When I ran into Dauphin Technologies’ John Watson at the recent PDA-Expo Utility Handheld Conference in Denver, he was smiling broadly and said he had something to show me. He opened his bag and retrieved a beautifully finished midnight-blue Dauphin Orasis. I admired the unit which had come so far in such a short time. "No, no. Turn it on," he urged me. I did and John beamed when the little computer displayed:

"CPU = Pentium with MMX 266MHz"

They had done it. Dauphin had not only managed to complete its ambitious Orasis project, but also managed to make it the first pen computer to market powered by Intel’s fastest mobile 0.25 micron processor. This chip uses about half as much power as standard Pentium processors, which means that this fastest Dauphin ever (and likely fastest mobile pen system on the market today) actually runs cooler and longer on a battery charge than Pentium 120 and 133 devices. Some may argue that Intel has already come out with mobile Pentium II processors that are a bit faster yet. There is no way that vertical market mobile device manufacturers will ever win that argument since desktops and consumer notebooks will always be ahead in processor performance. Yet, at this point, the Dauphin Orasis is the fastest mobile pen computer you can buy, and since the unit uses a standard Pentium socket, it is expandable and the blazing 266MHz chip may well be replaced by even faster CPUs without the need to buy a new machine.

Those who have followed the development of the Dauphin Orasis know that it’s been a work in progress, but one that was completed surprisingly quickly given Dauphin’s relatively modest resources. The reason for this is the fortuitous circumstances Dauphin finds itself in, starting with Andy Kandalepas’ skillful leadership and extending to Dauphin Technologies’ inclusion of both circuit design and manufacturing capabilities. This allows the company to be the master of its own destiny to a large extent, and also to accommodate customer design requests, no matter how complex they may be.

A detailed analysis of the very handsome housing reveals almost perfect fit and finish, and the final product comes uncannily close to the almost impossible perfect initial computer renderings. All the doors and latches fit perfectly (we’d have liked to see them a bit sturdier, though). All the external connectors and features are neatly labeled either verbally or with icons. The unit feels polished and very solid. This impression continues as you look inside the Orasis. The circuit boards are well laid out, very solid, and extensive. This is no cookie cutter machine with boards from some offshore electronic sweatshop, but the result of a lot of thinking and some serious design work.

The Orasis is powered by dual Lithium-Ion packs. They come in single, dual, triple, and quadruple size so that you can pretty much determine what sort of battery life you need. The batteries use a quick-release system that makes it easy to change them on the fly. We’d like to see some covers to make sure a battery doesn’t accidentally get lost.

At 10.5 x 6.9 x 1.6 inches and weighing 4.1 pounds with two batteries, the Orasis is compact and mobile rather than petite and flimsy. Dauphin continues to use a Mutoh electromagnetic digitizer which comes with a solid, substantial, but elegant, pen. The pen snaps into a specially reinforced clip on the front of the unit and can also be tethered to the computer.

Our unit came with a 7.7-inch DSTN screen which was sharp but somewhat jittery as some configuration issues were still being resolved with that display. Most customers will probably opt for the also available TFT or one of the available sunlight-readable mono screens. A nice design feature: though limited to 640 x 480 pixels, the display can actually be set to 800 x 600 and even 1024 x 768. In those modes, the Orasis scrolls through offscreen areas.

When we first opened the large package Dauphin sent us, we felt like agent 007 receiving the latest crop of hi-tech goodies from the venerable Q. Here’s a look at what came in the goodie box:

GPS
Dauphin offers a simple GPS system specially designed for the Orasis. A standard GPS module in a small box (color-coordinated with the Orasis) plugs directly into the serial port and the keyboard port for power. We tested the system with De Lorme’s Street Atlas USA 4.0 and it worked flawlessly. Plug in the GPS module, fire up Street Atlas (or any mapping program of your choice), and you’ll never be lost again. We were also impressed by the overall accuracy of this GPS receiver.

Infrared keyboard
While the Orasis has a PS/2-style keyboard connector, Dauphin also offers a keyboard with a wireless infrared connection. The 86-key unit we tested had a full-size QWERTY layout and offered about the same tactile feedback as your average notebook computer. The infrared connection has its own control panel that’s accessible from the Windows taskbar. The only problem is that the Orasis’ infrared port is located at the bottom of the unit, which means it must be angled backwards (or sitting in a dock) for the infrared keyboard to work. A note here: Dauphin offers a simple but functional plastic stand that you can snap into the expansion bay or onto the back of expansion modules. In that position, the infrared keyboard works just fine. I should mention that the Orasis has two infrared ports.

Globewave Com.plete PC Card
Globewave’s Com.plete Type III PC Card adds all sorts of communications capabilities to the Orasis. The US$499 card can be used as a regular data/fax modem, but also as a cellular phone. The card also comes with Globewave’s EarSet that combines a headphone speaker and a microphone into one small earplug. This means that you can send and receive email, peruse the Web, send and receive faxes, and make phone calls no matter where you are. Connecting to a phone line will generally be faster and cheaper, but when you’re somewhere on the road, the Com.plete Card’s cellular modem provides you with the same capabilities. Optimal setup requires a bit of fiddling, and the voice quality was somewhat marginal, but there are situations where nothing but this card will do. The dialer is easy to use and also includes a handy signal strength and roaming display. (Globewave, Inc., Rochelle Park, NJ, (201) 843-7202, www.globewave.com)

CD-ROM and Floppy disk
The CD-ROM drive comes as an Expansion Bay module, securely snaps into the bay, and adds less than 5/8th of an inch to the thickness of the system. The 24X CD-ROM worked quickly and flawlessly. A 3.5-inch floppy disk drive comes in the same type of module. The floppy drive is hot-swappable. The CD-ROM, at this point, requires that you restart the system.

Heads-up display
Heads-up displays have always fascinated the crowds because they look so futuristic. The I-glasses! unit from I-O Display Systems that came with our Orasis is no exception. When you wear it you look like something between StarTrek’s Giordi LaForge and RoboCop. How does it work? You plug in the heads-up dock into the expansion bay and put on the unit. The result is that the screen of the Orasis appears to be projected several feet in front of you. The whole setup requires no less than four cables to be connected to the expansion module. No big deal if you wire yourself up and then carry the Orasis around, but cutting the number of connections down to one or two would be nice (Dauphin does offer a wireless version). As far as display quality goes, you get what you pay for. Dauphin can deliver anything from a display for occasional heads-up work all the way to a truly razor-sharp hi-res display.

Camera
Though the little vidcam that came with our Dauphin test system looks like it was designed specifically for the Orasis, it is actually a Panasonic GP-KR501. The unit has a focal length of 4.6 mm, 2.8 F-stop, a horizontal viewing angle of 45 degrees and a vertical angle of 34 degrees. The system uses 1 1/4-inch CCD, and has 512 x 492 pixel resolution. The KR511 produces 330 TV scan lines, and even has its own microphone. The camera plugs into a specially labeled port on the left side of the unit.
Our test unit came with Video Vcapturix v. 1.0, a freeware demonstration utility. The combination worked well with fast capture rates, but color quality wasn’t very good.

Phoenix battery scope
This control panel/utility provides as much information about your precious batteries as you’ll ever need. The panel shows the type, name, serial number, full charge, and remaining charge of each battery in the system. It also shows battery wear and estimated time to empty. You can set several alarms to alert you to certain discharge conditions. In addition to the panel, there is a status bar that shows charge remaining and overall operating time remaining. However, realize that even an excellent battery utility such as this one can only do so much. Just like the trip computer in your car bases its remaining mileage projections on the kind of driving you’ve done recently, so does the Phoenix utility base its estimate on recent CPU and disk usage.

Remote video/audio receiver
The remote Video/Audio Receiver plugs into the expansion bay. It allows the use of an Orasis unit as sort of a central hub for a number of remote video/audio recording devices. The unit provides separate tuning for channel one and channel two. Dauphin says it will be able to deliver modules than can support up to five remote sensors. This means that one single Orasis unit could be used to wirelessly supervise an entire building or site.

Speech Recognition
Our Orasis came with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Lernout & Houspie Voice Express 1.0 installed. Dauphin and voice recognition go way back. In our very first test of the Dauphin DTR-2, we marveled over the high recognition accuracy on some of the demo applications. However, in many respects, voice recognition is like handwriting recognition. There are several different approaches. Each approach is suitable for some purposes but not for others. And those who expect unqualified perfection will be disappointed. An explanation of voice recognition theory is clearly beyond the scope of this review, so let’s just ascertain some basics: 1) if your application calls for the unit to understand a relatively small number of commands, you will be very happy with recognition performance. This machine can handle such tasks easily. 2) if you want to dictate continuous text into your computer, the Orasis is fast enough to keep up with you, but you will have to learn the specifics of your chosen voice recognition program, and live with its inherent limitations.

Overall, it’s very hard not to be impressed by Dauphin’s Orasis system. There are other small companies offering innovative mobile solutions, but none provides the combination of a rock-solid state-of-the-art computer product and a seemingly endless wealth of impressive add-ons. Whatever a customer’s need, Dauphin either has it, or can cook it up on relatively short order. -

-Conrad H. Blickenstorfer

Dauphin Technologies, Inc.
800 E. Northwest Hwy., Suite 950
Palatine, IL 60067
Tel: 847-358-4406
Fax: 847-358-4407
Web: www.dauphintech.com
email: sales@dauphintech.com