In 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense began a concept development for a portable electronic delivery device for technical maintenance information called project PEAM, the Portable Electronic Aid for Maintenance.
Detailed specs and summary report: https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA210348/mode/2up
Detailed specifications were completed in FY 1981/82, and prototype development began with Texas Instruments that same year. Four prototypes were produced and delivered for testing in 1986, and tests were completed in 1987.
The final summary report was produced in 1989 by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, authored by Robert Wisher and J. Peter Kincaid.
A patent application for the PEAM device, titled “Apparatus for delivering procedural type instructions”, was submitted by Texas Instruments on December 4, 1985, listing John K. Harkins and Stephen H. Morriss as inventors.
I desperately need one of these. Historical cyberdeck
RIght? I live near a military town, and looked and asked everywhere. But no luck even seeing one in real life yet.
