It looks pretty cool. The obvious problem, of course, is lack of tactile feedback. I wonder if it's possible to use a safe, low current, high voltage charge to simulate vibration for tactile feedback? Have an electrified grid of sorts beneath the surface of the display. I'm not sure quite how it would work, but it's an idea.

I think what's fantastic about this, though, is that since it could also be a secondary display, it could function as a multi-touch user interface to supplement existing systems.

I don't know. I don't see how its comfortable to type long papers on this. Pecking away at a solid surface.

That's really really cool. I think it's more a testament to technology than it is anything else though.

Hey, that's something. If the display was flexible, what if you had a thick, maybe 1/4" rubber surface under it? It would soften the feeling of each keystroke and also provide a feeling of feedback.

i dont think the keystroke would be a problem as long as you aren't hammering on it. hopefully they dont make it too flexible or someone may press too hard whilst sabering away in BGJ.

I remember reading something about the lack of feedback on touch screens for cell phones, and it was suggested to use the built-in vibrating motor to simulate feedback. Something like that might work for this. Plus, it could be pretty cool for gaming.

Looks like it would make a nice secondary input device to be used in addition to a regular keyboard. Definitely would not want to ditch my old fashioned keyboard completely for one, but it would be nice to have for some things.

Well it has one thing going for it... it would easily be cheaper than that keyboard with the 100 miniature LCD screens, one on each key.

Tactile feedback could be PARTIALLY compensated for by having a built-in speaker which makes typing sounds as you type. However, I agree, even this wouldn't be enough for me. I type bad enough on a normal keyboard as it is.

Actually after seeing the "video mode" I'd say this has a second thing going for it... it's an extra screen, and a touch screen, and can do anything such a screen can do. If it allows you to extend the Windows desktop onto it as a monitor/tablet that's pretty much all you could hope for (and by that I mean then it would be trivial to make software to draw to it and accept "clicks" so you could make it do anything you could think up).

Ooh, anyone else notice the live calculator bit on the right?

I was thinking just the opposite: why would I want to watch any video on the keyboard, when I'm already sitting in front of a nice big monitor screen?

I don't understand what the major deal is. It's basically a Cintiq meant for typing instead of drawing. I'd rather have the Cintiq, to be honest.

id think itd be more useful for keeping thumbnails on, or like ZZT a multitouch display thing. not for watching a movie.

I saw this on Digg and it got my brain turning immediately. What I think is cool is that the input device could be different for different applications, allowing for customization. Imagine setting up controls for a first person shooter as you're dragging the buttons around the screen and placing them in convenient locations. You press the talk button and suddenly the whole keyboard reappears, you type, hit enter, and your game controls come back. You jump into a vehicle and the entire keyboard layout changes. You could even have games right on the keyboard in a sort of Nintendo DS style. All in all, I really like these ideas, and I want to see something like this soon.

Real life LCARS.

Probably going to cost less than a grand, much less 3 grand. :p

Yes, exactly this.

The problem with touchscreens is that they aren't that practical to implement. You want viewing to be in front of you, but touch interface beneath your fingers. I think something like this would be a good way to do it. Tactile feedback is really the only problem.

My phone (The new LG Chocolate) has touch buttons on it and it uses the vibrate to give some tactile response, but its a general thing and not confined to that one button.

If it's possible to have a touch sensitive flexible display, perhaps you could use the touch sensitivity to locate the position of fingers, and then detect the distance of the press separately. If the screen was backed by a flexible material, it would have a great feeling of feedback I think.

How much you like or dislike this keyboard can be used as a concrete metric for how aesthetic or utilitarian your personality is. Incidentally, I hate it because it's useless.

There are a lot of ways to provide feedback information (even if it's just a 'typing' sound) but just making the screen flexible misses the target, sails over the wall and hits a spectator in the groin. The point isn't to tell someone they're pressing on the keyboard (a fact that I'm reasonably certain even the most obtuse computer user could figure out on his or her own,) the point is to tell someone that they did in fact activate a key. But even if you added a little piezoelectric clicker to the keyboard it wouldn't solve the real problem.

No, the problem with touchscreens is that humans memorize controls based on spatial orientation, which is why we have indentations on the F and J keys and both Vista and Linux continue to be panned by people who have actually read studies on user interface design. Any physical/tactile interface device that reconfigures its layout is beyond useless. Touchscreens make a good replacement for a mouse but they should never ever be used to replace keyboards.

If it helps, though, art lebedev is a for-hire industrial designer who specializes more in making pretty things than in designs that are actually useful for any purpose. He also doesn't design the technology, so it's not a very good testament to that, either, since this would in fact cost as much as and be electrically identical to a cintiq.

I guess I belong to the camp that thinks that looks cool, but would never buy one for personal use and is probably far more likely to make fun of the people who do buy one under their breath. I don't think I'd ever know how to utilise it to it's fullest, and would therefore feel pretty dissatisfied with my purchase.

Not "just" making the screen flexible, but backing it with a spongy or springy material. It's a lot better than just audible feedback.

You're talking about a different problem than I am. I'm talking about the problem of good tactile feedback, because no existing method that I'm aware of is anywhere near as good as pressing a physical key.

You're right that touchscreens won't replace keyboards, but maybe a mouse. The potential I see here is that your keyboard could morph into a touchscreen (or be augmented by it), while still providing good tactile feedback. Additionally you could do other useful things like draw different keys based on the current configuration (like the Maximus keyboard is meant to do), or rearrange to a more ergonomic shape to fit a particular user's hands, or whatever else people can think of.

No, we're talking about the same problem but I actually understand it.

Making the screen spongy will not tell you if you hit a key instead of, say, a space between keys. It also won't tell you if your keypress registered, period. Spongy buttons are even worse than fixed.


You are seeing potential for user interface improvements that have been tested in real-world situations to be inadequate. Slate PCs support multi-touch and on-screen keyboards but they have seen virtually zero adoption. People find the numerous drawbacks of text input on a touchscreen-based device to be frustrating in excess of their numerous other advantages. Even newer technologies, like future table and wall-based multitouch interfaces, depend completely upon voice recognition software.

And you know what? At least PDAs, slates and multitouch interfaces are designed to be looked at while you're using them. A keyboard is, by the definition of its function, something you are not supposed to look at regularly while you use a computer. This keyboard would only ever be useful for someone who could not touch type. Literally everybody else, including you, would get so frustrated at the thing that it would end up in the garbage right next to your PDA. Meanwhile the people who couldn't touch type would likely spend a few moments searching for the R key until realizing that Windows Media Player replaced it with a mini picture of what's already on the screen.

The Maximus keyboard was neat because the changes were purely cosmetic, but this keyboard takes those same purely aesthetic ideas and applies them in a profoundly poor manner.

Oh, and you've tried it, have you? Maybe it could be used in conjunction with an audible click to confirm that the user pressed a key and not the space in between. I don't know, it was just an idea I came up with on a whim. No need to get your knickers in a twist.

You're probably right, especially about how touchscreens are for what you're looking at and keyboards aren't. I still think it would be worth investigating, if not for some niche application.

also lcars

I just did a little experiment.

I have a backlit keyboad. It has laptop style keys and they're close together and all about the same size. I taped a peice of paper onto the keyboard and drew the key positions onto it. I then typed the phrase "antiquate this modern peice of technology so that it wont impede our productivity." three times in notepad with my eyes closed on the keyboard (without backspacing) and didn't make any errors. I then taped the paper to the tabletop, put some blueberry jam on my fingers (I didn't want to get ink on my hands and blueberries leave a good stain) and typed out the phrase onto the paper with my eyes closed, then checked to see how I went.

From the stains it appears that 22 keypresses out of 83 missed their mark, mostly keys on the far right and the edges. This gives me a 73.5% success rate on a flat surface, with no home-key indicators or tactile-feedback.

Now I'm not saying this is any indication that a touchscreen style keyboard will either work or not, but I think with some kind of feedback either as a noise or vibration along with actually watching what you're typing on screen would probably be alright with a little practice.

Coolest.
Experiment.
Ever.

Well you sure do show up in interesting places.

Optimus Prime > Optimus Tactus

Like that other keyboard they came up with it will take like 4 years just to get one made. dont wait up.