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Review Of Upcoming Projection Keyboards
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Jan 21, 2003 05:59 AM
from the easier-than-fingernail-implants dept.
from the easier-than-fingernail-implants dept.
malpern writes "I've written a review of upcoming virtual keyboards based on published reports. There are pictures, descriptions, and details for each of the four major manufactures (Virtual Devices, Developer VKB, Canesta, and Senseboard Technologies)."
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I gotta wonder (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I gotta wonder (Score:4, Funny)
go figure...
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heeeere kitty kitty! (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder if my kitty takes a nap on the desk with the keyboard on, will it make a neato image of all the keys on her back?
Talk about a great way to pick up a g33k girl.
"your kitty is *so* cuuute! Hey, is that Dvorak on her ass?"
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Re:heeeere kitty kitty! (Score:4, Funny)
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Release timescale (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyway my *icrosoft ergo keyboard is looking very tattered and worn out!
Re:Release timescale (Score:5, Insightful)
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What about ... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's evolution, baby (Score:4, Insightful)
Now it is the traditional keyboard's time to face replacement.
It'll take a whole generation, no doubt, of people who were raised up on projection keyboards, before it becomes accepted the way keyboards now are.
It's a radical new concept and we technocrats should at least have some kind of open mind about it.
Although there are nagging issues.. such as whether or not those keystrokes will be nore easily interfered with or intercepted...
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Maybe. (Score:5, Interesting)
But many of us technochrats still dislike the feel of laptop keyboards because they don't respond quite "right". I suspect these new virtual keyboards will take quite a bit of getting used to and won't be adpoted very quickly.
Just a guess, of course.
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Re:Maybe. (Score:4, Interesting)
That has to be the damn best keyboard on the planet. I just cannot get enough of it!
I wish i could plug this keyboard into my desktop PC at work.
I just can't put up with normal keyboards anymore. Nothing is as nice and sexy as the powerbook keyboard.
D.
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Ack (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ack (Score:3, Funny)
But now you'll be able to have an excuse for it that should distract the class for at least five minutes while everyone checks out your new toy! Pull it out when you want a break. :)
Pain and Suffering (Score:5, Interesting)
But I suspect that using one constantly (such as for you desktop machine at work) would produce lots of pain and suffering. Banging your fingers on the probably hard solid no-give surface of a desk all day probably wouldn't be great fun. Stopping your fingers before they hit the desk would be a quick route to RSI land... I guess you could put somethign soft where your fingers will hit, but then why not just use a nice clickity-clackity keyboard...
On the plus side, it'd make those old games where you have to push two keys in quick succession over and over again (Summer Games for example) much easier.
On that note, did anyone else build a 'joystick' for the C64 out of 2 nails some wire and a screw driver, just so they could get really fast times in the 100 meter sprint on that game?
Re:Pain and Suffering (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Pain and Suffering (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, many people are already use to using the normal keyboard with tactile feedback, so their typing ability would go down.
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Re:Pain and Suffering (Score:3, Interesting)
Your fingers will harden in few weeks and you won't feel pain anymore.
Potential finger damage... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Potential finger damage... (Score:5, Insightful)
I just made myself look really stupid in the office here by pretending I had one of these keyboards.
What did it prove? Well apart from the fact that no-one noticed, this might actually be better than a keyboard.
Go on, try it. Pretend you have one of them laser keyboards and type a few words on the desk. Notice how lightly you type? Now hit a couple of keys on your keyboard with the same pressure and notice that you don't get anything.
In fact, as long as you don't have to hammer the table (i doubt it), it'll probably be better for you as you won't be hitting the "keys" as hard.
Also don't forget that you won't have to raise your hands at the wrist quite so much as you do for a keyboard.
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Finally! (Score:4, Insightful)
I have been waiting for something like this for a long time now. I have keyboard preferences that many people deem odd (Sun 3 keyboard, QWERTY layout, essentially), and this looks like the answer to my problem.
I also like that at least one of the devices will have RS232-C output. That will make connection to older devices a lot easier, and drivers easy to write.
Does anyone have any idea when these will hit the Canadian market? Sometimes we lag behind the US market, and other times we get it a week or two early.
RSI Maybe (Score:4, Interesting)
Thin and dated (Score:3, Interesting)
Multiple keyboard setups would rule... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Multiple keyboard setups would rule... (Score:3, Interesting)
Frankly, I'd settle for being able to switch Control and CapsLock. Perhaps move Escape and Backspace, back-tick and tilde.
Deleting/disabling keys would be nice, too. I didn't check any of the pictures too much, but it might be nice to be able to disable/delete the arrow keys if they get in the way.
Re:Multiple keyboard setups would rule... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Multiple keyboard setups would rule... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, unless you're russian, I suppose.
A couple of issues (Score:5, Interesting)
The first would be the lack of tactile response. After all, your desktop or any other hard surface would become uncomfortable after just a few minutes IMHO.
The second would be the lack of any position designators - i.e. the 'f' and 'j' keys. Most 10 fingered typers probably don't even think about it anymore, but it's very easy to lose your place without them. I suspect this would become very annoying if taking notes in class during a lecture or in a business meeting.
As far as a good portable keyboard for a PDA, my money is on the new Stowaway XT [thinkoutside.com]. It's been getting really [the-gadgeteer.com] good [bargainpda.com] reviews/previews [visorcentral.com].
Anyone been lucky enough to play around with one yet?
Re:A couple of issues (Score:4, Interesting)
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How did they resolve shadowing? (Score:5, Interesting)
i.e. what happens when one finger taps a key that is in the shadow of another finger? The review doesn't mention this.
Re:How did they resolve shadowing? (Score:4, Informative)
The collection of distances from the array of pixels provides a 3-D map of the area scanned. Moreover, this device can survey its surroundings more than 50 times every second. Like the pattern projector, the infrared light stays close to the surface. The sensor's view can get blocked if a user hits two keys at once that are exactly in line from the sensor. That happens rarely. But if it does, the keyboard's software makes the shift key "sticky," so even if it gets blocked by a finger on the E, the keyboard will interpret it as the two keys hit together.
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Obvious problem (Score:4, Interesting)
A round-up of press releases, not a review. (Score:4, Interesting)
Feel & screens (Score:4, Insightful)
Still, I'm excited by this technology. Now someone needs to marry it up with a similarly sized projection screen and we can have a computer with a full-sized screen and full sized keyboard that you can fit into your palm.
Not convinced (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe a good idea if you need to do lots of typing on a PDA, but who actually does? the screen's are too small to format anything anyway. PDAs are good for short notes but not inputing loads of text.
Thats my view anyway. not intended as a troll, i'm just not convinced.
F12 (Score:5, Funny)
How am I going to piss them off now?
Mapability? (Score:5, Interesting)
If the technology senses finger location then the layout of the keyboard should be irrelevant, leaving the door open for the keyboard layout to be rearranged virtually. While this wouldn't be so practical for work (except for maybe switching keyboard nationality at the press of a button), how badass would that be for gaming?
Load up UT 2005 and your keyboard layout changes to put a ton of extra keys around your direction arrows. Instead of trying to remember that Ctrl+P+2 balances your shields in Tie Fighter, you have a large "balance shields" key wherever you want it. RTS games always have somewhat unintuitive keyboard setups because they have so many keys... well imagine a soft/bouncy surface onto which a different specialized, user mappable, user configurable keyboard was projected for EACH app/game. I don't know if we'll see this right away... but I sure as hell want too.
Re:Mapability? (Score:5, Insightful)
While this wouldn't be so practical for work (except for maybe switching keyboard nationality at the press of a button), how badass would that be for gaming?
Actually, it may be extremely practical for work, just not in the way everyone (or even the manufacturers, apparent) thinks. I see this sort of thing as being really useful as an extra, programmable keyboard. I mean, I could honestly do without the keypad most of the time, and surely I'm not the only one who remember when software relied heavily on function key template maps. You could virtualize those things and, in fact, could provide a number of custom layouts for macros or toolbar items as well. Just in typing this reply, I can see the use of being able to call up a special HTML keyboard that would easily allow me to tag a selection (an <i> key, a <p> key, etc.). Really, these people should forget about the stagnant PDA market and focus on providing a virtualized interface for the desktop market.
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Dilbert (Score:4, Funny)
Salesman: Try our FingerComputer 5000. It has a powerful AI, and implants under your fingernails so it can sense your typing. Of course, not everyone wants an intelligent computer knowing what they've been doing.
Voice from his finger: Dave, about last night...
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I don't think so (Score:3, Insightful)
Then there is the one which didn't even have a visualization. Then you'd have to worry about where the center of your keyboard is, etc.
THen there is the sight factor, how would people react so see a person typing on a projection?
Next is the fact that it HAS to have a surface, an advantage you don't need for fold-up keyboards or using the pen-on-screen approach.
What I think they should do is make them similar to DDR pads. Seriously, You make them small, they'll have plenty of room for keys, you can fold them up so you have portability. Then you can have just a thin foldup sheet of some sort of stiff material for support so you can use it on your lap while being on a subway or something like that.
I've used a 'rigid' keyboard... (Score:4, Informative)
For typing tasks like programming and writing articles, it starts off mildly annoying and rapidly becomes agonizingly horrible. However, I was very impressed by the potential for non-typing input, e.g. gestures, dragging the mouse pointer without having to move your hand off the keyboard.
I think these boards would be great for the pda/cellphone market but for heavy workstation use it's just terrible ergonomics -- specially when the perfect keyboard [kinesis-ergo.com] already exists! That's the Kinesis Contour for those trapped in the land of flat keyboards.
Touch Typing... (Score:3, Interesting)
As someone who has learnt to touch type pretty successfully, which makes a huge difference to the way I work, I can't see these things being any use to me at all. You need to feel the gaps between the keys to indicate where they are. Sure for the "hunt and peck" mob out there this is a nice gadget to play with, but for a techy on the move who can actually type its not going to be useful.
I'd prefer a tiny keyboard (I can touch type on a Nokia Communicator, its just about adjusting slightly) than one with no tactile feel.
I understand why this will be great for somepeople, but for for speed typists this isn't very useful. Now a tactile glove might work a treat, well two of them obviously.
By the way. (Score:5, Interesting)
These projected, virtual keyboards have little to do with drumming, touching hard or soft surfaces, typing in shadows or accounting for tactile feedback...they have everything to do with motion, however.
The concept is really that simple...don't get lost in trying to overlay traditional ideas about traditional keyboards onto what is a new concept that must be tried out in person before giving an otherwise off-base opinion.
Re:By the way. (Score:5, Interesting)
These projected, virtual keyboards have little to do with drumming, touching hard or soft surfaces, typing in shadows or accounting for tactile feedback...they have everything to do with motion, however.
But you still have conservation of momentum. If you start your finger moving to trip the sensor, I can only see three options as to what happens next:
Excluding the third option, the other two sound like they are going to be a pain, literally. But surely the point is that these keyboards are designed for occasional use, not for 8 hour a day typing? I can't imagine that typing up War and Peace on most PDAs would be that great either, but then that's not what most people use them for.
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Mirror, mirror... (Score:4, Funny)
tech solution looking for a problem (Score:5, Informative)
Years ago when I had toys to play with that would do most of this, it became painful typeing on a bit of paper and detecting where the finger where. It just didn't work but looked like a good idea on paper and the sparc 1 could cope with the image processing needed. The major problem was people tend to drift if they don't have the physical feedback so you know where the key "centers" are. Modern keyboards suck with that compared with old 3270 keyboards which had an indent on J & F while the new ones tend to use some sort of raised edge. A projected keyboard won't have either.
A cheap $10 rubber keyboard will roll up and go anywhere and it doens't abuse the finger tips so I don't see these expensive things going anywhere people have a real need to type. The projection things are ok for "yes/no" and "Enter your Name" but not useful for much of anything else.
Vaporware - http://www.virtualdevices.net/ (Score:4, Funny)
From: Me
Subject: Vaporware
What's the deal, so you have something or not? Pictures of it actually projecting a keyboard would be nice. Somebody should tell your artist you can't see the cone of the laser [virtualdevices.net] in the air.
Forget that and sell your gravity defying PDA's and Cell phones [virtualdevices.net] that you have pictured at the bottom of the pdf.
Mummy, what's that man doing? (Score:5, Funny)
Reminds me of that keyboard in TRON... (Score:3, Interesting)
Peter.
what about haptic feedback? (Score:3, Insightful)
I need the minuscle feedback when moving over the keys to have body memory kick so I can find the keys instinctively. When I type, I don't have to think where the key is, all done autonomously.
Try it with a piece of paper with a printed keyboard on it. Not a chance to type blindly (which I do all of the time), and you won't get up to any decent speed even with looking at the keys.
But thats exactly what I'd require from a "next generation" keyboard for PDAs and the like, if I want to enter text at a slow pace there are already a lot of viable alternatives.
Bah... (Score:3, Interesting)
Still, it's good technology, even if not applied in the best sense here. Imagine your house is X10
controlled(sans the pop-ups, of course). You pull out one of these things with custom buttons you did on your PC. Hit the lights that you want on/off and the wireless transmitter sends it back to the server to do it. Or you could have these 'magic' buttons built into a painting or art(-wannabe) object, and access them anytime anywhere, but keep them out of place. (Yes, this example took the technology and not the specific use of the projection keyboards).
Re:Ergonomics anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
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