New Tool May Help You Love Office Computer

Monday, May 29, 2006
By SHELBY G. SPIRES
Times Aerospace Writer shelbys@htimes.com

Zenu system holds promise of making devices easier to use.

It's the 21st Century. People were promised the good life of flying cars and talking computers that do all the work. Instead, automobiles still traverse ground streets and computers are often thought of as beasts that create more labor for the beleaguered worker.

Huntsville-based ChangeTools can't do much about the flying car, but Fred I. Ordway hopes a software tool will make computer devices simple to use.

Designed and tested by ChangeTools Inc. software engineers, the Zenu is considered to be a straightforward computer operating system that can be used on any piece of computer hardware, from the small cell phones and Pocket PC to large laptop and desktop systems.

Ordway hopes it will be a sort of "universal remote control" that will help computer users avoid cumbersome sets of instructions for the half-dozen or so programs most workers toil with at the office.

"People really hate computers," said Ordway. "They don't really want to know how a computer works or why a computer program does what it does any more than they want to know how their toaster works. They just want what comes out of it and they want it to be easy."

"Most people have a 'two-button limit' when it comes to computers or technology," said Rick Toliver, a program manager with Teledyne Solutions Inc. in Huntsville. "People lose patience and interest after two buttons or two screens or two menus. Whatever you want to call it, they are only going about two steps deep into a computer program."

Toliver has interested the state of Alabama as a possible customer for Zenu.

It's still in a prototype, or initial program stage, but Alabama department manager Chris Johnson confirmed the state's interest in Zenu to The Times last week.

Toliver said there are many people very skilled at their job who just don't want to be burdened with learning new computer programs.

"Take the building inspector, for example," Toliver said. "He's knows what to do now, so why does he want to bother with learning anything new to do his job?"

"It sounds crazy, but people don't want to learn a new computer program. They are so against it they will quit their jobs and retire or do something else if you force them to go through an advanced class," Toliver said. Instead, ChangeTools founders hope people will learn to use their program Zenu. The interface utilizes 13 buttons and about a half-dozen commands for people to learn, Ordway said.

"You can throw out the instruction book or owner's manual, which people don't read anyway," Ordway said. "With this program you go through a series of simple menus to do anything."

Ordway cites a 'suspicious package' as an example. An airport official or security guard could use a device to take a picture of a suspicious package and send it to another location for investigation. "Or just for records to be kept," he said. "In a matter of seconds, the information is now off-site and teams can quickly begin to work on the problem of whether it's a bomb or just a misplaced package."/p>

"A security advantage is that there's nothing kept on the device used to send the information back," Ordway said. "Zenu stores everything on a remote server. That means if the device, be it a cell phone or laptop or whatever, is lost then you don't have to worry about sensitive data falling into the wrong hands."

ChangeTools has been working with the U.S. Army to help develop Zenu applications for soldiers who use computers.

"If one agency adopts Zenu, our hope is that word of mouth about how easy this program is to use will generate some interest in other state agencies," Ordway said.