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Microsoft Hardware Demos Pressure-Sensitive Keyboard

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the wtb-vi-plugin-for-this-device dept.

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."

6 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Gamer keyboard! by BigDXLT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, yes and more yes. The one thing I've always wanted in a keyboard. No more walk/run modifier key or jerky steering in driving/flying games. Yay!

  2. Re:What could go wrong by dr_wheel · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

  3. Ummm... by Anachragnome · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about the students sit on their ideas and market them when the keyboard comes out?

    Should be worth more then a lousy $2000, especially considering the fact that the students will have NO intellectual property rights once they submit through the contest.

    Just another way for MS to steal ideas, patent them and then pocket all the profits.

    On another note, I wonder what MS employees think about their employer opting to go outside the company for ideas rather then feed their employees families.

    1. Re:Ummm... by Anachragnome · · Score: 5, Informative

      If "Contests" like this were actually trying to encourage rewarding students for the innovations (as opposed to simply exploiting them), why not give them a slice of the pie, say...5% of the profits generated?

      I have YET to see a single "contest" that offered such a reward.

      And while I'm on the subject, have you ever noticed that even the losers give up IP rights, so that if the student improves on the idea after the fact, it still belongs to the company sponsoring the "contest", with NO rewards at all? One more aspect that points to the real motives of the sponsors.

  4. Re:Another stroke of genious from MS by Tim4444 · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  5. Re:Pleasure Sensitive by ink · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!

    --
    The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.