The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Pitman out, Kistler in

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 07, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Pitman out, Kistler in

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, FEB. 6. A group of 30 students from The Stenographer's Guild, Chennai, will be trained in the new system of shorthand invented by Walter Kistler, founder of The Steno Trust in the U.S.

S.V. Ramaswamy, the Guild's president, said the new system had done away with vowels and placement markings, characteristic of the traditional Pitman shorthand strokes.

Computer interface

"One major feature of the steno system is its computer interface," he said, adding that it had a bright future in the face of the failure of several voice recognition softwares.

Mr. Kistler (86), a physicist and inventor, said he developed his shorthand when he went to a German school in Switzerland. "We had to write down all our mathematics, history and other lessons as the teacher dictated." Mr. Kistler recorded his ideas and events in his life in a diary and when he went to the U.S. many years later, the German shorthand did not fit in English. Aaron Rabideau, the programme manager of the Steno Trust, showed the computer shorthand interface, which is yet to be completed. Sesh Velamoor of the Steno Trust said that six months ago, there was a front-page article on the Wall Street Journal on Mr. Ramaswamy of the Stenographer's Guild in Chennai. Mr. Kistler expressed his wish to collaborate with the Guild to train teachers in his new shorthand. Two of the student trainees will be taken to the U.S. for further training. Phone: 2434 2421, 2433 7387.

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