Posts Tagged ‘tablet PC’
Keyboards of Various Kinds
Ah, just remembered something that I wanted to show you guys a while back, but couldn’t because I had to focus on exam studying. A long time ago, somebody showed me concepts of a laser keyboard that looked like this:
At the time, this looked so futuristic that I thought it was only a concept pic somebody made in photoshop to illustrate what keyboards could look like in the future. At least, that’s what I thought until recently, when I found a bunch of youtube videos testing out the thing. Apparently this is really a commercial product now. It costs at around $200. So, here you go, I’m talking about something that came out and hit the geek market as early as 2005 as if it’s the next new thing.
Check out the video here.
According to various reviews, the keyboard is quite usable, although it feels different at first. Apparently if I switch to one of these, I wouldn’t be able to type at the same speed as I currently can. Aside from that, apparently this is supposed to work quite flawlessly. Now I wonder how long it would take for laptops to start adopting this kind of keyboard as norm.
Imagine that. Take a tablet PC, get rid of the keyboard component, and you get just a touch screen. Right beside the webcam hole on top of the screen you get another adjustable laser head that projects a virtual keyboard. A small, thin plastic platform can slide down from behind the screen and fold over to provide a platform for the keyboard if you can’t find other flat surfaces (e.g. sitting on the grass). To make the screen sit still, use some sort of stand like they use for photo frames. The result would be a PC that’s, quite simply, a screen (although it would be a thick screen to house all the hardware).
One thing I wonder is whether the virtual keyboard can detect the act of “holding down” a key. Though I guess if you really need to hold down a key for certain applications and the virtual keboard can’t do it, there’s always the option to get an extra USB keyboard.
Meanwhile, I saw this in a magazine the other day:
And I want it…
No Comments »