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So they are finally starting to sell re-branded fingerworks devices.

So .. since all their touch technology derives from FingerWorks [ http://fingerworks.com/ ]. They revived the iGesturePad from 1999 and added a raiser.

Question 1) Do we get to see any of the 60 or so gestures they used to use a decade ago that Apple declined to reuse?

Question 2) Is there a chance that it means the TouchStream LP is coming back in a form I could potentially get for my windows9x+/*nix9x computer again ... without having to pay several hundred on eBay + driver hunts... just several hundred to Apple?

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My hope is that they are answered as followed:

1) Yes

2) Yes, more than a chance, and soon.

I can offer direct insight into your questions courtesy of years of experience using the Fingerworks TouchStream:

http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDW5zyjhCbc

MultiTouch devices are very precise. In fact, moreso than a mouse for fine movements, because they take an average over the whole contact area so subpixel movements are possible.

You can have a keyboard. See the TouchStream. It works really well and is more efficient than a mouse+keyboard combo. Use of MultiTouch makes the keyboard itself vastly more efficient: gestures and chords are all available without leaving the keyboard.

I've played Doom 3 using the TouchStream. It's not as good as a keyboard+mouse combo but I'll bet it beats gamepad.

reminds me of the touch stream keyboard. Too bad they got bought by Apple.

...based on the IP they acquired from FingerWorks. You can do really sophisticated error-correction if you're getting not only a stream of characters, but the exact location of the press, contact area, dwell time, and possibly more. So, with a virtual multi-touch keyboard, you can say "Okay, that looked like an R, but the contact was actually most of the way over toward E, and the previous two letters were T-H, so I'm going to go ahead and make it an E."

I know it'll rankle the manual-transmission crowd, but I've been using a FingerWorks keyboard for years, and most of the time, it's absolutely spooky how well the autocorrect works. (Just don't try high-intensity vi work.)

This already exists... it's called the MacNTouch, and is sadly no longer produced: http://www.fingerworks.com/MacNTouch_product.html

Anybody can build a touch screen that lets you poke at big static buttons, or lets you try to fatfinger a virtual keyboard. Only Apple has the FingerWorks patents to do high-quality, high-usability multitouch gestures.

Disclaimer: I've been using a FingerWorks TouchStream keyboard for more than five years, so I'm a big fan of the technology. I've also been a Mac user since 1985 or so. But when Apple bought FingerWorks, they completely shut down all sales and support, leaving the existing user base swinging in the breeze, so I'm a bit... conflicted.

In case you don't remember, the first multi-touch product was a keyboard. Apple bought FingerWorks and began incorporating its technology into their projects.

But as I wrote previously, the lack of tactile feedback is a deal-killer for anybody who types in their profession. It just makes typing too slow (55 wpm vs. 120 wpm).

Fortunately, the clever folks at FingerWorks (now Apple) have realized that, and they've been busily working on ways to reconfigure the tactile surface dynamically. I hope they work out -- it was very nice not having to move my hands to mouse.

What about http://www.fingerworks.com/?

..., and find some way or another to integrate a mouse into the keyboard without ruining the keyboard, which is a difficult but not impossible task.

err you mean like this? http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html

Nice but not as nice as the TouchStream ... at a glance the TouchStream has stronger macro/programmability capability, plus gestures and mousing. See the official page.

I don't get why people have trouble remembering actual breakthroughs until someone like Apple buys out the technology - multitouch has been out for YEARS on Windows, Mac OS X, and I believe Linux.

The REAL inventer of the technology is Fingerworks, who had a whole lineup of the products - everywhere from full keyboards (Touchstream SP/LP) down to "small" 8"x6" multitouch surfaces. They even had a replacement keyboard for iBooks that replaced the ENTIRE keyboard with a multitouch surface.

Their gestures are also much more advanced than what Apple is now offering, and it quite pisses me off that I can no longer buy the truly advanced hardware without shelling out $800 on eBay on a good day (The Touchstreams in good condition typically reach $1200).

Their website is now rather barebones since they were bought out a few years ago and it's since been revealed that it actually was Apple who bought them. You can see a full list of what gestures they were actually able to support at http://www.fingerworks.com/touchstream_gesture_guide.html - and that's not even the least of it - since the drivers were open, you could even make your own gestures!

You mean something like TouchStream from Finger Works? This is just a sample of the input commands for text editing.

Apple bought them and incorporated their tech into the iPhone, iTouch, & MacBook Air. I suspect 2 finger scrolling and right click on the Intel laptops also came out of this.

You can find iGestures on eBay, but they're fetching a pretty penny last time I checked. They even have a macro editor and such so you can assign any finger gesture to almost anything.

You mean something like TouchStream from Finger Works? This is just a sample of the input commands for text editing.

Apple bought them and incorporated their tech into the iPhone, iTouch, & MacBook Air. I suspect 2 finger scrolling and right click on the Intel laptops also came out of this.

You can find iGestures on eBay, but they're fetching a pretty penny last time I checked. They even have a macro editor and such so you can assign any finger gesture to almost anything.

You mean something like TouchStream from Finger Works? This is just a sample of the input commands for text editing.

Apple bought them and incorporated their tech into the iPhone, iTouch, & MacBook Air. I suspect 2 finger scrolling and right click on the Intel laptops also came out of this.

You can find iGestures on eBay, but they're fetching a pretty penny last time I checked. They even have a macro editor and such so you can assign any finger gesture to almost anything.

Fingerworks made one, it's called the iGesture NumPad and it's basically half a TouchStream:

http://www.fingerworks.com/igesture_numpad.html

Sadly as with the TouchStream the only way to get these now is second hand.

The TouchStream is both a mouse and keyboard in one. The keyboard splits in half to try to provide extra comfort. The keys are all flat, which can make them feel strange to type on. It retails on the internet for about $350.

Oh FFS.

I agree that Microsoft isn't innovative, but to hold up Apple as the innovative company is ridiculous.

They bought fingerworks to get the multitouch IP you mention, they bought SongJam and renamed it iTunes, etc etc.

Apple is just like MS - unable to innovate themselves, they buy smaller companies for their innovation.

Sorry to reply to myself but one big thing that I forgot - a better volume control

Some people complain it's too quiet... I complain that (in a quiet environment) it's too loud.

We could all be satisfied if the volume control used logarithmic scaling or something clever to allow me to turn the volume down as low as I want it (without it going to silence) and to allow the pro-deaf people to make it as loud as the hardware amp will allow.

For bonus points - add in an adjustable feature to compensate for changes to the ambient noise. Every time I walk in or out of a building, I have to manually adjust the volume, and considering that there's a mic built into the headphones, I don't see any reason why that couldn't be automated.

While I'm at it - a few more things...

• Exposé
• Spotlight
• Undo/redo
• Terminal.app
• SPAM filtering for Mail (just in case that wasn't implied by the more consistent handling of Mail synchronization)
• More gestures (what happened to all the cool things from FingerWorks?)
• All the obvious stuff people have already said (unlocking; GPS receiver; voice dialing; per-contact ringtones; an actual API for 3'rd party apps; and, of course, 3G)

I was not aware of that.

All I can find about it on Wikipedia is "2006", which could mean January, 2006, when nothing was known of the iPhone, or it could mean December, 2006, when I was seeing pretty detailed rumors about a touch phone that Apple was about to announce at MacWorld.

Of course I realize that.

Have you ever used any of them though?

The resistive touch panel PDA/phones I've tried just don't work all that well compared with the capacitive touch panel on the iPhone.

Then there's the gesture interface.

Just try the single-finger gestures on an iPhone (even the ones as simple as taps) and tell me that it's not dramatically better than an iPaq or a Treo.

Apple didn't think of either of those - they got them when they acquired FingerWorks (at least, that's the story as I understand it).

As far as I can tell after a little research, I shouldn't have brought up OpenMoko just because it lacks some version of that (maybe I'm wrong, but I certainly couldn't find any evidence that it's more than a standard single-finger resistive touch screen; by all means, please correct me if I'm wrong).

If you think that all the iPhone has going for it is looks, then I really wonder if you've ever actually tried one. The interface is incredible, and more intuitive than any other phone or smart-phone I've tried. For all the bitching I've heard about the keyboard, I've found it remarkably usable (then again, I may be biased because I've been using a TouchStream keyboard for years).

I certainly don't think that the iPhone is perfect (only 2.5G; no GPS; no voice dialing; crappy "Web 2.0" only 3'rd party software rather than an official SDK; various software issues like not having built in mail rules; goofy things like not being able to rotate between portrait and landscape when the keyboard is visible or in all applications; *cough* AT&T only *cough*).

Despite those shortcomings, it's not an exaggeration to say that the iPhone is easily the best smart-phone (or plain old mobile phone) I've ever used.

Beauty and industrial design is a plus, but the iPhone has so much more going for it than just that.

It seems to me that if either of us has been affected by this mythical "reality distortion field", it's you.

Maybe you need installable third party apps? Maybe you enjoy using an inferior interface? Maybe you'd rather trade usability for a few features that don't really matter much? Maybe it's kind of silly to ask leading questions to give people the impression that you think certain absurd things?

Who knows?

This isn't going to help much when Apple enters the Sex biz, but there's this $5 utility, Keyclick, that makes typing sounds when you type. I've never used it, but it's interesting.

There's also the Slow Keys setting in the Universal Access pref pane. I just turned it on now for the first time, and it's friggin' annoying. If you try this, be sure to set acceptance delay to short. Yeah, this is really annoying.

Yeah, typing that last paragraph pretty much sucked.

There was also a drop in keyboard replacement for the Ti books that was just like a touch sensitive pad. There was a keyboard printed on it I think. Oh, here it is. The TouchStream MacNTouch. Never used one, but it seems interesting because of some of the other input possibilities (chording, gestures, etc.).

Ah, well. You were making a joke and I got all esoteric on you. Sorry. =)

Other than killing a pretty cool product line, you mean?

Several years back, Apple bought up a company that made multitouch keyboards and pads and employed the two professors who made it. It's not just software, the hardware is fundamentally different than single touch.

http://www.fingerworks.com/

Look under news:
http://fingerfans.dreamhosters.com/forum/viewtopic .php?t=678

Front and side, concept multitouch iMac mockup.

Perceptive Pixel demo by Jeff Han, TED talk, research homepage. Fingerworks, purchased by Apple, 2005.

Besides, wouldn't Apple rather design a single-button keyboard?

Wow - that really sucks. Sorry to hear that.

Slightly OT but I used to have a FingerWorks MacNTouch (until I spilled water on my PowerBook and destroyed it). It took awhile to be able to touch type on it, but once I could, it was amazing.

FingerWorks went out of business a few years back, but the rumor is that the Apple bought them for their MultiTouch patents and integrated that technology into The iPhone.

If that's true, and if Apple would take a huge risk and make a notebook with an iPhone like surface in place of the keyboard (neither of which seems terribly likely), then you could have gestures for all of the international keys, and you could change the keyboard layout at will.

Something like that might go a long way toward helping with ergonomics and getting rid of stupid layout issues (in your case, you could just install a soft-fix and rearrange your keys to get a pipe).

Apple bought FingerWorks several years ago.

You may remember them for their Multi-Touch keyboard nearly 4 years ago. Apple first began incorporating the technology into their scrolling trackpads about 2 years ago. Now it has found its way into the iPhone.

That's a software problem-- so Apple (with the Fingerworks engineers) solved it. Your fingertip is larger than a single key, but the center of your fingertip can be calculated and can be matched to a single key. The problem is a lack of tactile feedback to correct our tendencies to drift, but it looks like they have keypress popups and spelling correction to compensate.

Take a look at the Fingertouch keyboards.. They've been around for several years, and stopped production when Apple bought the team/company/IP in 2005. Don't let the pictures fool you-- there are no "keys". It is a completely smooth surface, and all the buttons and gestures are fully re-programmable. All sensing is done in the keyboard and converted to keystrokes and mouse movements for the USB.

Granted, the linked keyboard is laptop sized, but the point is that they calculate the center of the touch.

That's a software problem-- so Apple (with the Fingerworks engineers) solved it. Your fingertip is larger than a single key, but the center of your fingertip can be calculated and can be matched to a single key. The problem is a lack of tactile feedback to correct our tendencies to drift, but it looks like they have keypress popups and spelling correction to compensate.

Take a look at the Fingertouch keyboards.. They've been around for several years, and stopped production when Apple bought the team/company/IP in 2005. Don't let the pictures fool you-- there are no "keys". It is a completely smooth surface, and all the buttons and gestures are fully re-programmable. All sensing is done in the keyboard and converted to keystrokes and mouse movements for the USB.

Granted, the linked keyboard is laptop sized, but the point is that they calculate the center of the touch.

Before they went tits up, FingerWorks made 2-D touchpads that did a pretty good job with gestures. I still lament the company's demise - and that of my Mac-n-Touch. Took a little while to get used to, but it was awesome and a great conversation starter.

I have two and I won't sell them for 10.000USD :) BTW: Their website is still up: http://www.fingerworks.com/ Rumors say they have been bought by apple and the fingerworks team developped the two finger scrolling on apple trackpads. See there: http://fingerfans.dreamhosters.com/

I have one of these. Sadly they're no longer in production since Apple bought them out.

Most people have horrible posture when typing, resting their arms on corners, extending their hands far out to the right (past the vestigal number pad) to mouse, keeping their head at an awkward angle that distorts their spine's natural curves..

First off, she should listen to her body. If something hurts, stop doing it. This is the fair warning that her body is giving her. She can take breaks-- walk once around the building, refill her water glass, stretch in place, shake her hands. Use a timer in Outlook that goes off every twenty minutes at first until the symptoms show continued improvement.

Second, she should avoid Repetive Motions as much as possible. Break the habit. Mix things up frequently.
* Switch mousing hands regularly.
* Always rest hands in the lap.
* Adjust or fix the lighting. (reduces muscle tension and eye strain)
* Adjust the monitor height.
* Switch out the effing keyboard for something without an attached number pad.
* Get a keyboard that is the right size for her body frame.
* Attach multiple mice to her system for instant switching.
* Get an adjustable keyboard tray.
* Learn and use keyboard shortcuts.
* Change positions several times a day.
* Get an adjustable monitor stand. (and replace the monster CRT with an LCD)
* Automate her crap work.

Touchpad mice let her use her thumb, pinky, palm, even her knuckles if her hand is being too sensitive. It's easy enough to attach both a touchpad and a normal (but ergonomic) mouse to the system so that she can switch between them according to the action/gesture and what her hand is feeling that moment.

I'm pissed that I missed the boat on the Touchstream keyboard/mice/touchpads, but the TypeMatrix keyboards are a great second-place winner. The keyboards come in a small and large size, with the small one suitable for most people. They also fit correct posture more naturally, by getting rid of the oh-so-stupid staggered key layout, and by separating the left and right sizes a little, and adding extra enter/backspace keys in the center for good measure.

I got one for someone at our work with chronic pain, and she had no problem adjusting to the new layout in hours. Her condition has improved a lot, and she credits the keyboard and better lighting. (I tried to get her to use a touchpad mouse, but it completely ignored her touch.)

At my desk, I have the TypeMatrix keyboard, a regular mouse for precision-work, and a Cirque touchpad for normal mousing. (The touchpad is 9 years old, and still works great.) I put a large box on the side table so that I can also stand and use my personal laptop for the 40% of my work that is internet crap and web-development. When I'm web browsing (er, researching), I can actually kick back in my chair, and do everything just with the touchpad. Change positions!

(I have considered the Kenesis split keyboard but it was too big and pricey for me at the time. I call it a fine third choice.)

You could also eliminate the moving parts on your keyboard if you can find a Touchstream LP. It has a flat surface that detects the presence of your fingers to determine which letter you're typing. And I guess you can also use hand gestures across the surface for various shortcuts. I looked into getting one a while back, but in the end it was a little too expensive for me.

not a major risk factor, sure. but, if you find that your hands hurt when you type, and they don't hurt when you stop, then that's certainly an indicator that typing is, if not the cause, then an aggravating (what's the word i'm thinking of?) factor. i had serious tendonitis, to the point of being in pain all the time. at one point, the tendon was so inflamed that my thumb would get stuck because the inflammation on the tendon would block the tendon's movement inside the sheath of cartilage.

anyway, here's the link to the mailing list for the voicecoder group: http://voicecode.iit.nrc.ca/VoiceCode/uploads/Voic eCoderFAQ.html

here is a page linking to movies of voice coding in action: http://www.voicerecognition.org/developers/jepstei n/JavabyVoice/

disclaimer: instead of voice, i use a keyboard alternative by the now-defunct Fingerworks: http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html

Their sensor technology and subsequent patents comes from Fingerworks. I'm typing this on one of their keyboards!

I couldn't agree more. I was even sad when they switched from the Natural to the Natural Elite (with the goofy-ass pageup/pagedn block turned 90 degrees). Still, I stocked up on the Elite, just like you.

Although they are now defunct, I also have a Dvorak TouchStream LP that I love dearly. It had a MONSTER learning curve to it, because of my poor typing habits. I "cheat" with my hand positioning and key travel, which the LP does NOT tolerate one bit.

Once I learned to be more accurate with my finger travel, the keyboard paid for itself in not having to move my hands off the keyboard to use the mouse. I also really love the shortcuts built into it.

It's just too bad they couldn't get the cost of manufacturing down, so they'd still be in business. Every new job I went to, lots of people wanted to try one but the cost of entry was too high (in their minds, not mine!).

    -- /v\atthew

It reminds me very much of Fingerworks technology with multi-touch technology with gestures of various sorts. More gestures here. On the surface, it looks like the exact same technology as the touchpads/keyboards but on the screen.

This company is now out of business (actually sold out VERY QUIETLY by Apple for the patents) and supposedly being used in the new iPod (I don't own one so I can't verify). It's really too bad, I always wanted their keyboard because it acts as a mouse too (on either side, plus has editable gestures plus a built in Emacs set plus a programming pad without moving your hand....)

Plus it has been suspected that Apple are using those patents now and applying for more patents for a Tablet that will have similiar capabilities.

Plus there's another company that has something for the music market that I find cool (but expensive).

It reminds me very much of Fingerworks technology with multi-touch technology with gestures of various sorts. More gestures here. On the surface, it looks like the exact same technology as the touchpads/keyboards but on the screen.

This company is now out of business (actually sold out VERY QUIETLY by Apple for the patents) and supposedly being used in the new iPod (I don't own one so I can't verify). It's really too bad, I always wanted their keyboard because it acts as a mouse too (on either side, plus has editable gestures plus a built in Emacs set plus a programming pad without moving your hand....)

Plus it has been suspected that Apple are using those patents now and applying for more patents for a Tablet that will have similiar capabilities.

Plus there's another company that has something for the music market that I find cool (but expensive).

It looks like a continuation of the technology employed by fingerworks which used some type of capacitance array to track points. It looks like they finally have it on a visual screen. Hopefully this will increase the addoption of gesture-based controls.

http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html

Just like these then.

I guess they figured that since Fingerworks, the manufacturers of the Touchstream keyboards, has gone out of business, they don't have to worry about being sued into the ground on the basis of prior art. The Touchstream keyboards were programmed to recognize a wide variety of gestures ranging from basic window control to application-specific actions.

I guess they figured that since Fingerworks, the manufacturers of the Touchstream keyboards, has gone out of business, they don't have to worry about being sued into the ground on the basis of prior art. The Touchstream keyboards were programmed to recognize a wide variety of gestures ranging from basic window control to application-specific actions.

yeah, but you had to use a pen there! http://www.fingerworks.com/ is probably more like what they were considering, except now there's a screen under it, so you pick up on the icon itself, instead of moving the pointer and then doing a pick up motion! *I haven't read the article*

Even though they have been bought out, this was the best lapboard ever made... who uses a mouse anymore?

http://fingerworks.com/

I personally hope that Appple is spending money researching inovative ways to replace the traditional keyboard and mouse with a better input device. For this reason, I hope that Apple bought FingerWorks. I really enjoy using the TouchStream. I am typing on it right now, and I first read about it here on Slashdot.

I think gestures are the next step in interface design. The fingerworks touchpads are a great example of this. After that I think we will move into volumetric interfaces where you can not just see something in 3D but reach into it and interact with it. Really what we need are better direct HMIs as in Ghost in the Shell. Until then we will be signifigantly limited in our ability to interact with our electronics.