MouseSite Archive Engelbart Papers: Annotated Table of Contents The items listed below are selections from the Engelbart Papers in Stanford Special Collections regarded as seminal documentation of the development of Doug Engelbart's ideas and the contributions of his research team at Stanford Research Institute to the field of human computer interaction. The papers are grouped around projects or in terms of meetings, contacts, and exchanges that provided fruitful stimulation for the group. The Digital Archive also contains many materials not included in the Engelbart papers deposited in the Stanford University Special Collections.   1. Early Formulations of the Project to Augment Human Intellect   The Augmented Human Intellect: Search for a Framework 13 December 1960 Proposal to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for one-year study to establish a conceptual framework within which could grow a coordinated research and development program whose goals would be the following: (1) to find the factors that limit the effectiveness of the human individual's basic informationhandling capabilities in meeting the various needs of society for problem solving in its most general sense; and (2) to develop new techniques, procedures, or systems that will better match these basic capabilities to the needs or problems of society.The proposal is for support of research literature review and travel, done principally by one Senior Research Engineer (Engelbart) and one Research Assistant. The funds would support extended discussions with personnel in other disciplines, and for several interdisciplinary seminars at SRI and Stanford University.   Augmented Man and a Search for Perspective, 16 December1960. Abstract for paper delievered at the Western Joint Computer Conference, May 15, 1961. In this abstract Engelbart discusses the future importance of closer working relationship between humans and computers and the direction pursued by his SRI team to conceive this working relationship as a system for mutually enhancing the capabilities of humans and successive generations of intelligent machines.   Augmented Human Intellect Study 12 June1961 Proposal to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for one-year continued supporrt aimed at developing the conceptual framework for the SRI Augmented Human Intellect Program by pursuing cycles of conjecture, literature search, study, argument, model building, criticism, questioning experts in different fields, etc., that characterize the work of the group in its first year. It is proposed to continue seminar-type of activity. The work of the group will center itself upon the growing collection of models, concepts, hypotheses, empirical data, and the like, all linked together meaningfully to form a "conceptual framework." This framework is to encompass all aspects of the Individual Symbol Manipulation System (a human and his augmentation means) that are relevant to its being an effective solver of society's problems.   The Current Picture of Program Development for "Augmenting Human Intelligence," 28 June 1961 Snapshot of "launching plan" consisting of research, development and application activities aimed at implementing the "Individual Symbol Manipulation System." Engelbart describes a research program involving four basic "components": (1) the effort toward developing the innovations in the individual's way of doing things that are expected to make him more effective (we call this our Synthesis function); (2) the effort toward developing measurement and analysis techniques by which we can study and evaluate the human activity that we wish to make more effective (our Analysis function); (3) the effort to develop testing facilities that provide support for, and common grounds for interaction between, Synthesis and Analysis (we are thinking of a computer and special testing laboratory); and (4) the forward and outward looking efforts that provide scouting, guiding, and coordination for the other effort (our search effort). An important part of the Program from the outset were the experimental facilities that allow testing the products of Synthesis-- i.e. to apply the techniques developed by Analysis upon the innovations developed by Synthesis. Engelbart describes plan to develop a simulation facility that would include a general-purpose computer and special, real-time matching equipment. The goal was for test subjects to be able to work in a physical environment that is meaningfully controlled in a rather complete sense, including Artifacts that function for him in the way prescribed by Synthesis.   Augmented Human Intellect Program, 28 July1961. Brief statement of the program to construct an "Individual Symbol Manipulation System," incorporating four components; humans, their language, technological artifacts, and methodology(H-LAM).   Augmented Human Intellect Program, 1 March 1962 Proposal for two-year funding support to continue work begun under Air Force Office of Scientific Research contract. The proposal is based on the notion that the stereotype of the computer as only a mathematical instrument is too limiting--essentially, a computer can manipulate any symbol in any describable way. Engelbart's aim is to give help in manipulating any of the concepts that the individual usefully symbolizes in his work, of which mathematical concepts constitute only a limited portion in most real-life instances. The proposal describes a project to provide human subjects with the best technological aids possible (which, in the initial conception is represented by a work station having good cathode-ray-tube displays, keysets, light-gun, and controls that are tied directly to a large, general-purpose computer), and to re-design the subjects' way of attacking intellectual problems so as to take advantage of the capabilities provided in these aids. It is to be an empirical approach, guided by an extensive conceptual model that has evolved from more than two years of full-time thought and study, and representing a basic and systematic attack from a carefully chosen initial position. To develop the applications Englebart envisions a project team is required with a number of disciplinary backgrounds represented among the researchers (system analysts, psychologists, programmers, computer engineers, psycho-linguists, and industrial engineers).   Augmented Human Intellect Study 8 October 1962 Proposal to the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for one-year continued supporrt of the SRI Augmented Human Intellect Program aimed at refining and developing in greater detail the initial conceptual framework for augmenting the human intellect. It is proposed to select among a range of experimental possibilities so that the initial framework can both be influenced by and provide guidance to the experimental activity. The proposal sets out alternative scenarios for acquiring and setting up experimental facilities (display tubes, special keyboards, light guns, etc.) for carrying out a range of fundamental experiments in man/machine communication. At the lowest and minimum level of equipment complexity are five-key keysets for performing initial experiments on binary signalling between man and machine and on developing techniques for automating the teaching of psychomotor skills.   Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework 2 October 1962 This is an initial summary report of a project taking a new and systematic approach to improving the intellectual effectiveness of the individual human being. A detailed conceptual framework explores the nature of the system composed of the individual and the tools, concepts, and methods that match his basic capabilities to his problems. One of the tools that shows the greatest immediate promise is the computer, when it can be harnessed for direct on-line assistance, integrated with new concepts and methods. This report describes a study that was carried on at Stanford Research Institute under the joint sponsorship of the Institute and the Directorate of Information Sciences of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research [Contract AF 49(638)-1024].   Letter to Vannevar Bush 24 May 1962    2. Progress Reports on Development of Techniques for Augmenting Human Intellect   Study for the Development of Human Intellect Augmentation Techniques 12 May 1966 Quarterly Technical Report for NASA contract. Discusses progress on development of the NLTS (online text system), keyset, teleconferencing display. Outlines early plans for a second generaton NLTS that would expand hyperlinking to include graphical objects and "generalized data packets." Lists visitors to the lab and demonstrations performed by the group.   Study for the Development of Human Intellect Augmentation Techniques 15 August 1966 Quarterly Technical Report for NASA contract. Discusses progress on development of the NLTS (online text system), including plans to implement a means for storing arbitrary-data files, and for linking to them automatically from the stuctured-text files, so that there can essentially be numerical and graphical data embedded (and operated upon) within the text structure. Discusses additions to NLS system, including level clipping, text truncating. Experiments with control screen selection, including "bug" (mouse), knee-control device, and nose-pointer. Lists visitors to the lab and demonstration of the system to other groups at meetings.Outlines notion of a "bootstrapping community" with plans of a proposal to ARPA and NASA for implementation on a time-sharing system with many users. Discusses plans to introduce "markers" that permit jumping within and between texts.   Study for the Development of Human Intellect Augmentation Techniques 16 November 1966 Quarterly Technical Report for NASA contract. Discusses progress on development of the NLTS (online text manipulation system), including implementation of Statement Freezing, Indirect Referencing, or "Marking", Automatic Renumbering, Disk-File, Semiautomatic Rewrite, quick level-truncation specification (LTSPEC), and improvements in viewing parameters for jumping between texts.   Study for the Development of Human Intellect Augmentation Techniques 15 May 1967 Quarterly Technical Report for NASA contract. Discusses progress on design efforts for a multi-console NLS system, design of a multiconsole workstation, programmng efforts on control metalanguage, and preparations for "ARPA Computer-Network Information Center," as discussed at the ARPA Contractor's meeting in Ann Arbor on 11 April 1967. Mention is made of orders (20) for newly designed mouse. First steps toward implementing NLS at Langley Research Center are described. List of visitors to the AHI project and demonstrations of the system.   Study for the Development of Human Intellect Augmentation Techniques 14 August 1967 Quarterly Technical Report for NASA contract. Discusses heavy concentration on implementing the multiconsole system, preparations for transitioning to using the system as the basis for a time-shared netowrked information center for the ARPA computer network. List of twenty-five groups of visitors to AHI project.   Augmenting Human Intellect Project Graph of Project Funds 1 July 1968 Rough draft of graph depicting monthly expenditure of funds on Augment Project with listing of project milestones. The graph was prparatory for the final report on the Augment project to SRI. This is a large file (250K).   3. Making Humans More Effective at Their Professional Problem-Solving through "Bootstrapping" Proposal for Participation in the Program on Human Effectiveness. 24 August 1961 Proposes multi-disciplinary program to explore possibilities for making humans more effective at their professional problem-solving tasks. These possibilities stem principally from the emergence of the digital computer and its associated technology, assuming that there is a great deal of potential power to be developed in really close cooperation between man and machine, with the goal to develop in a few years means for making significant improvements in the human performance of certain practical intellectual tasks. A plan is outlined for establishing part of the support for this program in the form of a group-support arrangement, in which many different parties could participate in supporting the program in a manner designed to be advantageous to all. The program proposed encorporates an "engineering" approach to a system problem, where the "system" is a human problem solver (typically, over-extended). A multi-disciplinary approach is proposed due to the sweeping "system changes" contemplated. A number of different disciplines would be involved with a goal of producing improvement in the practical capability of humans in practical roles. This multi-disciplinary activity is to be coordinated within one program structure with persons from different backgrounds having close association with one another in a common environment of study and development. The program envisioned would involve its own workers in extending the real-time human utilization of tools evolved by the program's own technology--particularly computers and other informationhandling devices. The laboratory facilities for a concerted program would be sophisticated, and most of the workers within the program must be involved with them. Deciding that such a program is worth pursuing seriously thus leads to a picture of a fairly large, well-coordinated activity, essentially "housed under one roof."   Proposal for Participation in the Program on Human Effectiveness 22 August1961 Draft of proposal for Program on Human Effectiveness   Proposal for Participation in the Program on Human Effectiveness 25 August1961 Final version of Proposal for Program on Human Effectiveness. Engelbart elaborates on the methodology behind "bootstrapping" and discusses a functional model of a trained human, with his Language, Artifacts and Methodology, as the problem-solving system whose effectiveness the program is aimed to improve. The proposal elaborates the centrality of the digital computer as a symbol-manipulating tool to enable the program, and Engelbart outlines a vision for a what he calls a personal "work station." The work station would initially have a standard typewriter keyboard and a cathode-ray-tube display system with high-speed capability for arraying something near full-page presentations of alphabetic, numeric, and special symbols, as well as line drawings, graphs, curves. The system would also be linked to a typewriter, or other hard-copy, printout facility. The workstation Engebart describes would have near to real time responsiveness and also be part of a time-share system.   4. Automated Techniques for Teaching "Mental Skills" Possibilities for Teaching Machine Activity at SRI18 May 1960 Engelbart sets out a "vision statement" for a program he hopes to convince Stanford Research Institute to pursue, aimed at developing techniques such that an intelligent person and a powerful computer can work directly together as an extremely capable team in the domain of normal professional experience. Engelbart urges that facilities and techniques be developed at SRI for more direct and more extensive utilization of computers in experimental research, particularly in the social sciences. He argues that realtime monitoring, evaluating, and complexly programmed controlling of experiments involving physiological, psychological, intellectual, and/or sociological dynamics of animals or humans could be made available to many different types of research by a common core of computer and terminal equipment. These two program hopes overlap in the area of research on learning theory and teaching machines. Engelbart urges that SRI become engaged in this latter activity, and that it could be pursued in conjunction with general socialscience computeraided experimentation, as well as with an "intelligent team" research program.   A Possible Research Activity toward a Technique for Teaching Coordinate Physical Skills.23 September 1960 Engelbart proposes building on the current widespread interest in teaching machines to initiate research and application of automated techniques for teaching people what might be termed "mental skills" (or often called "verbal skills"). Engelbart proposes adapting methods for teaching of mental skills to automating the teaching of physical skills by automating the presentation of information in verbal or pictorial form (or some audible or visual form), and b, various automatic detectors of gross action. Some very interesting possibilities exist for automating the teaching of physical skills, also. Work toward some aspects of this has been going on with simulators, mockup procedural trainers, and most likely other techniques. Engelbart proposes possible techniques for coordinate physical skill training which he has been contemplating for some twelve years. The basic principle Engelbart advocates is using physical-stimulus cues for prompting desired physical responses instead of audio or visual cues, which generally have to be given more higher-center processing in the brain before they result in the desired physical response than do the direct physicalstimulus cues. In the end, these cue-interpretation-response reactions are going to be supplanted by the prime stimulusinterpretation-response reaction, and the simpler and more direct we can make the intermediate temporary-skill cue interpretation the more efficient the whole learning process would seem to be.   Automated Psycho-Motor Skill Training.13 December1961 Proposal to develop equipment and techniques for providing preprogrammed tactile stimuli for subjects learning psychomotor skills. These stimuli would be provided in such a way that the subject is guided through the coordinated sequences of primitive actions that compose the desired skill actions with the objective of increasing speed and effectiveness of training. Means are also proposed to monitor a subject's performance, and to make decisions (both automatic and with human-coach interaction) which alter the guiding stimuli in ways that adjust to the subject's performance changes during the learning process. These techniques would be applied to evaluation of simple keyboard-operation training tasks. Depending on the success of these techniques, a specially designed research facility for automated psychomotor skill training is recommended. This facility would provide means not only for basic research into skilltraining questions and possibilities, but also for practical developments of automated training techniques for particular reallife skills.   Introducing Our Thinkpiece on Man-Machine Communication Means and Automatic Physical Skill Training 22 March 1961 Abstract outlining project objectives and costs for developing new communication means that allow a human to control or make use of machines (especially information-handling machines) with minimal inference in other physical activities associated with his primary tasks. Engelbart's group has specific suggestions for hardware and techniques to start off our pursuit. These should provide a reasonably universal means for humans to communicate (both ways) with machines in a manner compatible with the postures and movements normally associated with such as office, laboratory, conference-room, field-reconnaissance, or vehicle-control activities. The same principles that can be applied for the automation of symbol-skill teaching can be applied similarly to physical-skill training, promising a cheaper, quicker training period, that may allow development of higher levels of physical skill than are now feasible to consider.   Roughform Thinkpiece Regarding Research Possibilities at SRI in Areas of Man-Machine Communication Means, and Automated Psycho-Motor Skill Training 3 March 1961 In line with an overall SRI program to (1) develop immediate byproduct techniques directly useful to industry and military and (2) provide the sort of techniques, facilities, and experience at SRI that are very nicely geared to the longer-range needs of the program ("Augmented Human Intellect Study" submitted to AFOSR on 13 December 1960, resulting contract begun 1 March 1961), the work undertaken by Engelbart's group on the development of special keysets for more useful man-to-machine information transfer, as well as development of compatible machine-to-man signal-transfer channels can be coordinated with work on the development of special techniques for automating the teaching of psycho-motor skills. This results from the fact that it is necessary to evaluate the "learnability" of the psycho-motor skills needed to utilize these new communication channels, and also because they seem to be very good kinds of skills with which to do the early experimenting on the automated teaching techniques. Engelbart goes on to elaborate upon the plan to develop a 5-key binary keyset. In general the plan is to develop equipment and techniques for providing pre-programmed tactile stimulii for subjects learning psycho-motor skills. These stimuli would be provided in such a way that the subject is guided through the coordinated sequences of primitive actions that comprise the desired skill actions -- with the objective of increasing speed and effectiveness of training.   5. Changing the Ways Individuals Handle and Use Information Special Considerations of the Individual as a User, Generator, and Retriever of Information" American Documentation, April, 1961, pp. 121-125. In this paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Documentation Institute, Berkeley, California, October 23-27, 1960, Engelbart draws a distinction between macro-documentation systems, which he associates with the systems built by the discipline of information retreival based on automatic-information-handling technology, and micro-documentation systems designed to assist the problem-oriented individual who marshals the arguments, generates the hypotheses, provides the drive, upon which each forward step in the creation of new knowledge is dependent. By "documentation for the individual." Engelbart intends more that what is associated merely with his keeping a bibliographic reference file such that he can track down any article he ever read. Observing that the individual usually works with much smaller packets of information than is represented by the average paper or document, and that in shaping his ideas, the user "canabalizes" documents an information retrieval system might provide, Engelbart argues that real working information user must have some way to store and order these small packets in some external medium, preferably a medium that can provide him with spatial patterns to associate with the ordering, e.g., an ordered list of possible courses of action. Beyond a certain number and complexity of interrelationships, he cannot depend upon spatial-pattern help alone and seeks other more abstract associations and linkages. A way to store, retrieve, and manipulate the information within our individual's private domain, with informationpacket sizes that match his actual needs (i.e., separate concepts, facts, considerations, etc.), could go far toward increasing the effectiveness of his mental capabilities to the level needed for the extended and complex problems that are the pressing ones of our day.   The Individual's Information Handling, 26 July 1960 Memo in which Engelbart outlines his plan for presenting his ideas at the American Documentation Institute in Berkeley in October, 1960. The paper fits with a panel on the special needs and aspects of storage and retrieval for the individual. Engelbart sees this as a good chance to bring up these notions before this body of people, and the audience is sure to include potential sponsors with whom "a little seed sowing should be a good thing...assuming the seed stock is good."   6. Early Reflections on Problems of Scaling and Realization of Digital Logics Microelectronics and the Art of Similitude 7 March 1959 Abstract of a planned paper on implications changed relationships and problems of scaling as traditional "scaling up" from model to prototype typical of engineering paractice is reversed to "scaling down" in the microdomain. The relationships between physical phenomena which the component researcher is used to depending upon will change, and much of his valuable intuition and judgement gained by work on "normal-sized" components will not be applicable, when he begins working with radically different size scales. The purpose of this paper is to call to attention to the long-established art of similitude, and show how it can help bridge the gap between past experience and new problems. The paper is intended to deliver a message to those people who are trying to get oriented in the device possibilities which may arise from new microminiature materials-handling techniques. The message is that they should look to the art of similitude for help in orienting themselves, in evaluating new-device possibilities, or for conducting research on new devices. Application of similitude can yield a transformation schedule for changing all of the common electronic parameters, corresponding to a given change in the length parameters, to yield a scale model of a given electronic device which can be expected to perform in a manner exactly similar to that of the original model. Using this transformation to map the prospective microminiature design up to "normal" size can allow us immediately to apply our intuition and judgement to an analysis and evaluation of the design.   A Study in Dimensional Scaling as Applied to Electronic Device Microminaturization 3 April 1959 Engelbart contemplates a study directed toward microminiaturizing electronic devices. He notes that judgement and intuition obtained from experience with "normal-sized" devices are not directly applicable to the scaled-down models. It now becomes useful to apply similtude to a situation which is reversed from previous engineering applications - we want to know how to predict behaviour of the small model from that observed with the large model. Engelbart speculates that "... the physical realization of logic is essentially the same thing ... i.e., looking for a physical analogue to the logic equations, with preference for small size, low power, high speed, reliability, and low cost ... etc..."   Shrinking the Giant Brains for the Space Age, 30 June 1959 Paper by Jack Stalker at the Third Annual Convention on Military Electronics, discusses the drive toward miniturization of computer components for military applications. Engelbart was deeply stimulated by the broader implications of this paper and was himself thinking along similar lines.   Research on the Philosophy of Logic Realization 30 October 1959 Quarterly progress report for Air Force Office of Scientific Research contract for a study of the electronics literature to determine the different schemes that have been employed for realizing general logic functions in a computer. The objective of this project is to provide organization and stimulation in the search for new and better ways to obtain digital manipulation of information. Project work was mainly directed toward inspection of existing logical schemes to begin the process of fitting each to a descriptive and functional mode of analysis. Among the highlights of the project was the setting up of document database filing and retrieval system for scrutinizing the complete engineering description of a scheme, cross-linking to different schemes, and background information.   Research on the Philosophy of Logic Realization 7 March 1960 Quarterly progress report for Air Force Office of Scientific Research contract to undertake a study of the electronics literature to determine the different schemes that have been employed for realizing general logic functions in a computer, incorporating various components, such as electromechanical, semiconductor, all-magnetic, solid state, transistor, vacuum tube, etc. The survey turned up a bibliography of 19,261 references. An additional 100,150 background references were generated. It was hoped that this survey would uncover many forgotten fragments of schemes (usually a phenomenon possessing two stable states) which would significantly aid in setting up a general model for digital logic blocks by induction. Of the schemes proposed as logic realizations, very few ideas not already known by one or more of the senior project staff were encountered.The majority of the references were from the Proceedings of the Eastern and Western Joint Computer Conferences, the IRE Proceedings and Computer Transactions, and project reports from ASTIA,with the lastnamed being the source for roughly half the file.   7. SRI Computer Techniques Laboratory Minutes of a Seminar Meeting of the Augmentation Research Center team 23 March 1961 The purpose of this regular seminar meeting was to discuss types of equipment and procedures to be adopted by the group for using that equipment to study reaction expression. The goal of these considerations was to design methods for improving the effectiveness of their group meetings   Memorandum on Vote Interrupt Equipment 4 May 1961 Engelbart's memorandum of record concerning the design and use of vote interrup equipment as a means of improving the effectiveness of group meetings. List of projects in the Lab 10 July1961     8. Conferences and Symposia A representative sample of conferences from the 1960s organized or attended by members of the group:   Symposium on Text Manipulation 13 April 1964 Organized by Engelbart's Augmentation Research Centre at SRI to present their work on the online text editing system (NLS)   ACM Professional Development Seminar on Computer Graphics 27 October 1967 Spring Joint Computer Conference, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 18-20 April , 1967 IEEE Symposium on Human Factors in Electronics, Palo Alto, California, 3-5 May 1967   9. Protocols from Meetings ARPA Contractors Meeting 7-8 April 1966 Invitation to attend ARPA two-day meeting of graphics contractors at MIT Lincoln Laboratories organized by Iv Sutherland, Director of the ARPA Informaton Processing Techniques Office. Included with the invitation is a distribution list of recipients of the invitaion and lists of the attendees at each day of the meeting. A hand-written list of names in Engelbarts hand is also attached.   ARPA Contractors Meeting 9-11 April 1967 Invitation from Robert Taylor, Director of the ARPA Information Processing Techniques Office, to attend three-day meeting of ARPA contractors at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor on April 9-11, 1967. Included is a schedule and program for the meeting.   ARPA Contractors Meeting 9-10 October 1967 Engelbarts's minutes of a meeting of ARPA contractors organized by Larry Roberts of ARPA, at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., on October 9 and 10, 1967, attended by interested ARPA contractors to discuss the construction of an ARPA computer network. The major topics covered in the meetings were: communication facilities, routing procedures, network protocols, interface message processor (IMP) specifications, IMP to host computer interface, control of access to the network.