Microsoft Hardware Demos Pressure-Sensitive Keyboard

Krystalo writes to tell us that Microsoft hardware has an interesting demo of a pressure-sensitive keyboard they have designed. While there are no currently announced plans to turn this into a shipping product, there are many cool uses that one could imagine a device like this providing. "The device will be put to use in the first annual Student Innovation Contest in Victoria, Canada, where contestants will be supplied with a keyboard prototype and challenged with developing new interactions for it. Contestants will demo their creations and attendees will vote for their favorite at the conference on October 5. $2,000 prizes will be given to the authors of programs deemed as the most useful, the best implementation, and the most innovative."

Comments

Another stroke of genious from MS

[Froze]

A keyboard that can actually detect when someone presses on a key! Will wonders never cease.

Re:Another stroke of genious from MS

[NotQuiteReal]

No, it is PRESSURE SENSITIVE. It will upcase letters when you press THEM HARD.

Re:Another stroke of genious from MS

[Tim4444]

aha! finally a keyboard that can make everything uppercase when i'm shouting at you!! i mean SHOUTING AT YOU!!!!

Re:Another stroke of genious from MS

[Anachragnome]

Parent was the fastest "+4 Funny" to "-0 Troll" to "fucking gone" post moderation I've ever seen on /.

What a waste of mod points.

Re:Another stroke of genious from MS

[marciot]

I nEEd to leArN to TyPE wiTH moRe coNSistENT preSsurE.

Re:Another stroke of genious from MS

[youn]

Of course, it's sensitive to pressure... it gets pressured when you push its buttons... and then it starts shouting :)

Just use it like a game controller.

[ausekilis]

light pressure for lower case 'a', harder pressure for upper case 'A', and abrupt spikes in pressure for expletives "#$@^%^!".

Dammed!

[OrangeMonkey11]

Now keyboards can report abuse when I beat the shit out of it when I get pissed off

Re:Dammed!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but the psychiatrist version of Clippy will appear to help you finish writing you letter responsibly.

Re:Dammed!

[steelfood]

Apple has a patent on that.

What could go wrong

[basementman]

Rubber dome keys, keys do different things based on different pressures, extra useless features, won't be hard to type on at all.

Re:What could go wrong

[dr_wheel]

Rubber dome keys, keys do different things based on different pressures, extra useless features, won't be hard to type on at all.

i"M nOT sUrE WHat yoU'Re tRyInG tO sAY> CoulD yOu BE MOre SPecIFiC?

Clippy

[Nos.]

Great, I can see it now. I sit down to type some angry letter to someone and Clippy is going to pop up:

"You seem to be pressing the keys very hard, are you upset?"

Its going to be the next Eliza.

Re:Gamer keyboard!

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, that sounds great at first, but as the keyboard wears out you'll end up having to hit it harder and harder to get it to move as fast as you want it to. You know, kind of like your mom.

Re:emacs lovers' dream

[LiquidCoooled]

for the love of god, please add code to close it when I bash the keyboard repeatedly.

I have mistakenly thought this functionality already existed.

Re:emacs lovers' dream

[eln]

No, they would just add more features to emacs to take advantage of it.

"(light press)Meta-(hard press)Ctrl-(medium press)Shift-(hard press)C" automatically spell and grammar checks your document while giving you a light foot massage, but "(hard press)Meta-(medium press)Ctrl-(light press)Shift-(medium press)C" launches the missiles. That sort of thing.

Re:What's the point?

[Chyeld]

Quickstart guide included with your new Microsoft Natural Pressure Sensitive Bob Keyboard:

• Press escape to pull up the game menu and access the settings.
• Pound escape to rage quit.
• Throw the keyboard across the room to rage quit while spamming "HACKING ASSHOLES!" into chat

• ...

Pleasure Sensitive

[Tom9729]

I honestly read the summary title as "Microsoft Hardware Demos Pleasure Sensitive Keyboard".

Needless to say I was very disturbed...

Re:Pleasure Sensitive

[ink]

Wouldn't that be a legitimate use of the keyboard? Would Microsoft pay $2000 for it?

gentle.. gentle.. gentle..

asdf... mmmm....

Harder! Firmer!

THERE!

HARDER! NOW! THE TILDE! THE TILDE! CARROT! YES!

Re:Gamer keyboard!

[Anonymous Coward]

Playing Wing Commander and WCII with only a keyboard sucked. I could never line up properly on my strafing runs. This changes everything. I should reinstall DOS 6.0...

CTRL-ALT-DEL

[Anonymous Coward]

@Windows
ctrl-alt-DEL DEL DEL DEL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will respond at the level of anger of the user!!!!

1-key keyboard?

[Ichijo]

As you can see, the keyboard has pressure-sensitive keys, meaning each key is capable of recording pressure force, up to an 8-bit resolution.

Excellent! Keyboards from now on will need only 1 key!

Re:Aren't all keyboards pressure sensitive

[RealGrouchy]

Amazingly enough, "velocity sensitive" keyboards respond to velocity, not pressure.

I don't care if the keyboard knows whether I'm bashing it or I'm throwing it across the room, so long as it knows I'm pissed off at it!

- RG>