Will touch screens kill the keyboard?

[webwit]

Yeah that cursor control is real great.

[JBert]

Yes but they are not using the technology fully. The iGesture, Touchstream of Fingerworks were much more advanced than apple's current offerings in input devices, including touchscreens.

Typing this message on a Touchstream LP, on linux. No drivers/software needed. I am especially blown away by the cursor control (arrow keys) by dragging, it even works in text terminals, shells, and vi editor.

But would it sell as well as Apple's current show-off technologies and how much would they earn on it?

[sordna]

It would not sell as well, but would still be profitable since all the development has been done by Fingerworks. Apple could very easily have a Chinese manufacturer build it for them again. The fact that these keyboards sometimes fetch over $1,000 on eBay says a lot.

[webwit]

NMB Cool Leaf keyboard.

[Findecanor]

I wonder how long it will take until someone makes a flat scissor-switch chiclet keyboard with key tops that can sense gestures.

... or maybe with keys that fold out from a flat surface, such as on the Levitatr keyboard, a prototype keyboard for the iPad and iPhone. I expect someone to take that concept one step further and make it into a touch surface. It already looks like a larger iPhone 4 ...

[itlnstln]

That Cool Leaf keyboard would be totally kick-ass if it didn't totally suck-ass for typing. Form over function, what are you gonna do?

[NewGuy]

More on the subject of touch-screens for typing, recently I have found myself connecting to my PC via VNC/RDP with my iPad and using it as a wireless keyboard at night.

It's quick and responsive, and my client (Jump Desktop) can use the built-in dictionary/autocorrect features unlike many of the others, so I can still type at a medium-to-high speed with only the faintest of taps rather than the loud noise of a keyboard—doesn't matter if it's rubber dome, mechanical or low-profile laptop keys, they're all still loud at night.

The size of it is nice too, rather than the bulky full-size keyboard next to the mouse, which is pretty bad ergonomically.

After having the device almost six months, it's surprising just how easy it becomes to type on it, whether using the large keyboard on a flat surface, or the split keyboard with your thumbs when holding the device. The smaller portrait "full" keyboard is fine for typing with one-handed when held too, though I haven't really done that since the split keyboard was introduced in the iOS 5 betas.

Talking about the split keyboard—one amazing feature it has that you can't get with a physical split keyboard, is that if you are not properly trained (or not trained when using your thumbs) and you are looking at what you're typing rather than the keys, it will intelligently type a non-existing key if you reach for it. For example, the right side of the split starts YUIOP. If you hit to the left of Y when typing, where there isn't a key, you will still get a T even though the key is on the left-hand-side of the keyboard.

Another thing is that it can make international characters, or even things like dashes much easier to type. A german ß (double S) can be typed by holding your finger on S for a second. The same goes for dashes; hold on - for em, en and bullet options. With other keys that only have one variant (or a default variant) you can simply flick up on the key when typing to get it without a delay. This is considerably easier than trying to remember unicode numbers for characters, especially if you use them frequently.

I wouldn't replace my PC's keyboard with one—you definitely couldn't use it for gaming, for one thing—but I can definitely see the general public wanting them if external keyboards worked as well as this does and were affordable, or those dual-screen laptops we're beginning to see take off.

The main thing is that they need to have the option for a low clicking noise from the keyboard as you type (helps people know when a key has registered, especially if they are not looking at the keys, though I obviously turn that off at night) and some kind of built-in autocorrection. Apple has added this to OS X Lion as a standard system-wide feature now, so they're already in a position to put out something like this.

Frankly I'd be happy to see them put out a backlit Bluetooth 4.0 revision of their current keyboards though, which seems a far more realistic option in the near future.

I'd prefer a backlit wireless mechanical keyboard with a Windows layout, but that doesn't seem likely to happen any time soon.

[Southparkfan1999]

i don't think this will ever happen and there is one major flaw if you break the touch screen your completely screwed but if you still have a actual keyboard you can just replace the screen. imo if anything is going to kill keyboards its going to be voice control

[Zobeid Zuma]

I expect keyboards will be "killed" some time after fountain pens are "killed". According to most conventional wisdom, fountain pens were killed by ballpoints in the 1950s-1960s. Yet, look today at how many companies are producing fountain pens and ink! I can't keep track of them all.

The typewriter, on the other hand. . . That's an endangered species.

Here's something interesting, though: Virtual reality! I've got a VR headset myself, and it's great, but it's not conducive to typing. VR systems, for the most part, have to find new ways of interaction that avoid the keyboard -- at least for now. Maybe in the future we'll get accurate finger-tracking and be able to type on virtual keyboards in our virtual space.

[Engicoder]

Is it necro week or something?

[seebart]

Is it necro week or something?

Looks like it, this thread being over six years old.

[Findecanor]

The typewriter, on the other hand. . . That's an endangered species.

Supposedly, the last typewriter plant in the world shut down in 2009: https://parsikhabar.net/history/godrej- ... lity/3124/

Is it necro week or something?

It looks like necro week on Geekhack as well... I don't know about when people usually take vacation in the US, but I guess that has something to do with it.

[Engicoder]

[quote="Findecanor";p=381371I don't know about when people usually take vacation in the US, but I guess that has something to do with it.[/quote]

What is this vacation you speak of? Oh yeah...that's where I go somewhere else and work remotely for a week

[ideus]

Mechanical keyboards had approached an end already and they are still here under our fingers, still, and they will be here in the future, not at every desk but on some, just as they are now. They will not be a common computer accessory as they were back in eighties but they will always be some, so worry not, but just in case have a stock of your favorite key sets and PCBs to built your own board at any time.

[paecific.jr]

I hate bringing something this old back, but I think it has gotten more relevant over the past six years...

What if there was a device that was shaped like a keyboard, looked like a keyboard, but was a touchscreen? Imagine being able to swipe on your desktop, use word prediction, macros upon macros, etc. The technology has come a long way since 2011.

I definitely understand that the tactility will be complete garbage, but most younger people don't care. If all they have ever typed on was a laptop keyboard they won't even know that something better is there. At one point I remember seeing Apple showing off "how much travel" their keyboard has. It was terrible, but people don't know better.

[Sigmoid]

Supposedly, the last typewriter plant in the world shut down in 2009: https://parsikhabar.net/history/godrej- ... lity/3124/

Not http://gawker.com/5795649/relax-theyre- ... ypewriters

What if there was a device that was shaped like a keyboard, looked like a keyboard, but was a touchscreen? Imagine being able to swipe on your desktop, use word prediction, macros upon macros, etc. The technology has come a long way since 2011.

I definitely understand that the tactility will be complete garbage, but most younger people don't care. If all they have ever typed on was a laptop keyboard they won't even know that something better is there. At one point I remember seeing Apple showing off "how much travel" their keyboard has. It was terrible, but people don't know better.

Well, it's all a matter of taste. Typing on the new macbooks is like tapping on paper, but some might actually like it. Maybe 30 years from now, they will be nostalgic toward the sublime feeling of tapping on paper, lol.

Anyway, I don't think touchscreens will really take over in general. Sure, in some niches, they already have taken over, but this only highlights the problems they introduce. I've only met one "keyboard" I could actually use with any comfort at all on a touchscreen, it's the MessagEase input method, that uses taps and short drags on a relatively large matrix.



It took some learning, but now typing isn't painful on a tablet. It's still far from the speed and comfort of any physical keyboard, even a new tappy Apple one.

Its competitors, the predictive keyboards, are not keyboards at all. I personally hate AIs trying to figure out what I want, because they either tend to be so far off the mark I flip out at them, involve third parties I don't want privy to my lifestyle, or both... But still, it's something a lot of people like and use. But it's important to see how these predictive gesture boards are actually closer to speech recognition than typing.

And here's my point. Keyboards on touchscreens are an interim thing. In the situations where we use them, voice recognition is a lot more in line with requirements in my opinion. Like how computer word processors made typewriters obsolete, but not fountain pens, similarly, I'd say keyboards will probably stick around for a lot longer than their touchscreen-based derivatives, which will soon be supplanted by Siri & co.

[nickg]

Dear [every diety] i hope not. Go along side it sure but I need a real input device that has ergonmoics

[rich1051414]

This gives me an idea. Add haptic feedback to a mechanical keyboard to enhance the tactility. One could use cellphone vibration motors and drive them off the same arduino they are running their keyboard on.
Why have one or the other, when we could have both?

[Findecanor]

I wonder how long it will take until someone makes a flat scissor-switch chiclet keyboard with key tops that can sense gestures.

(quoting myself). I found recently that this has been a feature of Japanese cell phones for a while: flip-phones where the top shell is an Android touch-screen and the bottom is a keypad - that also senses swipes to move a cursor around.

The feature, called "Touch Cruiser" was originally only for a small touchpad at the top (instead of D-pad) but is now extended to the whole keypad.

This gives me an idea. Add haptic feedback to a mechanical keyboard to enhance the tactility.

You mean ... like with a solenoid?
I think it is better to have feedback per key.

[seebart]

I found recently that this has been a feature of Japanese cell phones for a while: flip-phones where the top shell is an Android touch-screen and the bottom is a keypad - that also senses swipes to move a cursor around.

Yeah that was a "new" feature about five years ago.

[ideus]

I hate bringing something this old back, but I think it has gotten more relevant over the past six years...

What if there was a device that was shaped like a keyboard, looked like a keyboard, but was a touchscreen? Imagine being able to swipe on your desktop, use word prediction, macros upon macros, etc. The technology has come a long way since 2011.

I definitely understand that the tactility will be complete garbage, but most younger people don't care. If all they have ever typed on was a laptop keyboard they won't even know that something better is there. At one point I remember seeing Apple showing off "how much travel" their keyboard has. It was terrible, but people don't know better.

There will always be room for different solutions; but, as any other current technology, no one single solution works for everyone. The tablet, for example, I have not used one ever, and I am here been productive as any one else. In the other extreme, there are people who are still using type writers, while computers are all the rage. The future will be exactly as it is today, there will be multiple solutions competing for our attention and money.

[ckofy]

Reading this old thread from the beginning tells me that it is not much changes happened in this area in 6 years.
All goodies promised in the article are still nowhere.