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Will Touch Screens Kill the Keyboard?
CWmike writes "Next-generation touch-screen devices will embed more haptics, or touch-based feedback, into virtual keyboards. 'A lot of companies are really getting into haptics, [using] source feedback and a sense of touch to try to replicate a keyboard on a display,' says Bruce Gant, a mechanical engineer at Product Development Technologies, which integrates touch screens into cell phones and other devices for manufacturers. 'If people really get that down and nail that experience, [virtual keyboards] could replace mechanical keyboards on laptops.' Don't tell that to Motorola, which just introduced the Atrix 4G, and dual-core 4.3-inch smartphone that docks to a laptop with, you guessed it, a physical keyboard."
Keyboard is a lot cheaper, more easily repaired if something goes wrong.
"haptics" is an anagram for "Caps Hit"
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
Big media: quit saying "XYZ is dead" every time you're starved for attention.
No matter how good a smartphone gets, that doesn't mean that old technology people still benefit from should suddenly disappear. My phone has a built-in keyboard; I can text so fast it startles people and any flashy features my phone doesn't have would be all the better with it. Give us more functionality, not tell us we should settle for less.
Tactile feedback rocks. Touch screen can't replicate that very well. I don't know of anyone who can accurately touch-type on a touch screen (heh, see what I did there?).
I'm sorry, I only accept criticism in the form of sed expressions.
And I will only let go of it when they pry it from my cold dead hands!
It seems like it'd be awfully wasteful to build a touch screen to replace a keyboard, both in terms of money and actual resources. Keyboards are fairly cheap on both.
Plus -- ergonomics?
Seriously, try using a touchscreen for more than a text message. Use a bunch of on screen keyboard variants. Swype, android, apple, and any other one you care to try.
You'll be happy when you are back to a machine that has a real keyboard. Even a mobile with a real keyboard.
Keyboard ON the screen == bad: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/G/gorilla-arm.html
Keyboard away from the screen and horizontal, no problem. But then, what's the point in virtualizing it?
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft require the kind of precision and sensory feedback that only standard keyboards can provide.
One keyboard for everyone, no matter which language you use. A new layout is a simple software change. Custom layouts depending on the tasks.
Would I want to code on one of these things? That's another story...
Part of the thing about a real keyboard is the feel of the keys. Not the feedback but the raised buttons themselves. Without them many people are left to hunt-n-peck typing since they can't feel the keys brush their fingertips (also think of the little notch on your F and J keys, used for the same thing). Remove the ability to feel the keys without looking and many people won't touch it and businesses won't use it because I gather WPM typing will go down and error typing will go up.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
If touchscreens do kill the keyboard (and I am very doubtful), then it'll just be another milestone for the trend of crappier and crappier keyboard input devices. Back in the day, the mechanical switch and the buckler keyboards were fantastic. They had the weight, they had the tactile response, they had the satisfying click you get when you press down a key, plus they were nigh indestructible. Then, everyone moved to the quiet keyboards that use the rubber sheet and the dielectric, and it had less of a tactical response. Then people started moving towards those awful chiclet keyboards (are they called Island keyboards?) and they make it so frustrating to type something. If touchscreens take over, it'll just be the next logical step towards crappier keyboards.
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
Which is les expensive, a keyboard or display space? I want a keyboard. How will taking away some of the display space in order to provide me with a keyboard on the display improve my experience using a device? So in order to give the same display experience as a device that comes with a traditional keyboard, you need to have that much more display. That means the device that gives me the same display experience with just a touchscreen needs to cost more than a device with a traditional keyboard.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Touch keyboards cannot keep speed with physical keyboards due to a lack of tactile feedback, space requirements, and hand-strain when typing due to jamming your finger into a solid surface repeatedly (guess its not much different than laptop crappy keyboards, but still). That's assuming you've overcome the software limitation of slow processing that plagues most touch keyboards.
That being said, they will probably replace keyboards for applications(such as mobile phones) where a keyboard would be a waste and inefficient use of space while not being very effective anyway.
But in a laptop? God no unless you're going for lightweight style rather than a useful work space.
Disclaimer: Typed on my model-m.
You never realize how much manually made unmanaged "linked" lists suck, till you have src.link.link.link.link...
Do I even really need to argue why? How would it feel even remotely close? How well will you feel what you touch or even more important that you're hitting the right key?
Since black look like trash:
* Microsoft Ergonomic 4000
* Unicomp SpaceSaver 104/105
Shitty quality of the first one but nicest typing experience so far. Don't really know if I want a straight keyboard any more. Not nice for the wrists.
What an absolutely empty rhetoric bullshit buzzword company name.
Also, no. Touchscreens will not replace keyboards for anything other than tablet devices. People keep thinking that computer displays will go touch-sensitive and replace keyboards - have these people ever tried a touch-sensitive computer display? It's so unergonomic and clumsy it hurts just thinking about it.
What a dumb question, I'm sorry.
Input devices and displays have long been shown to work best in different positions. Nobody wants to stare down at a display all day, or stretch forward to touch their screen all day.
Touch screens are nice for certain situations, but they won't replace keyboards in general.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Yes, in the same way that masturbating has replaced actual sex with another (living/willing/etc) person. You would prefer one, but will settle for the other when you have to, or if no one is looking.
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
Personally, I hate typing on touch screens. I doubt they can replicate the experience of a keyboard. I want to be able to type with two hands, without looking at the keys, while able to see the full screen.
Also, get off my lawn.
How am I supposed to play video games if my hands have to be on the screen? These things are meat-paws! I can hardly hit the tiny keys already!
There is no -1 Disagree.
It's not about feedback, no matter how much it vibrates (or buzzes, or whatever) typing on a flat surface is an ergonomic nightmare.
sic transit gloria mundi
and yet I still seem to have a keyboard. So.... no.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
If there's anything Apple have taught us, it's that an awful lot of people don't do any real work on their computers.
For those who do, real computers with real I/O devices will remain.
'Cos I hate it when a can't type on my Unicomp Spacesaver keyboard. :p
Ask him to touch type without looking.
As for the mouse, that's still not beaten by touch. Touch input doesn't scale. A mouse can select a single pixel or fly right accross the screen, have several buttons and scroll wheels are indespensible.
It concerns me there's going to be a generation of kids coming that are not going to be able to keyboard, handwrite because they will be touchscreen, game controller and voice interface users.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
The main push for touchscreen keyboards seems to be in applications where there is contention for screen space(and niche applications where a keyboard would be difficult to keep clean or unvandalized).
That pretty much means phones, handhelds, and maybe laptops(for laptops, you run into the problem that the comfortable position for a keyboard and the comfortable position for a screen are quite different, and switching between the two will take a disruptive several seconds...)
For anything without such contention, the idea that dirt-cheap and tactilely excellent physical keyswitches are going to be replaced by touch panels just so that the world can look more futuristic seems unlikely at best. Possibly, hard key labels will be replaced, in certain applications, with little screens, for application specific keymap/shortcut changes; but that is still a mechanical keyboard.
The real question determining the future of touchscreen "keyboards", to my mind, is whether haptics and such similar trickery advance faster than do technological alternatives that simply eliminate the screen-size contention. You have been able to get for some years, for instance, glasses with displays in them. Unfortunately, current models suffer from low resolution and making you look like a giant dork. However, with easy-to-imagine incremental improvements, you could get something that just looks like an ordinary pair of glasses/sunglasses; but can paint pixels on your eyes small enough that they aren't perceptible as pixels. If that became cheap, your phone could be 100% keyboard. Same thing would apply for various hypothetical microprojectors/folding screens/wireless display panels/etc/etc.
For whatever reason, the first wave of attempts to resolve the screen/keyboard space contention issue attacked the keyboard rather than the screen; but there is no reason, in principle, why you could not instead attack the screen in favor of a larger, clickier, nicer keyboard. We'll see whose tech develops faster...
Keyboards provide instant response, per letter, whereas SWYPE's blue trace line only gives you some vague sense of where you fat-fingered that errant letter; to boot, at the end of it all, SWYPE presents you with a teeny-tiny-spaced list of possible matches, requiring me to waste yet more time attempting to avoid fat-fingering a selection. I had hoped that this would be the great panacea it had been hyped up to be. What a waste of time.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Touch screen keyboards will be just as popular as the "touch screen" keyboards.. like the one in the movie 'Big'
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
Why anyone would be excited about going back to the days of the timex sinclair is beyond anything I am capable of understanding.
People can take their death to desktops, death to keyboard, mice and every other truely useful comodity that meme starters dislike today and shove it as far as I'm concerned.
If you want to replace existing technology... hint hint... you need to come up with something BETTER or you will be ignored.
Real Keyboards:
* Allow you to type faster
* Are cheaper and easier to replace
* Are better for reducing injury rates due to the extra key travel
* Don't take any of your on-screen real estate
* Provide more tactile feedback
That's how I know that touch screens will win over physical keyboards. Keyboards will lose because they are better. That's always how it goes.
Scotty: "how quaint"
Touch screens have been around for a long, LONG time. There are various places where they are used quite a bit too. Point of sale terminals often use touch screens, and have for a long time. They are useful in some situations, but not generally useful. The reason is because having a touch screen involves having your hands on your screen. This means you occlude part of your view, and of course in a desk environment means that either you are stretching your arms up, which is uncomfortable, or you are hunched over a display.
The keyboard and mouse endure because for a sitting working environment, they are generally what you want. I want to be able to easily enter text while looking at a display that is in front of my face at a comfortable level.
Basically touchscreens will be used where they make sense. This can be in things like phones where space is a premium, and you want as big a screen as you can get, or in specialty applications. However they are not going to be the be-all, end-all.
As an IT Admin for a financial institution I can't help but wonder what these things would look like after a week of use by end users considering the amount of chuttle I have to shake out of the keyboards every time someone quits or gets fired.
The most interesting part of this is the Atrix. I can see a near future where you carry your computer around as your phone and it runs a mobile desktop on the local screen and a separate full desktop on the external screen. I still want a slider keyboard though ;-)
I thought it was because Steve Jobs told people that's what they wanted.
Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
Did magnetic pole shift kill the birds? Will touch screens kill the keyboard? Seriously?
this is where i orientate my hands. apparently, unconsciously. so i discovered. its an a4 tech keyboard model that i have been using for years. (while renewing the model by purchasing the exact same model when the other one broke). i just found out that, the same model keyboard, but a slightly different (square instead of round edges) casing could throw my orientation and hence typing speed off. the very same model keyboard. i also tried other keyboards, but physical height of keys, their spacing, their placement, seems to have settled quite a lot with me.
so, no. touchscreens wont be able to do that. because, hands are physical stuff, and if you dont want to look at the keyboard while typing, you will have to keep on feeling what is under your hand. and that requires physicality.
Read radical news here
It all depends on whether Steve Jobs TELLS us that we don't need real keyboards. Then and only then will we know the answer to this question.
The screen you can't touch is about the only thing seriously threatened by touch screens. And for some cases the pointing device (mouse/trackpad/etc.)
Here's my pitch for tomorrow: Will raping puppies help system administrators focus better during 12-hour shifts?
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Touchscreens are for a different use and will never be used to replace the keyboard. What will eventually replace the keyboard on a daily basis (but not entirely) will be brain interactions with the computer. This may take another 20-years before we get pretty good at it but it's happening and it's been over 10-years since the first person controlling a mouse on a screen has been created. Maybe one day it'll be similar to ghost in the shell, but bringing it back to my original point, touchscreens cannot be more practical than physical keyboards and thus will never replace them.
I highly doubt touch screens will ever replace the keyboards for desktops or laptops. Due to ergonomic reasons, the touch-keyboards would still have to be on a separate plane than the screen you're looking at. Imagine your computer's monitor having a touch-screen keyboard, bend your wrists and hands into a position that you could actually type with. Hold that position for an extended period of time. Weep tears as your wrists hate you.
Only if they finally invent a touchscreen that recognizes what i want to type, not what i actually type.
Something that would turn any space or surface your vicinity into a keyboard. It could sort of be like air guitar. Having a keyboard on the display device can be awkward, cramped, and dirty. An "air keyboard" could help with carpal-tunnel. You could warp it such that you only move the fingers, never the wrist or forearms.
numerous keyboards. I'd like a model M for the daytime, but I'm sure my spouse is happier in the darker hours with the quiet keyboard I currently have plugged in.
My phone has a touchscreen keyboard, which I've gotten a little bit used to, but there's no way I'd program on it. I don't even like programming on a laptop keyboard.
On a real keyboard, my fingers do what my brain thinks, and there it is, on the screen. Haptics or not, I'd still have to look at my fingers without some kind of dimpled surface on the touch screen. Unless they figure out some way to trick my fingers into feeling the dimples when they aren't there.
But at that point, why bother?
WALSTIB!
Let me revise that. Not just no but hell no.
I'm at least three times as fast on a well designed mechanical keyboard than I am on a virtual keyboard, despite months of practice. I don't think virtuals will ever replace mechanical in content-heavy applications, and I'm somewhat surprised that anyone would seriously suggest it.
Like the bumble bee, what's cool about virtual keyboards, even with haptic feedback, is that they work at all. I can write fairly lengthy messages on my phone, but for serious wordsmithing nothing beats the old-style full throw keys.
Parenthetically, as virtual keyboards become more and more common, I'm going to bet that there's a whole new class of repetitive injuries waiting to appear.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Apple's multi touch patents were acquired when they bought FingerWorks, a company who primarily made keyless keyboards. I knew someone who swore it was the best thing since sliced bread.
The keyboards go for a lot of money now on ebay since the company stopped production after they were bought.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fingerworks-Touchstream-LP-multitouch-keyboard-/120667269918?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item1c18546b1e
Now that I use a SWYPE keyboard on my phone, I realize that it's faster than thumb typing. I think it wouldn't be hard for a keyboard-sized touch to become faster than the physical keyboard it replaces. This would be a great opportunity to kill QWERTY, too. Think about it. You can have five large vowels surrounded by a ring of constants with numbers and punctuation below. You would swype away with the right and pick the word selections with your left hand. It could give you words guesses based on what you are swyping, the sentence you are writing, and common words would just always be there. Oh and it would vibrate to give you tactile feed back. I think when you think about it, this kind of system could allow you to type A LOT faster than a standard keyboard.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
I write for a living, and they'll prize my MS Natural keyboard out of my cold dead hands, the idea of doing significant typing on a touch screen should be reserved for the 7th circle of hell where it belongs. However, for the type of input I do on my iPhone it's quite adequate.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Next generation...make a physical keyboard with the screen overlaying the keys. Then you get to see and move the screen with a real physical touch. ;)
jsut athnoer menagiensls ltitle psrhae for you to dcoede. Why do we wtsae our tmie dnoig tihs?
...in much the same way that video killed the radio star.
When the laptop goes all hinky how do I press CTRL+ALT+DEL?
There is no way I would ever develop on a virtual keyboard. (take note of the period at the end of the sentence)
Typing speeds on a virtual keyboard will never match that of a physical keyboard. (Note: Virtual keyboards will eventually merge with their physical counterparts, at that point they are no longer virtual keyboards)
There is NO satisfaction from smashing a virtual keyboard with your fists in anger.
I hardly ever use my mouse as it is, so I imagine that touch screen desktop systems will kill the mouse. My laptop has a touch screen, and the only time I touch the screen is to recapture the context to the window, which is a very fluid action. (Note: Clearly "kill the mouse" is not as catchy as "kill the keyboard")
15 years ago you could had asked something like "Will Mouses Kill the Keyboard?"
No.
Sometimes when the /. editors post a story they editorialize it. This would have been a good time. Modern big media may be garbage but can we at least call a spade a spade here on /.?
"Idiots at Computerworld troll desperately for web page hits by trying to say that the keyboard will be replaced by touch screens."
Little wordy but hey, I'm not an editor.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Any type of none existing or virtual keyboard is better then a real one....the iPad has the right idea, as now you need only keep your screen guick free by wiping it, where as the keyboard would get all sorts of crap in it from dust, to pieces of food.
If you spill something on the screen, usually should not do anything, on the key board, might damage it, especially a laptop integrated keyboard.
Only a direct mind-computer link could.
Not if keyboards kill touchscreens first!
"In a world where computers can't read minds, and minds can't control computers, people must let their fingers do the talking, and there can be only one listener! Threatened by their disposability, keyboards have joined together to fight the scourge known as touchscreens; devices so parasitic, they cannot be destroyed without also destroying the devices they control. Who will emerge victorious and claim the title of Input Device Supreme? This summer, don't miss the biggest blockbuster of the year: Don't Touch Me, Bro!"
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Ever tried to type on an on screen keyboard?
Its bad enough having to use one for your username and password...
Touchscreens are good enough for the Enterprise (at least some generations of it), so surely mankind will eventually be proficient enough on a touchscreen to do away with the physical keyboard. Or perhaps someday software, control systems, and alternative input methods will become good enough that we won't do enough manual input to require a physical keyboard.
...someone invents greaseless fingers.
Regards;
For all the users who don't type much (that is for about 95% of all users) the touchscreen will replace the keyboard, no doubt. Devices without keyboards have less buttons (good), you can press, drag and touch where you're looking (good), there are no moving parts (good), the devices are much easier to clean (good) and the devices look better (good). For the typical user a real keyboard is ugly, complex and hard to use. Most people just forget all the effort they had to invest to learn to use it.
Those who type much and fast will still use keyboards. They're a minority, but a loud one.
Next question please.
It's quite possible that a touch screen with fully haptic feedback could replace a keyboard, assuming:
(1) the screen is built in to the desktop and canted at about a 15 degree angle from the horizontal,
(2) the screen is at least 18 inches wide, and
(3) the person using it does not have any serious typing to do
otherwise fatigue will set in very fast, and long-term stress injuries are almost a sure thing.
If all you want to do is tweet, message, aolspeak, or write crappy web journal articles, a haptic touchscreen virtual keyboard is probably sufficient.
This all reminds me of that silly bit from Starship Troopers where Drill Seargant Clancy responded to "but it's a push button world now" buy disabling the recruit's ability to push buttons.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Just watch an episode of STNG and tell me how many keyboards you see.
Touchscreens will replace tactile keyboards in many environments, as they already have. But it is at the detriment of performance. Humans need true tactile response for motor memory.
The world reserves of Indium tin oxide the only material commercially suitable for making the transparent semi-conductive layers of touch screens is rapidly running out.
Since when have new technologies replaced old different technologies? It's so very rare. The mouse didn't replace the keyboard. Video didn't replace audio. Touchpads didn't replace mouses. Touch screen won't replace anything either.
It's just going to replace those keyboards that were workarounds to a problem that hadn't yet a good solution -- like on a tiny device, where ten touch-screen buttons are better than 104 physical buttons.
But really, think about it. having 104 physical buttons that you can easily press gives 104 options at any given time. That's better than having only 103. And it's way better than having only 26. A big keyboard is more efficient to human fingers than a small touch-scren, for about six major reasons. Welcome to the entire world of ergonomics -- fit the operator, not the operation.
What will replace the keyboard would be a large surface, the size of a keyboard, that's all touch-screen, with 104 images of 104 buttons, tactile feedback, and synchronized audio feedback. And yes, that's coming too. But it won't be a replacement, 'cause it's really the same thing. Plastic replaced metal, photons will replace plastic.
The question you're asking is whether or not overlaying a keyboard on top of the video output will ever replace a separate keyboard from the video output. And that's just a dumb question because that's the primary sacrifice of a touchscreen in the first place.
But again, I'm sitting in a room with $50'000.00 of computers, desks, and chairs. Dedicating a room to a purpose makes things way more efficient -- and less portable. But that's the very point. I have the space to make room for a keyboard -- not just any keyboard, a $200 keyboard that's better than most other keyboards. And because I can afford the price and the space, it's better than those technologies which offer to reduce the price and space at the expense of the actual function.
Your offer is acceptable!
I'm on my 3rd Samsung Mythic phone. It has only a virtual keyboard. My first two phones lost their calibration between where I touched and where the phone thought I touched. I couldn't even get to the calibration tool to try and reset. Pulling the battery didn't fix it. Doing a master reset didn't fix it. I had to replace the devices. Sometimes there's a very fine line between a keyboard and an inert piece of glass.
VIM user here. I can't see myself or anyone that actually works with text for hours not using physical keyboard. Editing text is a primary activity that I do, and nothing is faster than VIM with physical keyboard, short of something reading your mind and doing it for you (VIM sometimes feels that way anyway).
I can see touch keyboard useful for one off tasks here and there (like writing a text message on your phone or typing a short message on a web page), but that can never be replacement for actual keyboard when real work has to be done.
Another problem with current crop of touch keyboards is that you can't "touch type". You can't rest your fingers on home row, they all more or less start typing letters when you do that. Physical keyboard with mechanical feedback obviously does not have that problem.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
What exactly IS that windows key for?
I don't know about Windows or Mac, but in Linux you can configure the windows key to be a extra mod key, kinda like Shift and Alt.
A lot of keyboard oriented windows managers (which I personally enjoy using) require that you press a certain key to activate the window manager's commands.
For example, Ctrl-t on Ratpoison or StumpWM or the Alt key on Xmonad. In those cases, you can use the windows key instead of those.
Or you can just learn emacs and start complaining that you need MORE keys on the keyboard
Okay seriously I've just run out of pointless things to say.
Good god, I hope not. I like the space of a real keyboard. I hope they get voice recognition running reliably before that.
The diversity and expression of human opinion is essential to human survival.
Some are really awful, but some are actually quite good.
When I bought a new notebook last summer, my first concern has been typing comfort, and the only one I found really satisfying was the Thinkpad's x100e. The keys are slightly curved and comfortable under the fingers, and the press does not have the rubbery feel that is shared by much laptops (yes, Sony, I am looking at you). True, the battery life is the x100e is, at best, shitty, but that was a trade-off I was willing to make. Add the trackpoint at the center of the keyboard which is IMO far superior than the touch pad as a pointing device for casual use, be cause you don't have to bend your wrist to reach it.
I actually prefer this keyboard to the one Dell ships with their desktops, and that I had to use at work (company policy...)
Disclaimer: typed on an x100e
No.
rule # 41 any title that is a question is, no.
also on a side note, posted from n900 keyboard.
"X is dead" is dead
. . . you're spending too much time on the internet. (That's a joke from about 1995.) But I agree that the answer is no; the touchscreen on tablets require you type with one hand and (usually) with head down. The laptop or desktop+(physical)keyboard mimics the old typewriter ergos; since the keyboard layout and system of ten-finger touch typing were developed with that in mind all of them kind of go together. Gotta replace the entire system, not just one element.
...when these "haptic" keyboards can reliably provide tactile feedback *before* registering a keypress. Y'know, like every €5 special supplied with no-name whitebox computers everywhere. I like to know that my finger is actually on a key, and preferably the correct one, before I press it.
Until that happens, professional touch-typists will not touch them with a bargepole, even if they don't know the difference between the keyboard that came with their Dell and a Cherry G80. (Which, for the uninitiated, is akin to the difference between a Peugeot 308 and a Volvo 760 GLE wagon^Westate.) Those of us who already have Cherry or IBM keyboards - or close derivatives of them - will not give them up for all the tea in China.
Trackpads have virtually replaced the mouse for laptop use, because they actually work. Okay, you don't want to use one 24/7, and it's a really good idea to disable the tap-to-click functionality that most have, but you can point to pixel accuracy with roughly the same amount of care as with a mouse, and it takes up less space. The main application which doesn't work well with a trackpad is FPS games.
That's still ignoring the problem (mentioned by other commenters) of the keyboard being in the same plane as the display, and occupying valuable real estate on it. On a phone, that's fine. On a tablet, it comes with the territory - though I'm not a fan of tablets. On a laptop, the problem is very deliberately avoided, though the position restriction imposed by the hinge is still a minor problem for extended use. On a desktop computer, it would be totally unacceptable.
For my own part, I'm actively supporting the manufacturers of decent physical keyboards - I've got two Cherrys on order right now. One is a full-size USB G80, replacing a PS/2 G84 and an AT G80 that dates from 1996 (and still works perfectly). The other is a miniature G84 which will go well with a barebones machine I'm experimenting with. At work I use a Model M, which I'm seriously considering upgrading to USB - which will involve hand-building a new controller board.
One last thing: why on earth are people so unwilling to spend €70 on a decent keyboard which will last 20 years, when they will happy spend more than that on a graphics card which will last 3 at best before becoming hopelessly obsolete? An argument against consumer rationality if I ever saw one.
--- The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach you it ---
If you don't mind carrying a keyboard around when it does nothing else. I prefer a single device that is screen, keyboard, mouse, etc all in a nice portable package. And it doesn't wear out nea as fast as a keyboard and is more spill resistant.
The biggest downside to virtual keyboards has nothing to do with being virtual but instead with bad keyboard design. I actually like my iPhone for a keyboard better than my iPad because on the iPad the keys are to big, to far apart, you still lack meta keys, and you still have to dig for many characters. In the same space I could easily fit a full size keyboard that would be easier to use and more comfortable to use. It's not about the n00b that needs huge keys to peck out their message - it's about the hardcore users that have developed the muscle memory to really use the virtual keyboard. With muscle memory and a virtual meyboard you can type super fast and the system can be smart enough to correct minor key misses that a real keyboard would screw up.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Will the tuoch screen send the nerves in my fingers a tingle? I need to know when I really depressed the key. What I thnk will happen before disappearance of the keyboard will be voice dictation to the laptop or device. Who will need a keyboard then? Will we be discussing how next to do away with the mouse?
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
Keyboard away from the screen and horizontal, no problem. But then, what's the point in virtualizing it?
The fact that you could then display any layout on it instead of just the default one. (See examples as the Optimus Keyboard).
This helps a lot people who have to switch between several layouts for several languages, specially ones not using latin alphabet (and thus not using a QWERTY layout)
This can also replace the key caps with icons for the commands to which keys are shortcuts.
Horizontal virtual keyboards with vertical screens can be useful. But to be efficient, they needs to provide physical shapes that can be distinguished by touch.
So, good if above the screen(s) there's a physical layer for touch feedback (like the Optimus)
or one of these modern technologies that can simulate physical button. (Think about this enabling you to have a keyboard with non conventionnal key placement, or replacing the input device with a bunch of sliders, instead of the usual alphanumeric input)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
If you've been considering UI design as a career, you might like to re-consider before you do some serious damage.
Guess what ? Designers have already done it : it's the Optimus keyboard.
It's useful for learning new keyboard layouts.
As said, it helps remove one step in the learning process of which command is were.
Also it helps people dealing with several languages requiring different layouts and non latin scripts. (I'm not fluent with cyrillic keybaords)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
. . . nothing but a newer Model M that is!
Try 0.95%.
The average user types quite a bit. This is why QWERTY keybards came about on phones and why the BB/Nokia E71's are so popular with users who do a lot of emailing and messaging.
On computers it's even worse. Just typing out this comment would be painful, if not impossible. Touchscreens are slower, more inefficient and error prone than keyboards and this is readily evident to the average user.
Quick explain.
Thought not. Just because Steve says it's better does not make it so.
Physical buttons provide many advantages over on screen buttons. they are tactile, responsive, don't move and their function never changes. The last one is important, on my PC the Delete button does what it needs to, the F1 key too. On my Android phone the back button always takes me back to the last application/page I used and terminates the application as opposed to backgrounding it (which is what the home button does). Believe it or not, but such simple things are not beyond the capacity of the average user to figure out on their own.
Ye gads,
Where did you learn to type, The ministry of silly computing habits.
All typing tutors and instruction I have received tells me you're meant look at the screen (output) not where your hands are. This does make typing faster and allows you to pick up on those annoying typo's so much earlier.
Typing at 30 WPM+, moving keys are not a feature anyone will find useful.
Because mechanical KB's are breaking left, right and centre. NOT.
My keyboard has to be the most reliable one of things in my house. I have a 20 yr old KB's that are still in perfect working order (albeit not AT ports on my gaming rig). My last KB died after 9 years of service, a victim of a poorly placed Jacks and Coke.
Moving parts != unreliable. On the other hand software frequently breaks due to bad code.
A physical keyboard is much easier to use, faster, more ergonomic, more responsive and a lot more accurate. Considerably less stress on the users wrists and not having to look at the keyboard to find a key makes typing much faster.
Where do you get your idea's about HCI and HMI from?
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Touch screens will kill the mouse. Why have an indirect tool to interact with the screen when you can just touch and manipulate it? The keyboard will remain for any data entry that is not trivial (writing, coding, etc.)
I just don't like my fingers being in front of what I'm trying to see. That is why I will never use touchscreens. I am no luddite though. I'm waiting for cybernetic implants or nano-bots technology.
I find this to be my single biggest gripe about touchscreeens. I simply hate typing on them.
I have almost thrown my EVO into a wall because of this sooooo many times.
they can get *really* close to imitating a Thinkpad keyboard! No, seriously - I cannot imagine abandoning the superior tactile feel and key layout...
"Honeeey I'm 127.0.0.1"
I honestly can;t see it i've typed on the iPad and the lack of a tactile interface makes all the difference in the world. The reason why the keyboard won;t die is exactly the same as why the mixing desk hasn't died in the audio industry. A tactile interface connects the user to what they are doing, how theya re doing it and what they have done. I honestly can't see touch screens as they are now affecting it that much.
I mean: can I write programs using a virtual keyboard? Traditionally we programmers need more symbols than the number of keys on a keyboard so we use Shift quite a lot. I see no problems for adding shift to a haptic keyboard, but I see some more problems in implementing a swype programmer's layout (it's going to be quite large and maybe programming language dependent). Furthermore we lose the ability to type and look at the screen at the same time and that impacts productivity as layout is important for programming.
A possible outcome would be having to plug in a usb keyboard, but that's going to kill the laptop as a programming device (you don't want to bring a keyboard with you as you move from your office to a customer's one).
I wonder if we'll end up with computers for consumers (haptic keyboard) and computer for programmers (traditional keyboard). If we do I expect to have to pay a lot more for a new one as they're going to be specialized devices. At least we might be able to regain a more sensible screen format than the 16:9 we're being forced to use today. A 16:9 display has less vertical space than a same width 4:3 one and that matters on laptops because there are limits to the width of what you can comfortably carry around.
Partially out topic: I'd love to have a touchscreen on my laptop to be able to push some buttons with my fingers (the Preview one below this textarea) or touch some links directly on the screen. It would be a good complement to the mouse or the touchpad. So I can see haptic devices as a mouse killer (but not for games).
25 Years later an we're still waiting for CDs to kill Vynil. Or consider the fact that 100 years after the automobile showed up there are still horses alive. I think the word "Kill" is being overused. How about "sidelined"?
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
I/O devices are use appropriate. Touch Screens, Gestural Computing, and Adaptive Human Interfaces will be great for allowing people to do complex activities using behavior which are intuitive and natural for human beings (the kind of primate behavior that is hardwired into us and can be exploited for enhanced human/computer productivity and ease of use.) Those things include pointing, grasping, holding, pinching, tapping, and waving. Stylus and Pad will continue to grow and evolve as a natural artistic interface, and in all likelihood will morph into an all purpose artistic media device that can perform 2D and 3D artistic manipulation. Keyboards will be the primary means for loading large amounts of textual data for a long time to come, they simply have too much buy-in from too many cultures. As well, they are designed for allowing people to convert thought into text whether it be poetry, prose or software code at an optimal rate. Ultimately keyboards will be replaced by advance speech recognition and beyond that, all interfaces will fall to advanced cybernetic hardware to wetware broad channel interfaces. Once computers can talk directly to our minds, senses, and motor centers, the need for external devices is rendered moot (save for museums and emergency technology failures.)
Of course this presumes everything continues on it's current trajectory.
Who needs a keyboard or touch screens when you have voice recognition for entering your requests:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FFRoYhTJQQ
While there is a trend towards touch-screen keyboards on portable devices, I can also see an opposite trend towards more higher-quality mechanical keyboards on stationary PCs.
While there will always be old-timers who love their retro equipment, I think that the largest and fastest growing market segment for tactile keyboards with mechanical key switches is gamers. ...
Every day on gamer-oriented forums, you can see someone wanting to buy a used IBM Model M. The prices on eBay and other auction sites are soaring.
Gaming peripheral maker Razer's latest and greatest keyboard has mechanical switches that click, similar to the old Model M. The Das Keyboard is also popular among gamers. More mechanical keyboards are coming: Zowie Celeritas, Leopold, Ducky
(just beware of misleading marketing when visiting gamer brand sites!)
Although there is somewhat of a herd mentality among gamers, the gaming community has influenced the rest of the PC world quite much before -- just look at graphics cards.
The second largest group that I see, are the computer professionals who have become older, have more money and demand quality peripherials, plain and simple.
The third group that I see are people who demand something that is more ergonomic. More distinct tactile feedback and lower, more gradual activation force is often perceived as kinder to the fingers.
Myself, I switched from Dell and Keytronic rubber dome keyboards to soft mechanicals this summer, and I don't look back. I have been working as a computer programmer for a lot of my adult life and belong to the second and third groups above. My fingers don't ache a lot at the end of the day, as they could do before. I have also been suck(er)ed in into the keyboard community at Geekhack that I can heartily recommend if you are interested./
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
Keyboard won't die, unless something better comes along. It's simply the best way to provide input to the computer WE HAVE AT THE MOMENT.
The issue with keyboards is that you need to learn where all the symbols are. Your typing efficiency increases as you gain experience with it; however when you use keyboards next to never, have no extensive experience and/or training at doing so, you will notice that you are constantly looking for the next character on the keyboard.
I noticed this with my father (who is 66 years old at the moment), who has never had any training with using keyboards. The poor man is at times taking 5 seconds to find the next character. This, in addition to the amazingly counter intuitive interface of windows, has kept him away from computers to date. He doesn't want to bother with typing courses, because he doesn't use computers all that often.
The current tendency on mobile devices is to emulate the keyboard with some workarounds in order to compensate for space shortage (thus not fixing the issue with that inefficient keyboard).
Until something comes along which is more efficient then the keyboard and has a lower learning curve as the keyboard, keyboard is king in whatever incarnation is king at the moment.
Keyboards are only the most efficient input metbod when you have been trained properly and/or have lots of experience... otherwise it's amazingly inefficient.
a full-size multimedia keyboard (including numeric keypad) on the desktop?
I find it less stressful than either a standard keyboard or a virtual keyboard on a tablet. As for text messaging, my blackberry has a physical keyboard, but I'd rather send text messages via a real computer (my Kubuntu OS ASUS S101 netbook will do) via gateway.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Problem with keyboards is they stink compared to the old battleship sort. I loved the tactile feedback of the orignal boards. As a software engineer price doesn't matter to me, quality does. I'd happily pay $200+ for a quality keyboard. I loved the old programmable Gateway keyboard from the late 80s/early 90s.
It's the same tired old type of question: ask a question with an obvious answer ("it depends on what you're doing"). Makes me think someone is milling low quality content for page views.
Big media: quit saying "XYZ is dead" every time you're starved for attention.
Film at 11. Oh wait...
-- I speak only for myself
I type 100 wmp. I write for a living. The keyboard is my best tool and will remain so for the rest of my productive working life.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those that put their fingerprints all over our screens, and those of us who will break all of their fingers.
mark, waiting for the headband or jack
behind the ear....
I have enough fingerprints on my screen already, no thanks!
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2075#comic
No they won't. Stupid question. Keyboards are so incredibly much easier to type on. Touch screens are slow. It's much too easy to press the wrong button, even with feedback. And it's uncomfortable to have the keyboard on the screen because you usually will want to have the keyboard in a position comfortable to your hands, and the screen in a position comfortable to your head, neck and eyes (ie normal computer style).
Touch keyboards on devices with no actual keyboard are improving, yay for them. But this stuff isn't replacing actual keyboard, which have time and time again proven that they are the most useful and easiest way to get text input onto your screen.
I am not devoid of humor.