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Microsoft's Adaptive Touchscreen Keyboard
ramandeeps noted a Microsoft research project on an adaptive keyboard that is essentially a touchscreen that updates to make it easier to keep complex keybindings to a minimum. This is part of the 2010 Student Innovation Contest, so if you want one and happen to be a student, you can sign up to do research on the device.
Did they claim that it's "their own major exclusive new super-invention"?
More like "this is what we research on right now, and we have some spare parts, want to take a look?"
The goal of the contest is to develop new interactions on unique hardware that you cannot get anywhere else. We supply you with the special hardware and you show us how innovative you can be with it. ...
To reserve a place in the contest and to receive an Adaptive keyboard for development, contestants must submit an entry email to the contest chair no later than August 17th, 2010.
You also have to return the keyboard by October, so it's not yours forever. http://www.acm.org/uist/uist2010/Student_Contest.html
So when you press Ctrl+Alt the entire keyboard suddenly changes into a big "Delete"?
What Microsoft claims are you talking about?
Microsofts involvement here is simply that they provided hardware and some funding. The UIST is an initiative of the ACM.
"His name was James Damore."
Yes, this is similar except the Optimus keyboard's keys each contain a small OLED. Microsoft uses a full display under a transparent keyboard. So, while not quite unique in nature it should be much cheaper and easily manufactured than the Optimus.
Again, this is only MS Research so chances are like most projects, consumers will not see it.
So kind of like the optimus tactus? http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-tactus/
$x = ($x * 10) % 10 >= 5 ? 1 + int $x : int $x
Posted anonymously to avoid... I dunno, getting fired or something. (Actually, I doubt its a problem to say I've used these before, but better safe than sorry ...)
I've seen these a few times, and they're really nothing like the OLED-based keyboards. They type far more nicely, they are vastly cheaper to produce, and add a bunch of other capabilities I won't risk getting into, just not knowing what is public and not ...
But suffice it to say, its nothing like the various keyboard designs with a screen per key.
Kind of like that, except with transparent mechanical keys sitting on top.
It seems to me that an adaptive keyboard is a crutch for people who don't want to learn a product well enough to be good at it. I fail to see how having buttons that change with context is really much better than being able to chose the same context with a mouse.
Well I think I know who wouldn't win this competition. ;)
If you fail to see how an adaptive interface can be useful, I would point you to successes which are currently in-use. The iPhone, Logitech's high-end remotes, etc. Now the trick with these, is that their interface doubles as their primary screen, so the big thing here is why/how is this going to be better than mouse/screen (as you rightfully brought up).
But isn't that the point of this competition? We don't know an immediate way this can be implemented to be better, but it isn't impossible that something interesting and useful could come up.
The obvious example is gaming. Yes I know, you can have all your information up there on your HUD, but couldn't that be a bit distracting or non-immersive? I know when I play paintball I don't have an overlay telling me how tired I am, how many balls are in my hopper, what my gas pressure is. At least for the latter two, I'd have to look down to check it. It opens up the possibility to make the main screen a pure display, and move the status and interface elements elsewhere and accessible, but not gone.
It wouldn't ALWAYS be the best thing to do, but sometimes it might be, and when it is, it would be possible.
One application which I would LOVE to have context aware menus/toolbars/interfaces shifted OFF of my screen is for applications like Excel or other cases where screen space is more important to me than having an always present but not always used tools surrounding my workarea.
Web browsing could be another interesting aspect as I currently use only 5/8ths of my keyboard for typing. Having the remaining 3/8ths turn into large, but useful buttons (Forward, Back, Stop, Refresh).
And one aspect where I would KILL for a device like this?
Home Theater & entertainment. Think about how nice it would be to have a keyboard which could display a whole set of commands for controlling your movies/music without having to take down the visualization, or walk to a position where you can see the screen then manipulate a mouse, select what you want, etc. Everything could be right there on your keyboard and tailored just for your application.
Of course, I don't have to wonder about that last part, since I currently use an old iPhone as a device to control my computer when I'm listening to music/watching movies/etc. Hitting a button and having it shift from a remote control for my cable box, and turn into a small but useful keyboard/mouse has been great.
I'd love to enter this competition, if I had known about it earlier (and was still a student).
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
It makes for a self-documenting keyboard interface, as is shown in the video where the guy hits the Windows Key (it could have been ALT, CTRL, or CTRL-SHIFT, etc..) and all the keys but those tied to commands go dark, and the ones tied to commands label themselves with what the command available actually is.
Looks like the future to me.
"His name was James Damore."
The whole point of the contest is to find a use for the keyboard. Perhaps you're not cut out for this sort of competition.
One use for that display area is for ambient data. There are things like the "ambient orb" that display the status of, say, the stock market using the color of the orb (you can buy the official ambient orb at a ridiculous price or build your own using some LEDs and an Arduino...). It turns out that these kinds of peripheral information systems work quite well. You don't really ever look at them, but you're sufficiently aware of their status that you can react if something changes.
There are a bunch of things you could turn into ambient data: stock market, weather predictions, calendar notifications, network traffic, server status, build status (some people hook them up to automatic test suites, so that a broken codebase is immediately apparent), and so on. The idea is to give the user information without demanding their focus/attention. It works quite well.
Somehow I think if this were released by someone more open source friendly, everyone here would be basking in how awesome it is. But since it's put out my Microsoft, everyone shits all over it. Way to never let me down Slashdot.
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