A while ago when I was doing a lot of VR I wanted something like this so I could see where my hands were touching the keyboard while wearing a VR headset. Hand trackers aren't precise enough for that, and video passthrough also isn't great for various reasons. Add a Vive tracker to this and you could potentially use it fairly naturally in VR.
A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
41–50 of 118 posts
Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
#42I don't get it. The "keep your fingers on the keyboard and use the mouse" thing has been solved ages ago with the trackpoint [1]. It's the number one reason for me not to buy a MacBook.
Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
#43I don't get it. The "keep your fingers on the keyboard and use the mouse" thing has been solved ages ago with the trackpoint [1]. It's the number one reason for me not to buy a MacBook. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick
Figuring out how to disable that damn thing was my top priority when I had a thinkpad. Maybe I should have stuck with it, but it was just an annoying thing that was impossible to control and easily knocked to where I didn't want it to be (a problem when input focus is mouse based rather than foreground app based).
So this looks interesting to me... but possibly suffers from the same problem of inadvertent activation.
Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
#44I don't get it. The "keep your fingers on the keyboard and use the mouse" thing has been solved ages ago with the trackpoint [1]. It's the number one reason for me not to buy a MacBook. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick
It's nice to see a differing point of view. For me, Trackpoints are the number one reason I don't buy Thinkpads. I cannot stand those things. Trackpads, especially those on Mac products, have a lot more functionality.
Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
#45I don't get it. The "keep your fingers on the keyboard and use the mouse" thing has been solved ages ago with the trackpoint [1]. It's the number one reason for me not to buy a MacBook. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick
The trackpoint on my x220 was very convenient, but it really hurt my fingers.
Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
#46I used to have a keyboard back in 2005 that was made by a company called FingerWorks. The keyboard came in two halves and used virtual keys and gestures. You could get it with either Qwerty or Dvorak layouts printed on the smooth surface. They also made a replacement keyboard that you could install in MacBook Pros. Apple acquired the company in 2005 and used the technology in its products.
I really liked my FingerWorks keyboard, but it kind of died out for me once FingerWorks stopped producing firmware updates for it. I don't know how well this keyboard works, but I'd be happy with it if it worked at least as well as my FingerWorks keyboard did.
Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
#47If only it were multitouch, then it'd be ideal for the 10gui concept: http://10gui.com/
But... I hate laptop-style keyboards and can't see myself moving back after switching to mechanical keyboards, if I can at all help it.
Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
#48I didn't see a price anywhere. Did I miss it? How much do they plan to sell these for?
Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
#49Looks this would be perfect as a "sofa keyboard" for controlling a home media center or similar. I guess that the main difficulty would be not pressing the keys while using it as a touchpad, but I imagine it would be possible to get used to that.
Not sure how it’s any better than the Logitech K400 or the Microsoft All in One keyboard, especially since those don’t need any special software support so can work with your Android TV, Apple TV, HTPC and essentially any other device that supports USB HID, and those cost only like $20-30 I don’t see this thing being sold for less than $150-200.
I have only owned the Logitech K400 before and its touchpad is rubbish. I threw it out because it was so frustrating to use. Lots of accidental taps when just trying to move the mouse pointer and issues like that.
Is the Microsoft All In One any better?
Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard
#50A while ago when I was doing a lot of VR I wanted something like this so I could see where my hands were touching the keyboard while wearing a VR headset. Hand trackers aren't precise enough for that, and video passthrough also isn't great for various reasons. Add a Vive tracker to this and you could potentially use it fairly naturally in VR.
Sounds like touch typing is for you. It's even called “blind typing” in some languages.