Just a random thought. I was wondering if it was possible to make a better laser keyboard by having an actual physical keyboard consisting of a mat with highly reflective background and embossed letters & key borders. This would give at least some tactile feedback of touching a key. Also it would give the laser and sensors a consistent environment on which to do their detection allowing for more precise engineering. You could use an infrared laser since you wouldn’t need its projection to make the keyboard visible, and you could use multiple emitters and detectors around the sides of the keyboard. The big downside remaining would be that you’d have to get used to hovering your fingers over the keyboard and having even the slightest touch count as a press.
The big downside remaining would be that you’d have to get used to hovering your fingers over the keyboard and having even the slightest touch count as a press.
That’s a pretty big downside, and, in my opinion, the reason that touch keyboards haven’t really taken off for any kind of “long-form” writing. Even for devices that are ostensibly mostly oriented around touch UIs, such as smartphones and tablets, there is a large ecosystem of physical keyboard accessories which allow the user to rest their hands on keys and provide greater feedback for key presses than a mat.
Just a random thought. I was wondering if it was possible to make a better laser keyboard by having an actual physical keyboard consisting of a mat with highly reflective background and embossed letters & key borders. This would give at least some tactile feedback of touching a key. Also it would give the laser and sensors a consistent environment on which to do their detection allowing for more precise engineering. You could use an infrared laser since you wouldn’t need its projection to make the keyboard visible, and you could use multiple emitters and detectors around the sides of the keyboard. The big downside remaining would be that you’d have to get used to hovering your fingers over the keyboard and having even the slightest touch count as a press.
That’s a pretty big downside, and, in my opinion, the reason that touch keyboards haven’t really taken off for any kind of “long-form” writing. Even for devices that are ostensibly mostly oriented around touch UIs, such as smartphones and tablets, there is a large ecosystem of physical keyboard accessories which allow the user to rest their hands on keys and provide greater feedback for key presses than a mat.