphasis is on learning how to derive maximum value to human effectiveness by harnessing computer aids.

    5A Our primary research concern is actually with such things as the repertoire of service functions provided the user, the means he uses to control the application of these functions, his changes in working conventions and procedures, the new ways he and others can now work together as a team, etc. These primary research factors are what determine the secondary goals of developing the instrumentation for our research (i.e., the hardware and software).