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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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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???
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?
Yeah, but that was only because it would hardly register your fingers unless you pressed hard. I think it could work if it accepted light touches..
..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... :-)
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.
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.
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 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.
> 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
MPlayer plays this file just fine under Linux.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
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.
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
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.
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!