DailyDirt: Better Keyboards

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Keyboards are one of the fastest and most accurate ways to input text into a digital device. Sure, you could argue that speech recognition has beaten a txting champion (Ben Cook in 2006), but the more common experience with speech recognition is far from perfect dictation results. Early keyboards used some relatively complex mechanical designs to achieve a nice tactile feel and accurate input -- replaced by various iterations of keyboard improvements to become thinner and lighter and more (or less) clicky-sounding. Here are just a few more attempts to make better keyboards. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
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Filed Under: buttons, haptics, input devices, keyboards, multi-touch, sensors, speech recognition, touchscreens, ui
Companies: keyboardio, kickstarter, nuance


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  • icon
    Ryan (profile), 6 Aug 2014 @ 5:50pm

    I'm totally interested in keyboard improvements and such for mobile and portable devices. But when at a nice stable desk, I'm still of the opinion that there is nothing better than a classic IBM Model M.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 7 Aug 2014 @ 8:58am

      Re:

      "I'm totally interested in keyboard improvements and such for mobile and portable devices"

      Me too. So far, however, the only improvement that I really long for is an actual, physical keyboard. Those on-screen ones just totally blow. The shape-shifting business to add tactile feedback might be an improvement, but it still wouldn't come remotely close to a physical keyboard.

      "there is nothing better than a classic IBM Model M."

      Best keyboard ever. I still marvel at how when it comes to keyboard technology, it's been nothing but downhill from there.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Aug 2014 @ 7:09pm

    My fingers are still longing back to the days of the Volker Craig VT-52 terminal

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Roger Strong (profile), 6 Aug 2014 @ 8:47pm

    Key labels

    30 years ago I had a keyboard with a little LCD strip above the function keys, so that software could label what each function key was for. Why can't I buy one today?

    (The Art Lebedev studio produces keyboards with an LCD screen *in* every key - at hideous cost. I just want a cheap LCD strip above the function keys.)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Paul Renault (profile), 7 Aug 2014 @ 5:09am

    A hard non-tactile surface as a keyboard?

    Thanks, but no.

    My fingertips ache just thinking about tapping on a hard surface at 40 wpm (that's rapping a desk surface about three times a second). These guys must be bible-method typists.

    And with no tactile feedback?

    Engineers spend a lot of time and effort to provide tactile feedback. In the seventies, a lot of effort was put into photographic cameras so that the user could feel the point where, if the pressed the shutter down 'just a hair', the camera would shoot.

    Likewise, for keyboards. There's a reason that these schemes keep failing. The public really doesn't want them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Thrudd, 7 Aug 2014 @ 9:26am

    Keyboards

    My fingers still ache at the memory of the mechanical typewriters before the IBM Selectric. Ever since then I prefer a good cross point mechanical switch based keyboard.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    djl47 (profile), 7 Aug 2014 @ 11:13am

    Das Keyboard?

    Anyone here try Das Keyboard? They were inspired by the IBM Model M. The result was their Model S.
    The on screen keyboard on my HP X11 laptablet running Windows 8.1 is much easier to use than the on screen keyboards on either of my Galaxy Tabs.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Rekrul, 7 Aug 2014 @ 11:25am

    They keep trying to "improve" things that really don't need improving. Just like Microsoft keeps trying to "improve" Windows by changing things for no apparent reason.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Alex, 7 Aug 2014 @ 1:00pm

    speech recognition versa keyboard

    Do you really know how quick is our voice? Last month I had a job to transcribe audio and I have used https://speechpad.pw site for this job. So, for the 1.5 second the man in this audio said 3-7 words!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    John, 30 Aug 2015 @ 7:58am

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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