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."

Comments

I don't want a new keyboard!

[dildatron]

All I want is one key.

great product

[kLaNk]

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.

Re:great product

[jtdubs]

Now, I'm just talking here, but...

Why do you need the keyboard fixed in place on this thing? Why do you need keys with boundaries?

It seems as though this thing could just make the keyboard be wherever the hands feel like being. Wherever you put your hands on the pad, that's where the keyboard is.

If you have the hands resting in the touch-type position, regardless of position on the pad, and the left index-finger is depressed, type an 'F'.

If an area is tapped that is just a bit above and to the left of the left middle finger, type an 'E'.

Just put your hands down and do the motion of typing, no need to line anything up.

Or, is this how it already works? Or, is this a bad idea and I'm just a fool?

Justin Dubs

Re:great product

[naasking]

One of the best thigns about this keyboard [...] Remeber the article just recentally here about mouse [...] 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.

Hmmm... yes, I see the problem...

Laugh people, it's a joke. :-)

Continued journalism

[Fjord]

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.

other useful gestures...

[gosand]

To open a file, you rotate your hand as if opening a jar; to zoom or de-zoom, you expand or contract your hand.

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

I have one of these.

[pjcreath]

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.

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 /.ed.

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.