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."
All I want is one key.
If you had nuts on your chin, would they be chin nuts?
I have had one of these for several months now, it is really nice.
The biggest problem that I have faced with it is getting used to typing with no force feedback (since there are no moving parts). Furthermore, it is hard to keep your fingers in the correct locations, since, with the exception of two little raised dots, there are no physical boundries between the keys.
One of the best thigns about this keyboard though is how the entire touchpad of the keyboard can be used as a mouse. Remeber the article just recentally here about mouse gestures? Just imagine really using gesture with your hands, it is awesome.
Again, there is a tough learning curve, but then once you get past it, it is an awesome product, well worth the money.
Enjoy. Sept. 27, 2002--University of Delaware researchers have developed a revolutionary computer interface technology that promises to put the bite on the
traditional mouse and mechanical keyboard. 3We have developed a technology that goes well beyond the mouse and mechanical keyboard,2 John Elias, UD
professor of electrical and computer engineering, said. Elias and Wayne Westerman, UD visiting assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering,
have been working on the new interface for about five years and are now marketing their iGesture product through a company called FingerWorks. In a
surprise move, the two scientists began shoving the new keyboard up each others' asses simulatneously, while using the new keyboard technology to stimulate
the colon and the G spot, respectively. The project started as a doctoral thesis by Westerman, who was then a UD graduate student working with Elias. The
FingerWorks name fits because the technology uses a touch pad and a range of finger motions to communicate commands and keys to the computer. To
open a file, you rotate your hand as if opening a jar; to zoom or de-zoom, you expand or contract your hand. Elias said the communication power of their
system is 3thousands of times greater2 than that of a mouse, which uses just a single moving point as the main input. Using this new technology, two human
hands provide 10 points of contact, with a wide range of motion for each, thus providing thousands of different patterns, each of which can mean something
different to the computer. While much about the computer has changed over the last three decades-greater power, faster speeds, more memory-what has not
changed is the user interface. 3For what it was invented for, the mouse does a good job,2 Elias said. 3People accept the mouse and the mechanical keyboard
because that1s the way it is. But there are limitations in terms of information flow. There is so much power in the computer, and so much power in the human,
but the present situation results in a communications bottleneck between the two.2 Elias and Westerman have a better idea. 3I believe we are on the verge of
changing the way people interact with computers,2 Elias said. 3Imagine trying to communicate with another human being using just a mouse and a keyboard.
It works, but it is slow and tedious. 3This is not just a little step in improving the mouse, this is the first step in a new way of communicating with the
computer through gestures and the movements of your hands. This is, after all, one of the ways humans interact.2 Elias said he could envision in the next 10
years 3a very complex gestural language between man and machine.2 The system is a multi-touch, zero force technology, Elias said, meaning the gestures and
movements use all the fingers in a light and subtle manner. Because of that, the system has a second major advantage over the mouse and mechanical
keyboard because it can greatly reduce stress injuries such as tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome attributed to traditional computer work. The company
markets both stand-alone touch pads and touch pads built into nonmechanical keyboards. In the keyboards, the keys overlap the touch pad so the operator
does not have to move his hands when switching between typing and using the mouse. Rather, everything can be done in a smoother flow of hand motions.
Elias explained the touch pad acts like a video camera, recording the objects touching its surface. An embedded microprocessor then applies an algorithmic
process to convert those touches into commands understood by the computer. 3To observers watching somebody use multi-touch, it looks a little like magic,2
Elias said, illustrating his point on a computer in Evans Hall. 3People see lots of things happening on the computer screen but very little hand motion is
observed.2 He said the system has been designed so the gestures used make sense for the operation being performed. For instance, you cut text with a pinch
and paste it with a flick. Eventually, he said, the computer password could be a gesture known only to the user. Elias said people often think that speech
recognition systems will become the ultimate user interface. 3Voice commands are good for many things but terrible for other things,2 Elias said, adding he
believes there are inherent problems with a speech-only interface. 3If you want to test this claim, you can do so with a perfect speech recognition
system-another human being,2 Elias said. 3Put somebody in front of your computer and try to do your work by issuing voice commands to him. You1ll
quickly find that many common tasks are difficult to do using speech, even though your OEcomputer interface1 understands you perfectly.2 Using hand and
finger motion to input commands is, for many tasks, much more effective than trying to explain what you want to do in words, he said. The system is being
used at several work stations in Evans Hall and the reaction is largely favorable. It is something of a challenge for some workers, Elias said, because it is like
learning a new language. Susan Foster, UD vice president of information technologies, said she is impressed with the interface and plans to adopt it for use at
several computer sites around campus. 3The device is the result of new thinking about the OEbandwidth1 that constrains the physical interaction between
operator and computer,2 Foster said. 3It capitalizes on human gestures, which are easy to understand and execute. Once learned, like other motor skills, they
are readily retained. The assistive qualities of the device also make it quite useful for those with limitations on upper extremity use.2 The plug-and-play device,
which requires no special software, should be of particular interest to programmers, graphic designers and editors, Foster said, and she is recommending they
consider making use of a new technology that was 3born and bred at UD and under continuing development here.2 The University of Delaware is an equity
partner in FingerWorks. For more on FingerWorks, see the web site at [www.fingerworks.com]. Photos by Eric Crossan
It senses capacitance from the fingers getting infinitely close to the surface.
I'm glad to see they are continuing their policies on advertisements here on /.
You would think a slashvertiser would strengthen their site before getting a link to their front page put up, though.
-no broken link
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
UD researchers develop revolutionary computer interface technology
Sept. 27, 2002--University of Delaware researchers have developed a revolutionary computer interface technology that promises to put the bite on the traditional mouse and mechanical keyboard.
"We have developed a technology that goes well beyond the mouse and mechanical keyboard," John Elias, UD professor of electrical and computer engineering, said.
Elias and Wayne Westerman, UD visiting assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, have been working on the new interface for about five years and are now marketing their iGesture product through a company called FingerWorks.
The project started as a doctoral thesis by Westerman, who was then a UD graduate student working with Elias.
The FingerWorks name fits because the technology uses a touch pad and a range of finger motions to communicate commands and keys to the computer. To open a file, you rotate your hand as if opening a jar; to zoom or de-zoom, you expand or contract your hand.
Elias said the communication power of their system is "thousands of times greater" than that of a mouse, which uses just a single moving point as the main input. Using this new technology, two human hands provide 10 points of contact, with a wide range of motion for each, thus providing thousands of different patterns, each of which can mean something different to the computer.
While much about the computer has changed over the last three decades-greater power, faster speeds, more memory-what has not changed is the user interface.
"For what it was invented for, the mouse does a good job," Elias said. "People accept the mouse and the mechanical keyboard because that's the way it is. But there are limitations in terms of information flow. There is so much power in the computer, and so much power in the human, but the present situation results in a communications bottleneck between the two."
Elias and Westerman have a better idea. "I believe we are on the verge of changing the way people interact with computers," Elias said. "Imagine trying to communicate with another human being using just a mouse and a keyboard. It works, but it is slow and tedious.
"This is not just a little step in improving the mouse, this is the first step in a new way of communicating with the computer through gestures and the movements of your hands. This is, after all, one of the ways humans interact."
Elias said he could envision in the next 10 years "a very complex gestural language between man and machine."
The system is a multi-touch, zero force technology, Elias said, meaning the gestures and movements use all the fingers in a light and subtle manner.
Because of that, the system has a second major advantage over the mouse and mechanical keyboard because it can greatly reduce stress injuries such as tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome attributed to traditional computer work.
The company markets both stand-alone touch pads and touch pads built into
nonmechanical keyboards. In the keyboards, the keys overlap the touch pad so the operator does not have to move his hands when switching between typing and using the mouse. Rather, everything can be done in a smoother flow of hand motions.
Elias explained the touch pad acts like a video camera, recording the objects touching its surface. An embedded microprocessor then applies an algorithmic process to convert those touches into commands understood by the computer.
"To observers watching somebody use multi-touch, it looks a little like magic,"
Elias said, illustrating his point on a computer in Evans Hall. "People see lots of things happening on the computer screen but very little hand motion is observed."
He said the system has been designed so the gestures used make sense for the operation being performed. For instance, you cut text with a pinch and paste it with a flick.
Eventually, he said, the computer password could be a gesture known only to the user.
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."
Using hand and finger motion to input commands is, for many tasks, much more effective than trying to explain what you want to do in words, he said.
The system is being used at several work stations in Evans Hall and the reaction is largely favorable. It is something of a challenge for some workers, Elias said, because it is like learning a new language.
Susan Foster, UD vice president of information technologies, said she is impressed with the interface and plans to adopt it for use at several computer sites around campus.
"The device is the result of new thinking about the 'bandwidth' that constrains the physical interaction between operator and computer," Foster said. "It capitalizes on human gestures, which are easy to understand and execute. Once learned, like other motor skills, they are readily retained. The assistive qualities of the device also make it quite useful for those with limitations on upper extremity use."
The plug-and-play device, which requires no special software, should be of particular interest to programmers, graphic designers and editors, Foster said, and she is recommending they consider making use of a new technology that was "born and bred at UD and under continuing development here."
The University of Delaware is an equity partner in FingerWorks.
For more on FingerWorks, see the web site at [www.fingerworks.com].
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Finally, my favorite one-fingered gesture can be used to choose windows from my GRUB menu.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
This would be great for browsers...
making a fist and moving the hand in an up-and-down motion will go to www.persiankitty.com
extending only the middle finger on the left hand will go to www.riaa.com
extending only the middle finger on the right hand will go to www.mpaa.com
extending both middle fingers will send you to www.microsoft.com
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Maybe instead of zero force, they USE the Force. They've got thousands of Midocholorians trapped in the pad...
*waves hand* You will open Mozilla to Slashdot...
Nifty idea, but I can't seem to find a price for it.. might just be the /. effect, but all the google cache pages I've found just say "price $" without an amount.
Anyone know the price of these things?
"This is not just a little step in improving the mouse, this is the first step in a new way of communicating with the computer through gestures and the movements of your hands. This is, after all, one of the ways humans interact."
This thing is going to be *HUGE* in Italy.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
The system is intended to replace the keyboard AND the mouse. I like the sound of that part. If you try to use a mouse, you waste a lot of typing time moving back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse. This would really help out there. Of course, keyboard shortcuts accomplish the same thing. They say:
That all sounds a lot like emacs and its key-chords.They say that it will reduce repetitive stress problems, but I wonder. Is tapping your fingers on a pad, or twisting your wrist, really that different than typing? If you have to do the same operations over and over, aren't you going to eventually get stressed?
See what I've been reading.
I can see the porn industry jumping to adopt THIS technology!
Is it just me or does this seem kind of like the interface for the pre-crime computer in Minority Report, only without those half glove thingies.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
University of Delaware's webpage
/. I wish you could also promote my other primary information source,
I'm glad to see this wonderful source of information being featured on
Bakersfield Community College Gazette.
Best Windows Freeware
I like my interfaces old-school. Dials and knobs, please.
Wah!
I have their Stealth programmer's QWERTY keyboard. It's nice. I got it when my mousing hand was starting get some lovely RSI symptoms.
/.ed.
The gestures make web browsing very pleasant. The gestures they picked for common operations are quite intuitive, and you end up not even having to think about how you're gesturing. It's quite similar to the lack of thought required to hit your favorite hotkey sequence, but it feels a little more natural.
It's also quite nice not having to move my hands at all to switch from typing to mousing. Even without gestures, this features is very helpful, especially if you type with your keyboard on your lap.
But now to the bad part (and the reason why the gestures are essential): it's all a flat surface. There's almost no tactile feedback. There are little bumps on the home row so you can find your place, but that's it. It's extraordinarily easy to get disoriented if you don't watch your hands.
As far as the folks at FingerWorks are aware, people have only gotten up to 60-70 wpm on their keyboards. (Last I checked I had gotten up to 55.) I cruise at 120 on a mechanical keyboard, so for intense typing, I still fall back to my standard keyboard. But for most of the non-coding time in front of the computer, the Stealth is great.
To give you an idea of some of the gestures (and how on earth this thing works):
- A single finger tap is a keypress
- Two adjacent fingers down + dragging moves the mouse
- Two adjacent fingers tapping is a mouse click
- All five fingers down simultaneously is rest position -- this is how you can reorient your hands on home row without typing gobbledygook
Those are the biggies. You can read the full list of their gestures on their web site. I'd link to it, but it appears to be
I do have to say that the folks at FingerWorks are incredibly responsive. I complained that their sensitivity to double-keys was too low (it regularly ignored my second "f" on something like "off"), they sent me a firmware update within a day which fixed it.
So they're definitely tweaking things and very helpful.
Oh, and did I mention that it supports Linux, Mac OS, and Windows? And it has gestures for emacs actions and other common Linux activities.
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.
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.
I think it's an electrical charge over a certain amount of area. If I touch mine with a metal object that's sharp. It doesn't do much. But if I use something more blunt, it can get it to work.
After a long conversation with my father, I've come to the realization that Repetitive Stress Syndrom (Carpel Tunnel Syndrom is sorta a misnomer) isn't exactly what I thought it was. After understanding it a little better and sharing thoughts with my father, I'm not so sure that Elias' FingerWorks would really reduce RPS. While the stress is a change from the standard mouse/keyboard issue, you're still going to be repeating movements over and over again. It would be expected that such RPS would still result.
IN theory, there's very little research behind all these funky shaped mice these days. It's more of a marketing scheme than anything else. Yes, it might be more comfortable, but it really doesn't help the issue all that terribly much. The split keyboards, however, do help quite a bit. But imagine trying to use those damn things.
Eventually, he said, the computer password could be a gesture known only to the user.
I'm a classical pianist, and if I could make my password the first four bars of Rhapsody in Blue, I would feel pretty secure with my computer.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
FYI:
Early touchpad technologies were capacitive. Some laptops used to have capacitive touchpads on them, which made them crap for police use in places where you actually get a winter and might be wearing gloves. So they developed some sort of resistive keypad which, althought probably not zero force, is close enough to it and you can use it with gloves on.
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
The other question one might ask is how much manual dexterity do I need to be able to make the alleged thousands of gestures without them being confusing. On the keyboard, I have some force feedback and I'm pretty good with the backspace key. With zero resistance and an ability to accidentally do mouse-gestures with my keyboarding hands, I can see some accuracy issues.
Frankly, I work often 12 hours a day at a keyboard, and I use a mouse. Since I shifted to a high res optical mouse (small movements required) and since I use all the buttons but don't have a death grip and since I use an old MS-Pro ergo keyboard with a raised bottom end (unlike most keyboards), I've had little or no pain in elbows, wrists, or tendons... unlike the bad old days on the QWERTY/top-elevated keyboards and roll-around mice.
When this new technology matures, and if I feel like re-training, it might be interesting, but I can already do a lot with what I have with little discomfort.
But we should be making it available to kids/etc coming up... they don't have a retraining issue and if it avoids some people headed down the nasty RSI path... that's good.
Minor plug: Living with RSI
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."