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Great gadgets at CeBIT
janeko writes: "CeBIT is propably the largest techno/gadget exhibition in Europe. Every year there is great news of new gadgets and this year is no different. A company from Israel called VKB has created a vitual keyboard that can be displayed, using a laser, on almost any surface. Connect it to your PDA and use your kitchen table as a keyboard. Talking of surfaces, Olympia has created sound device called Soundbug that uses any hard surface as a speaker. Again, attach this to your PDA and kitchen table and enjoy your mp3's. News.com has more." Soundbug was also mentioned in this earlier story; what other gadgets from CeBIT are worth talking about this year?
Looks like this guys really has something againt his kitchen table... luckily there were no chainsaws on show!
Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
Nice looking tech and potentially very useful, if you need a keyboard only occaisonally.
Remember the keyboard on the Atari 400? Ugh..
"Avast! Prepare for the rodgering!" THWACK! "Arrr.. me nards.."
It's hard enough to find a decent keyboard with physical keys. I imagine that typing on your kitchen table (or wherever) is going to get painful pretty quickly. Perhaps the flexibility of the keyboard and the ability to get rid of physical effort might have a positive effect, but I'd be reluctant to use a "virtual keyboard" for a lengthy period without having the ergonomics properly checked out
It sounds like neat gadget, using IR to connect with your mobile phone for email/msg access, but the price makes no sense unless it actually comes with the phone itself.
Here are the specs from the Invair website:
Work for Change & GET PAID!
This laser keyboard thing is interesting, but take a look at virtual keyboard. Seems to me this one is a little more useful.
geek page at KY speaks
Virtual Keyboard by CmdrTaco with 248 comments on 05:27 PM -- Wednesday November 14 2001
Using Tables as Speakers by Hemos with 312 comments on 10:41 AM -- Thursday March 14 2002
at least products are making it to the trade shows.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The laser keyboard mentioned may be vaporware, but in the meantime Logitech had on show at CeBit a very cool little wraparound fabric keyboard that doubles (when not in use) as a case for a Palm PDA. It's water-resistant, has hot keys, and folds out to be about the size of a notebook QWERTY keyboard. I think it's retailing in the UK at about £100 ($140), which seems steep, but I'll find it very useful for use in libraries as it's totally quiet. On sale in the UK next month.
/ 4406
The company's press release is here (has pix):
http://www.logitech.com/cf/newsarticle.cfm
If you are a real mobile phone freak like me, you ought to be interested in the new Nokia 7650 mobile phone. It has a color display, digital camera (640x480), bluetooth, does MMS, has MIDP JAVA support and uses the Symbian OS.
:-)).
Look at the live CeBIT web-thing demonstration the MMS feature here (it has girlie pictures
sigfault. comment dumped.
Ok , besides the fact that it is the biggest IT fair in the world, not Europe as stated, Cebit this year was pretty boring.
.NET and their Web Services on .NET framework. I am really no Microsoft fan, but others still have a long way to develop such tehnologies.
I don't think we need gadgets now, but software and applications for this gadgets. From this point of view it was really dissapointing.
And I am sorry to say but what really impressed me was Visual Studio
See this is what I am talking about! I had way too many expectations for the year 2k and for the first time it seems that we are getting some of that Jetsons stuff that I thought we would have by now. This keyboard seems to be a glimpse of the future that I thought was fast acoming in the 80's. I am very impressed with this and just can't wait until the flying car comes into my local car dealer, plus the robot maid that does all my work around the house for me.
I've heard about this new fangled 'laser' nonesense. It's all a bunch of hulabaloo as far as I'm concerned. Why, in my day, we changed our own dang channels and we liked it! These youngsters have no work ethic. Typing on the kitchen table? It's blasphemous I say! Get your minds out of the gutter!
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
I wonder if they have a virtual mouse to go with the virtual keybord.
http://www.b.150m.com/
Yes. It is not only the biggest in Europe, but the biggest in the world, even including the North American Continent.
Some facts:
2.041.550 m show area
~ 8.100 exhibitors (3.000 intternational ones)
800.000 visitors
Moritz
What I want to know is when will the Zaurus be shipping? I know you can pre order it on Amazon but I haven't seen anything about an official release date.
I am excited about the new wireless monitors. I was seriously concidering the PaceBlade, a laptop with a wireless monitor! But felt it almost what I wanted, just not quite. For instance, no mention of whether or not I can use the monitor with a standard computer or if it takes analog signals for watching TV. I'll wait for that perfect combination.... hopefully not too long! I'm salivating.
[news for me, stuff that doesn't matter]
The picture of the guy typing while driving?
Virtual or not that scares the crap outa me.
My $0.02 will always be worth more than your â0.02, so
That is not the official CEBIT website. Moderators, fulfill your duty. The real thing is http://www.cebit.de/.
ok, so how does this virtual keyboard work? How does it know what keys you're pressing?
Look at the laser-keyboard website...
the main graphic eventually flashes to a dude trying to type on his dashboard...
while he's driving right down the CENTER double yellow lines.
Who are the ad wizards who came up with that marketing idea, and how long do we have to wait to get rear ended by some dude using his dash as a keyboard???
So what would happen if you attached the soundbug to someomnes cranium instead of a desk? Would this cause the persons skull to resonate due to the extreme forces? Ouch
I have heard of these things [over fifteen] years ago ... Why do you always try to sell the same old stuff as "news"?
Because only now have the prices come down (Moore's Law and all) to make the technology viable in the market.
In VA453 (The Entrepreneur) at Rose-Hulman, I learned that creation of a new machine or process is invention; turning it into a product and introducing it to the market is innovation. (Note how the dictionaries define "innovation" in terms of "introduction.")
Will I retire or break 10K?
If you press a 'button' that's in the shadow of one of the other fingers, the keystroke would not be seen.
It's Micros~1 format Windows media but it works okay.
Enjoy!
I found this story in a norwegian newspaper this morning. I've not seen it mentioned on any english pages yet though. The Company webpages are still rather non-functional, but I guess some info should appear there soon. :)
- the Crazy Fraggle
Another Symbian OS phone with GPRS, MMS, Java MIDP, and a digital camera - but this one is tri-band so works in the US!
Page with 3D animation
News story with details and lots of pictures (on subsequent pages)
..flicker at a frequency seemingly tuned to create horrible headaches. If this thing is real you couldn't use it for more than a few minutes, before having an epileptic fit. Increasing the refresh is not a simple thing, needing more than one laser/mirror combo. It's the mirror that draws the image, the laser remains still in most designs. Unless MEMS tech has vastly improved since last night, this seems to be an investor black hole.
Is it just me or is the guy using the keyboard on the car dashboard driving in the middle of the road, right over double yellow lines?
The message there is pretty clear... :-)
Now I've seen it all!
Appended to the end of comments I post? 120 chars?!
One word: splinters.
From memory, they said around May-June.
First in Germany and the UK.
It really looks like a gread PDA. Nice screen and GUI.
I have a hard enough time finding keyboards that I like and trying to type on a table top sounds like a bad idea. I'm pretty picky about key travel (the distance that a key moves when pressed). I really like the small key travel of laptops and I searched around for weeks before finding a desktop keyboard that had an acceptable key travel. Even if you're not anal about key travel like I am, it's nice to have some sense that your keys are in the right place by having something move. I imagine it would be pretty easy to get lost trying to type on a table with no feedback from the table.
Sharp's Linux PDA 'Zaurus' looked really nice.
Fujitsu-Siemens showed a 400 MHz PDA (PocketLoox) based on Intels X-scale, sucessor to the StrongARM.
Lots of PDA:s everywhere. I think the telephone - PDA combination will be popular, every PDA seems to have a phone-addon.
BFS (Bruised Finger Syndrome) has virtually replaced Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as millions of brain-dead gadget freaks pound on thier new virtual keyboards.
-BBB
see the Story at Heise.de.
The guys from www.yopi.at claim, that they already ship this neat little thing since February.
Bye egghat.
-- "As a human being I claim the right to be widely inconsistent", John Peel
I wonder what happens if you attach the sound bug to your forehead?
I wonder if you can shine it onto the floor and jump from key to key so you can get some exercize while emailing?
Bob.
"Cookies Required
"As part of offering and providing personalized information, Logitech uses cookies to store your Country and Language preferences. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. This allows us to provide you with Logitech product and company information relevant to your preferences. In order to use the features of the Logitech site, you must configure your browser to accept cookies and have javascript enabled."
Right, Logitech is willing to bet that I read English - witness the message - but won't say more to me in English unless I let them use my machine to help track me. Too bad. Next time I need a mouse I'll have to find a new brand.
___
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
Developers really do need to consider the security implications of their products, especially when making our kitchen furniture smart.
might be nice for a palm or cellphone, but we need something more like a paperthin speak and spell keyboard...
I'll project it over an original IBM PC keyboard missing it's cord so I can get a nice 'Clakity-Clack" feel for my Palm 105
I have a keyboard for my Palm Vx and I am very happy with it. One drawback: you can't use it with a modem since the both require the same slot. I'm wondering if the VKB would be possible to use with a modem so we can chat live instead of use grafitti. It doesn't look like it would be comfortable, but it'd be an alternative.
The geekygirl from Texas
Hercules was showing a new monitor: the 920, looks like the 720, but 17". They said it would retain for about 1000 Euro.
They're really nicely designed these monitors with a blue metallic metal frame, thin, and with a nice metal foot.
I just read a post here written by someone at SCEA confirming that CeBIT required all PlayStations to be removed from the show floor - even though they were not showing any games. (You can't play games at CeBIT, which I understand and agree with - but the Linux kit isn't a video game.) She even mentions that the signs with the apology could not mention the name PlayStation - they had to refer to it as "our computer system".
This was a gadget I was wanting to hear about from CeBIT, too bad I won't be able to.
CeBIT sucked bigtime..; I can't believe I wasted my time there... Why did it suck? cos it was waaaaay too bussiness and completely non-tech.
And you know what really topped it off for me? Me and my friends couldn find a place to rest. First we squatted down at some German Bank or something, and the guy chased us away 'dis is keine shitzplatse' or something, and then when we found some empty seats some lady came up and said "this is an area that is preserved for bussinesmen". I mean c'mon... wtf do bussiness ppl care about all those nifty gadgets eh? well zark cebit, and zark bussinesppl
"The majority is always sane, Louis." -- Nessus
http://slashdot.jp
Microsoft = Party Poopers
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-861947.html
Talking about laser keyboard, here's a keyboard called KeyCase from Eleksen. :)
It's a roll-up keyboard based on ElekTex, an "intelligent fabric" developed by the same company. At lease you can use it to roll up your PDA in.
After the last slashdot article, I emailed Olympia and proceeded to order 2 soundbugs off Yahoo. I should have them by the end of the week. Oddly, I'm excited. But I'll write a review and send it in if anyone wants to know. (And I guarantee I'm sending them back if they dont work, or I'll make modifications.. yes.. sonic weapon.. yes .. stun my friends.. yes.. excellent.)
This seemed interesting to me:
The Casio Exilim EX-S1
It won't fit into my wallet yet because it's 11.3mm thick, but the small size is intriguing to me. This is a gadget which I would carry around in my daypack regularly, something I don't do with my SLR or my digicam because they're too bulky and heavy.
The downsides (for me):
1. The price would have to come down quite a bit (an article in c't magazine mentions a price "under 500 EUR"), but even 400 EUR is a little much for my taste.
2. SD cards: thanks, but no thanks. Don't know about MMC, is this any good?
"There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton
The laser thingy doesnt really impress me. I want to see something like they had in final fantasy the movie.
Think about it, wearing a lcd display over one eye, and the real worl info being piped to that display could be augmented by a computer. (see previous article Augmented reality).
Instead of removing adds, why not make it display a virtual keyboard, and have some AI check wether the fingers pressed a virtual key?
This
> We used to lovingly call it the "hammerboard" because it would take a hammer on the buttons to register keystrokes. :)
We used to refer to it lovingly as "case decoration" since that seemed to be its only use.
Virg
I can't say I agree that all touch typists would miss the tactile feedback. That said, I personally would miss it, but I thought of a very good use. When possible, I could project the virtual keyboard on a real keyboard. The value is that I wouldn't need to connect the real keyboard so I can park it anywhere on the desk (without worrying about wireless keyboard communication, which causes audible interference in my sound recording gear or requires a line-of-sight to the sensor for IR), and I could use the projector without it when I'm away from the desk.
Virg
When I read about the user inferface I thought it was a joke.
Really cool stuff!
Ciryon
Here's a collection of neat CeBIT gadgets from the c't newsticker. All articles are in German, but there are pictures and links to the manufacturer's webpages:
... and lots of other cool stuff, like the new nForce 615-D and 620-D chipsets, IP (as in address) enabled cars, server blades,
"There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton
fucking turks don't belong in germany
damn cool; now with high-end x86 processors and better graphics:
5 /c ebit-08.html
Defietly the one thing I could see wanting; not a G4 cube, but a lot cheaper and more powerful.
http://www.tomshardware.com/business/02q1/02031
You're trying to compare this idea to the keyboard you would use on a laptop or desktop computer. I think that's not really a great comparison.
Instead, try comparing the idea of typing a quick 2 paragraph email with a "virtual keyboard" to the idea of laboriously pecking out a one sentence email on the numeric keypad on your cell phone.
Now is it a little more desirable? I thought so.
Tom's hardware story
is a gadget that can use any surface to display spam and online porn. For example:
From: Sasha234x3qu8r@yahoo.com
To: jb234923j492j34
Subject: saw your recent posting
Click Here to see Debbie Diamond, live in 3-D, on the kitchen counter next to the dish drainer!
...with more than 800 'open' access points. Happy warwalking...
would be taking out large plate glass windows. Resonant frequency, anyone?
The
Check out the eightythree - it's in the brochure PDF at http://www.tiqit.com .
It's a handheld-sized full PC; with 640x480 touchscreen, SMS-style keyboard and mini "nipple" mouse. 10 gig hard drive, all the ports you could want, the list goes on and on!
Damn, I'd love one of these.