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The Coolest Keyboard To Come

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That does seem cool. However, I have some questions:

Are all those flat, square buttons ergonomic? It seems like it'd be hard to tell whether you have your hands in the right position or not.

Why do you need a display on the keyboard to tell you which buttons do what at each particular moment? Typing is an automatized skill (and so is playing, say, Quake) . . . you don't look at your hands at all while you're doing it. Is the idea that it would reduce the learning curve for new tasks? How? If I'm having problems with a new game or some such thing, I usually just reconfigure the keys so that it plays like every other game I own. Most games are designed around the idea that it should be intuitive which buttons you should press to do what.

As for typing in the Cyrillic alphabet, I'd have a few more problems than whether the keys showed what I was typing . . .

It seems like this would work best on computers that have multiple expected users, such as at Internet cafes and so forth.

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I agree, the visual interface would be nothing more than an aesthetic value after and initial learning curve. I think the biggest value I find in it, besides the technological, is the fact that it will be bundled with an open source SDK (software dev. kit) This will allow an innumerable amount of possibilites when it comes to the actual function of the keyboard.

I would like to write a screen saver like function that would display an image over the field of keys.

I don't know, maybe I'm obsessing. I am simply just thrilled over the recent developments in the realm of OLED technology.

Thanks for your comments.

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What I want to see is a keyboard you can use with one hand. A friend of mine from college, who studied biomechanical engineering, did design a prototype. It had a fairly sharp initial learning curve (he said) but it was based around the type of motions you make with your hand when playing the trombone. I think this is a great idea, gets rid of the three-hand syndrome of trying to use a keyboard AND a mouse.

I was going to bug him about building one that I could try out, but he moved. Punk.

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Why do you need a display on the keyboard to tell you which buttons do what at each particular moment?  Typing is an automatized skill (and so is playing, say, Quake) . . . you don't look at your hands at all while you're doing it.  Is the idea that it would reduce the learning curve for new tasks?  How?  If I'm having problems with a new game or some such thing, I usually just reconfigure the keys so that it plays like every other game I own.  Most games are designed around the idea that it should be intuitive which buttons you should press to do what.
Perhaps having keyboards like this widely available will encourage developers to make interfaces which would have been impractical before, such as games requiring 20+ keys. Didnt some flight simulators used to have monsterous configurations like this?
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One word. Daggerfall.

By Bethesda games. Daggerfall had the WORST I mean the WORST game interface of ANY game I have EVER played you had to use something like 35 keys, requiring BOTH hands AND the mouse. ARRGH!!!

It won Game of the Year for RPG's because (as far as I could tell) it was the ONLY RPG released that year.

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Why do you need a display on the keyboard to tell you which buttons do what at each particular moment?  Typing is an automatized skill (and so is playing, say, Quake) . . . you don't look at your hands at all while you're doing it.
You must know how to touch type. For those of us who can't, we do need to glance at the keyboard once in a while. This drove me nuts in Norway, since the Norwegian keyboard is physically layed out all wrong (from my POV). Okay, you can switch the computer's interpretation to English, so that you can find the letters you want, but if the dang key says "æ" then I expect it to be æ. If you look at the cast of characters, I'm guessing they wished they had decent keyboards for Kazakh.
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One word.  Daggerfall. 

By Bethesda games.  Daggerfall had the WORST I mean the WORST game interface of ANY game I have EVER played you had to use something like 35 keys, requiring BOTH hands AND the mouse.  ARRGH!!!

It had its faults, but it was still an amazing game :)

I do seem to recall there being quite a lof of keys though.

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Another (fairly obscure) reason might be to allow people to use DVORAK rather than QWERTY keyboards without being faced with the problems stemming from 99% of the worlds keyboards having an interface unfamiliar to you.

Edited by Hal
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Move along folks, nothing to see here.

This keyboard won't be produced for a while, and the lights, made by Organic Light Emitting Diodes, will only last for a couple of years of use.

If you have been following the progress of OLED technology (and technology in general) over the past few years you would reailze that by the time this keyboard or other like devices become main-stream the particular issues involved (blue light lifetimes with OLED) will be addressed in a way that will make these technologies marketable.

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This is a nice idea. I used to be enthusiastic about the touchstream keyboard, which is completely flat and allows you to mke gestures with your fingers to quickly perform actions like "copy" or "close." Their company went out of business.

The gesture idea is a similar concept to the touchpad on the newer Apple laptops (like the brand-spankin' new PowerBook I'm using right now :pirate: ). By moving two fingers up or down on the touchpad it scrolls the text on the screen; two fingers to the left is the back button on the browser; two to the right is forward. It works so well, I actually like using the touchpad better than a mouse.

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I'm a life-long Apple user. The company seems to always be at the innovative front of the personal computing industry. Check out its new Mighty Mouse. Also, this is a particularly cool new iBook feature:

"Now every iBook G4 is equipped with Apple’s Sudden Motion Sensor to help protect your most valuable asset: your data. The Sudden Motion Sensor senses change in axis position and accelerated movement. In the event of a drop or fall, the Sudden Motion Sensor instantly parks the hard drive heads so they won’t scratch the disks on impact, lessening the risk of damage and improving your chances of retrieving valuable data. When the Sudden Motion Sensor senses your iBook G4 is once again level, it unlocks the hard drive heads automatically."

Edited by Cole
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Apple?! Apple?!?!

Quick where's my Access 2003 manual . . . prepare for exorcism!

Nah, I figure Apples are fine, I've just disliked them well, forever because they cost more for the same processing power, or at least they did for so long that I just gave up.

That's what I like to see in PC's: MORE POWER!!!!

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"Now every iBook G4 is equipped with Apple’s Sudden Motion Sensor to help protect your most valuable asset: your data. The Sudden Motion Sensor senses change in axis position and accelerated movement. In the event of a drop or fall, the Sudden Motion Sensor instantly parks the hard drive heads so they won’t scratch the disks on impact, lessening the risk of damage and improving your chances of retrieving valuable data. When the Sudden Motion Sensor senses your iBook G4 is once again level, it unlocks the hard drive heads automatically."

Wow, a computer with gyroscopes... awesome.
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This is a nice idea. I used to be enthusiastic about the touchstream keyboard, which is completely flat and allows you to mke gestures with your fingers to quickly perform actions like "copy" or "close." Their company went out of business.

:thumbsup: How have I never seen that before? That is the most innovative keyboard I've ever seen.

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