Valve Job Posting Confirms Hardware Plans

redletterdave writes "Valve is reportedly interested in building hardware. The Bellevue, Wash.-based software developer added a job posting to its site on Tuesday morning for an industrial designer. We're frustrated by the lack of innovation in the computer hardware space though, so we're jumping in,' the posting said. 'Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven’t really changed in any meaningful way over the years. There's a real void in the marketplace, and opportunities to create compelling user experiences are being overlooked.'"

Comments

We all know what this means.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, at least we'll never have to buy more than two consoles from them.

Keyboard and mouse hasn't changed for a reason

[Missing.Matter]

Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven’t really changed in any meaningful way over the years

Maybe the reason for this is the basic form works. The design of the wheel hasn't changed much in a 5 thousand years either. I wonder why.

Re:Keyboard and mouse hasn't changed for a reason

[Anonymous Coward]

Nuh uh! You're just crusty and old and resistant to change. How dare you want stable, mature interfaces rather than ever changing bullshit to justify the job of some hipster designer. What next? You're going to tell me we shouldn't ditch steering wheels and pedals in cars? FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING LUDDITE!!!!

Re:Keyboard and mouse hasn't changed for a reason

[Hatta]

That's all irrelevant. What matters is that keyboard and mouse gamers beat the pants off of gamepad players whenever they go head to head. The keyboard and mouse is the superior controller by the only metric that matters, performance.

Re:Keyboard and mouse hasn't changed for a reason

[blind biker]

I know I'm going to get modded into oblivion for saying this.

I wish sometimes posts starting with this phrase actually got modded into oblivion. The sheer drama-queenish whininess is starting to irritate me.

If you have something controversial to say, just fucking say it. No need for the preemptive whining.

Kinect-like laptop?

[rasmusbr]

"Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven’t really changed in any meaningful way over the years. There's a real void in the marketplace, and opportunities to create compelling user experiences are being overlooked"

Yeah, aside from the Wiimote and Kinect and every other product that has changed the input in a meaningful way.

It sounds to me like Valve is interested in developing a gaming laptop with Kinect-like functionality built in. That is an interesting idea, but it's nothing particularly revolutionary. Successful products are seldom revolutionary, so that's not a bad thing. Good luck Valve, with whatever it is you're doing!

Design requirements

[zooblethorpe]

Even basic input, the keyboard and mouse, haven’t really changed in any meaningful way over the years

Maybe the reason for this is the basic form works. The design of the wheel hasn't changed much in a 5 thousand years either. I wonder why.

I beg to differ. The basic design requirement of a wheel is that it's round and rolls, and I'll certainly grant you that this aspect of wheels hasn't changed. However, a rough-hewn wooden round, such as used in the simplest of carts, bears very little other resemblance to the three-spoked carbon-fiber performance bicycle wheels I see with some frequency on my morning bicycle commute. Sure, both are round and roll, but otherwise, there's thousands of years of difference between them.

So what are the design requirements for computer input? You could start by looking at the requirements of a keyboard and a mouse: 1) Must have all the keys required to input at least ASCII. 2) Must have some kind of pointer-device control, ideally with at least two buttons.

So sure, you can have your basic flat keyboard, and a basic mouse. Or you could have something quite different, like this, or this, or this, or this (what I'm actually using to type this message).

And that's not even looking into other possible input schemes, such as voice recognition, eye tracking, etc.

I applaud Valve's efforts to look into better ways of doing things. This kind of exploration is exactly what leads to new and better things.

Cheers,

Re:Design requirements

[jones_supa]

Or you could have something quite different, like this, or this, or this, or this (what I'm actually using to type this message).

Please, don't put just "this" in every link. Let me FTFY...

Or you could have something quite different, like Ergodex DX1, or Win Mini, or Optimus Maximus, or AlphaGrip iGrip (what I'm actually using to type this message).

Better?

Re:Design requirements

[Missing.Matter]

You seem to be missing the point. Valve seems to be saying that they're not seeing the kind of innovation they want in the computer hardware space, and point to the keyboard and mouse saying "Look! These aren't changing to therefore there is no innovation."

The obvious answer is they're not changing because they don't need to. It's like pointing to the wheel and saying "It's still the same shape, there's no innovation there!" Yes, in 5 thousand years we've adding on whiz-bang features and materials, but its circumference is still pi*d because that's what works best. Anything else is sub-optimal.

For the mouse, perhaps it's not exactly *optimal* for for our current user interfaces its pretty much the best input we have. I think for any change in the input, we're going to also need a change in the software. History shows this to be the case, as the mouse didn't really do much until we needed it for a GUI. You point to voice recognition and eye tracking, and a whole slew of other input devices, yet you neglect the fact that all these things exist yet no one uses them. Again, I believe the reason is because the deviate from the optimal input device for our GUIs (mouse), and in order for some of these alternative inputs to become as mainstream as mouse, we're going to need a user interface to compliment them. That is to say, while voice command sucks for navigating our current 2D GUI, mouse would suck for navigating a voice-centric UI.

On a final note, I as well applaud Valve for looking into a better way of doing things. I just want to be cautious and say I hope their efforts are not misguided, and that in their quest to find a better mouse or other input device, they don't instead just invent something different for the sake of being different.

Re:Design requirements

[tlhIngan]

The mouse has evolved, and natural selection has killed the old style mice.

I mean, we have mousewheels now which seem to be essential (try using a mouse without one - they get annoying quick). But you have mice that have tried other things - IBM used to put their red nubs on them for scrolling, Apple put a touchpad on them, etc. And we have mice, trackballs, and touchpads (which have evolved greatly from their useless postage-stamp sized days to the acres of surface on the Apple ones).

Hell, there were laptops with built-in mice (not trackballs or touchpads or eraser points, but actual mouse).

Innovation may have stopped because they've matured, and we've reached a stage where they're really not much you can do that hasn't been tried before and natural selection killed it. Plus, considering a basic mouse is usable, costs probably $5 assembled tops, and is good enough (not a far cry from Jobs' demand that the Mac mouse cost $20 tops, though Apple makes terrible, horrendous mice (and always have), perhaps that's why they use touchpads).

Keyboards, again you see a bit, but there's only so much you can do with the key layout before people can't type on them anymore. Maybe if you made it a key pad for gaming or something.

Maybe a joypad can be improved a bit - though something like the Xbox360 one is pretty damn comfortable to use and definitely one I use for playing games on the PC with...

Re:So, I can FINALLY buy ...

[dpilot]

I know you meant this as a joke, but take it seriously for a moment.

Wouldn't it be spiffy if Valve took their hardware plaform and came up with a Steampunk option for it? Obviously the basic low-cost version will have to be basic and low-cost. But they're in an obvious position to sell a Steampunk version for a premium.

And this is news?!

[tibit]

Come on. Jeri Ellsworth is working for them. I doubt she's writing PC games, duh. There was a hackaday article about that a quarter ago. I don't follow this industry and even I've known about it for a while. Sigh.

Touch typing vs. hunt and peck

[tepples]

console controllers, for example, are actually better for some games, such as platformers or racers, though not for FPS or RTS games

As I tried to type a long post on my Nexus 7 tablet a few days ago, I realized something. Pressing buttons on a keyboard or a gamepad is like touch typing, as the player memorizes where the buttons are relative to his thumbs' resting positions and uses the feel of the edges of the buttons to adjust his hand positioning. Using a mouse or touch screen, on the other hand, is like hunt and peck: see something on the screen, move your mouse, and click. Aiming in FPS and selecting units in RTS are nearly ideal hunt and peck tasks; platformers and fighting games need touch typing because movement is relative to the player's current position.

I've written more about this.

Re:GameCube or N-Gabe?

[jgtg32a]

Sauna or some other word that means something along the lines of a Box filled with Steam.

Hat-controller

[Sta7ic]

Speculation:

A mouse that has a dedicated scroll wheel for hats.
Extra buttons for hat-based emotes: tip, straighten, salute, decapitating throw.
Two- and three- factor authentication.
Age recognition scanners to auto-ban 13-year-olds.
Hat-shaped controllers with force feedback.
Tickle-Me Companion Cube with lifelike 'clunking' sounds.