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IBM's Morphing Touchscreen Keyboard Interface
cylonlover writes "While most people prefer using physical keyboards and only tolerate virtual keyboards on their mobile devices for the sake of portability, onscreen keyboards do potentially offer a flexibility that can't be matched by physical keyboards. It's this flexibility that IBM is looking to take advantage of with the company recently filing a U.S. patent application for a morphing touchscreen keyboard interface that would automatically resize, reshape and reposition keys based on a user's typing style."
However, with that, I'd still prefer a slide-out with a second screen to put the keyboard on, so that it doesn't take up screen real-estate. At least, on a cell phone. A tablet probably has enough size to make that unnecessary. Even so, I still prefer the tactile click. Also, the feel of the edge of the key helps me type more accurately, if my aim is slightly off. Touch screen keyboards don't have that yet, though there are patents/techs that might help that, provided they require a bit of pressure for the key press, more than just touching the screen.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
I beta tested this a few months ago on my media center. I found it terribly slow and uncomfortable, as one might expect from a virtual keyboard
I don't want to have to look at my keyboard to ensure my hands are in the proper placement, and I'm striking the right keys. Most efficiency in typing consists in the textfile feedback, not in seeing what is reflected by the screen (most of us type looking at a document or not even watching the screen, and we let our muscles inform our brains that we've struck the correct key combinations). This isn't the first touch-screen keyboard, and I've used ones that were of adequate size to accommodate both hands (no thumb typing) and the number of errors incurred just as a result.... screw that!
I mean it reminds me of the new ipod nano's. Ever goto the gym with those and you aren't one of the track-at-a-time generation? Shuffle does no good for most of us who like a whole album. With t hose tiny touch screens, you literally have to look at the screen in order to change songs or browse around different artists. That really breaks your stride when working out, or when smoking cigarettes with a drink in another hand, etc.
Morphing may sound cool, but touch screen for input devices needs to get out of general purpose computing. It's just slowing everyone down.. that is where our productivity is really going.... The extra time spent manipulating touch screens really adds up at the end of the week...
So...they are pretty much building LCARS. Finally.
Let's play "Where's the 'e' key *today*?"
The main reason it's awful with touch interfaces is that you can't touch-type.
Writing habits depend on how you sit and you can easily adapt between angles by tactile feedback.
So, get a functioning tactile response system which is morphic.
THEN, I'm sold.
At least if it flexes, if not, it's bad for your fingers.
ThickButtons for Android already does this.
Here's a youtube video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itIPS3U2bf8
And here's a link on the developer's site to all the articles written about ThickButtons.
http://www.thickbuttons.com/index.php?f=news
In some cases (like my dad or old boss) it would have to morph into one giant key positioned under the index finger of the right hand and magically map to the correct letter for each key press.
I definitely remember seeing a YouTube video of an app that does this exact same thing.
Diehard touch typists using English-language keyboards actually use the little dimples on the F and J keys. Feeling them under your index fingers confirms that your hands are correctly positioned. While this is a noteworthy advance on IBM's part, I doubt that a keyboard which morphs keys - but lacks a way to ensure your fingers are where they're expected to be - will get much traction in the marketplace.
The article discusses a keyboard that makes subtle adjustments to the keys. Take a look at this software though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9b8NlMd79w It looks much more interesting, with the keyboard software able to infer the orientation and scale of the virtual keyboard from your keypresses alone. They show how it basically transforms everything on the fly depending on where your keypresses are. Google bought them some time ago, and I've been waiting for it to be integrated into Android.
I suspect would have other "data entry" uses too.
Just because it is stupid, doesn't mean it cant be patented.
According to this video, Apples uses a slightly different approach of just changing the size of the tap targets dynamically, but not changing the size or appearance of the keys.
I would guess Apple's approach is less distracting than changing the key size or highlighting the keys. Rather, it is just 'magic'.
I didn't RTFA, so how is this different from BlindType, a company who made a keyboard that rotated and scaled to account for the user being off. I remember they had patented it and Google bought them in Oct 2010.