Slashdot Mirror
Multi-Touch Keyboard Technology
PhoenxHwk writes "University of Delaware's webpage is running a story on the new Multi-Touch Keyboard by Fingerworks. This was on Slashdot once before, but the product is no longer vapor! Fingerworks's products are gesture-based keyboard-and-mouse "surfaces" that require zero force to work with - they are hailed as a product to both combat RSI and make working more efficient."
It senses capacitance from the fingers getting infinitely close to the surface.
Well, *that* didn't take long to Slashdot.
Still, here's a little snippet from the page I was reading before it died:
The iGesture Pad gives you unprecedented control of graphical objects using gestures while providing you with the same functionality of the mouse. The iGesture Pad is thin enough to pack along with your notebook computer and it is a perfect mouse or track ball replacement for your desktop system. It works equally well with either hand.
They way they show this thing being used, you spend as much time making sign-language-like gestures to perform computer commands as you do pointing and dragging your finger around.
On one hand, I think this would be a cool idea, but on the other I wonder how much more or less stress having to effectively communicate in a sign language would be than using a mouse to accomplish the same tasks.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
'Elias said people often think that speech recognition systems will become the ultimate user interface. "Voice commands are good for many things but terrible for other things," Elias said, adding he believes there are inherent problems with a speech-only interface.
"If you want to test this claim, you can do so with a perfect speech recognition system-another human being," Elias said. "Put somebody in front of your computer and try to do your work by issuing voice commands to him. You'll quickly find that many common tasks are difficult to do using speech, even though your 'computer interface' understands you perfectly."'
It's there a flaw in the argument here?
This is trying to use a UI designed to use a keyboard and a mouse by using speech instead. Wouldn't a system that was intended to use speech recognition be designed around that idea? I'd think that would cause it to have a completly different interface.
What he describes is like trying to navigate a mouse driven interface with a keyboard when it hasn't been designed to use a keyboard at all. Or maybe a better example, it's like trying to type a letter using your mouse to click on a onscreen keyboard. It's just not how the UI was designed to be driven.
--Ty
Heh... don't use it as a password though, it'll be a "weak" one!
Seriously, at least when I type my password, other people have a hard time seeing what I type. If I sit there gesturing at the computer though...
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
To split this hair properly: the device is zero force as in "zero _additional_ force". I.e. other than the force needed to move your finger by itself, through whatever medium you happen to be in (had better be air, though ;-), the device needs no additional force. Or one that is so incredibly small you'ld never be able to measure it.
Strictly speaking, even a capacitive sensor would need *some* force, because entering the finger into the electric field must change its configuration to be detectable, and thus require some force, either on the way in or out. But if that force is two orders of magnitude smaller than that needed to overcome biological friction of your finger joints, that's "zero" for all practical means and purposes.
Would you prefer all innovations are geared for the lowest common denominator?
I want an interface that is designed to be the most efficient/powerful for use, with all of my relevant senses taken into consideration.
If someone else needs an interface with the restriction that the sense of sight cannot be a factor, then make one for him/her that is the most efficient/powerful with those restrictions accounted for.
I don't think the two will be the same, and I don't see why one should suffer with a lesser interface based on limitations he/she doesn't have.
Casca
If you work against a mechanical resistance, one of the two muscles actually has to do less work because the necessary opposition is alredy being supplied by the mechanism. Mechanical resistance also provides tactile feedback.
If there is no resistance, you have to provide it yourself. And if you tap away on a hard surface, it's even worse: the force gets delivered all in one strike, as opposed to gradually, as it is with well-designed keyboard. Touch pads, for all their sleek design, are probably the worst among the common mouse replacements.
For all these reasons, keyboard, pianos, buttons, and other devices have a certain degree of resistance deliberately designed into them. I suspect that a zero-force input device will not help with RSI and may actually aggravate it. But whatever effect it may have for RSI, I doubt a zero-force input device is going to be comfortable and efficient.
How do you come to that conclution? Typing your password on a keyboard is a gesture. An obvious one at that.
If you can type fast, they you can gesture fast to. With a keyboard there is also a limited number of 'gestures' that one could perform.
Do you also suggest that we make all keyboards work for people who've had both hands amputated? Designing for the lowest common denominator is silly - someone with disabilities can use another method, but the rest of us should be free to use this one.
That zero-force prevents RSI. There is also no evidence that large-force is a cause of RSI.