Stenotype

A steno machine, stenotype machine, shorthand machine, stenograph or steno writer is a specialized chorded keyboard or typewriter used by stenographers for shorthand use. In order to pass the United States Registered Professional Reporter test, a trained court reporter or closed captioner must write speeds of approximately 180, 200, and 225 words per minute (wpm) at very high accuracy in the categories of literary, jury charge, and testimony, respectively. Some stenographers can reach up to 375 words per minute, according to the website of the California Official Court Reporters Association (COCRA). The stenotype keyboard has far fewer keys than a conventional alphanumeric keyboard. Multiple keys are pressed simultaneously (known as "chording" or "stroking") to spell out whole syllables, words, and phrases with a single hand motion. This system makes realtime transcription practical for court reporting and live closed captioning. Because the keyboard does not contain all the letters of the English alphabet, letter combinations are substituted for the missing letters. There are several schools of thought on how to record various sounds, such as the StenEd, Phoenix, and Magnum Steno theories.

A steno machine, stenotype machine, shorthand machine, stenograph or steno writer is a specialized chorded keyboard or typewriter used by stenographers for shorthand use. In order to pass the United States Registered Professional Reporter test, a trained court reporter or closed captioner must write speeds of approximately 180, 200, and 225 words per minute (wpm) at very high accuracy in the categories of literary, jury charge, and testimony, respectively. Some stenographers can reach up to 375 words per minute, according to the website of the California Official Court Reporters Association (COCRA). The stenotype keyboard has far fewer keys than a conventional alphanumeric keyboard. Multiple keys are pressed simultaneously (known as "chording" or "stroking") to spell out whole syllables, words, and phrases with a single hand motion. This system makes realtime transcription practical for court reporting and live closed captioning. Because the keyboard does not contain all the letters of the English alphabet, letter combinations are substituted for the missing letters. There are several schools of thought on how to record various sounds, such as the StenEd, Phoenix, and Magnum Steno theories. ==History== The first shorthand machine (the word "stenotype" was not used for another 80 years or more) punched a paper strip and was built in 1830 by Karl Drais, a German inventor. The first machine was made in 1863 by the Italian Antonio Michela Zucco and was in actual use from 1880 in the Italian Senate. In New York City on December 24, 1875, John Celivergos Zachos invented a stenotype and filed patent number 175892 for type writers and phenotypic notation application. In 1879, Miles M. Bartholomew invented the shorthand machine. A French version was created by Marc Grandjean in 1909. The direct ancestor of today's stenotype was created by Ward Stone Ireland in about 1913, and the word "stenotype" was applied to his machine and its descendants sometime thereafter. ==Modern hardware== Most modern stenotype keyboards have more in common with computers than they do with typewriters or QWERTY computer keyboards. Most contain microprocessors, and many allow sensitivity adjustments for each individual key. They translate stenotype to the target language internally using user-specific dictionaries, and most have small display screens. They typically store a full day's work in non-volatile memory of some type, such as an SD card. These factors influence the price, along with economies of scale, as only a few thousand stenotype keyboards are sold each year. , student models, such as a Wave writer, sold for about US$1,500 and top-end models sold for approximately US$5,000. Machines that were 10 to 15 years old still resold for upward of $350. The Open Steno Project has written free open-source software, including Plover, and has developed cheap open-source hardware for stenography. Plover software translates keypresses to Stenotype on any modern keyboard, with a preference given to ortholinear keyboards that have NKRO functionality.

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