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Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

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Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#41

Post by BatFastard »

As someone who has been a developer of virtual worlds for 17 years. I can say that this is a very incremental change, as all of the changes have been since 1994.

Personally I think we need to reimagine interfaces to the world around us, even the virtual worlds (VR/AR/MR) around us. Voice input, AI, hand sensing technologies could make for new ways for changing the worlds. The book Daemon by Danial Suarez and his eSpace holds much promise. I have been experimenting with those idea in a new VR world I have been working on for a few years.

Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#42

Post by harryf »

veli_joza wrote: post #30

Just look at this nonsense [1]. We have brand new technology with unlimited potential for new abstractions and paradigms. So, what do we do? We make a virtual desktop workstation, the same one we had since 70s! We limit all rendering to a 2D surface, make it curved and put a nebula in the background. Is this really the cutting edge of information technologies? Also, we need both mechanical keyboard to sense key press…

> We make a virtual desktop workstation, the same one we had since 70s!

...plus the QWERTY keyboard design goes back to 1870 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY )

Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#43

Post by 83457 »

pmoriarty wrote: post #10
shpx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the same thing so I disabled the backlight on my laptop's keyboard. After accidentally turning it on in the dark a month later I will never go back to a non back-lit keyboard. It's hard to place your hands on the keyboard in pitch black or when you're in a weird position like lying on your back with the laptop on your chest. If you've ever partially closed your laptop so that the monitor would shine on your…

The way I know where to place my fingers on a dark keyboard is by feeling for some raised bumps which are on the f and j keys on my keyboard. As long as I've got those, I can always easily put my fingers in the default position on the home row, and from there it's easy. As long as I can use such markers to position my hands in the proper initial position, I really don't like to have a lit keyboard in the dark. It's d…

My dad had a keyboard with those bumps rubbed almost completely off. Occasionally I would need to use the computer attached to it and found it really hard to use. I'm so accustomed to unconsciously placing my fingers correctly using them that without them I was really ineffective with the computer and found it frustrating.

Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#44

Post by amelius »

veli_joza wrote: post #30

Just look at this nonsense [1]. We have brand new technology with unlimited potential for new abstractions and paradigms. So, what do we do? We make a virtual desktop workstation, the same one we had since 70s! We limit all rendering to a 2D surface, make it curved and put a nebula in the background. Is this really the cutting edge of information technologies? Also, we need both mechanical keyboard to sense key press…

Well, you could build a wall of those screens.

Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#45

Post by nwah1 »

veli_joza wrote: post #30

Just look at this nonsense [1]. We have brand new technology with unlimited potential for new abstractions and paradigms. So, what do we do? We make a virtual desktop workstation, the same one we had since 70s! We limit all rendering to a 2D surface, make it curved and put a nebula in the background. Is this really the cutting edge of information technologies? Also, we need both mechanical keyboard to sense key press…

That was the same thinking behind Elon Musk's startup Neuralink, but given that there really aren't any options that are substantially better, Logitech isn't being stupid.

Perhaps some combination of voice, gesture, and 3D could be useful specifically while in-game. But for productivity, I don't think there's anything better than a traditional workstation.

Voice has privacy issues. Gesture recognition is inaccurate and causes "gorilla arm" syndrome.

3D doesn't really add much, and in fact for productivity some people think even 2D Window-based GUIs are cumbersome, and that is the entire motivation for tiling window managers. From that perspective, 3D is even more chaotic and cumbersome.

Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#46

Post by deevolution »

veli_joza wrote: post #30

Just look at this nonsense [1]. We have brand new technology with unlimited potential for new abstractions and paradigms. So, what do we do? We make a virtual desktop workstation, the same one we had since 70s! We limit all rendering to a 2D surface, make it curved and put a nebula in the background. Is this really the cutting edge of information technologies? Also, we need both mechanical keyboard to sense key press…

Until someone invents a neural interface, keyboards might be the best option for text input. That or develop purely conversational interfaces, but the issue with conversational interfaces is they lack the privacy of a physical interface.

Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#47

Post by lucaspiller »

pmoriarty wrote: post #18
swalsh wrote: post #14

Combine this with the new Pimax, and infinite workspaces start to become a practical reality. Which could help propgate the technology more which would lead seamlessly into more teleconferences, which have a feeling of personal interactions... which is important, even if we as programmers don't always appreciate it. The other day I was playing a game of onward. It was the rare instance that a team wanted to work toge…

"I work from home full time, I think the biggest downside are the missing meaningful interactions with other people. I think VR has huge potential to bridge that gap." VR also has the potential to be way more addictive than current forms of online interaction and entertainment. I'm reminded of I think it was a Larry Niven story (maybe Ringworld ) in which the protagonist has an electrical wire put in to the pleasure…

Computer games are bad enough now. When I first heard about a certain factory building game (I won't name it to prevent anyone else becoming addicted), for two weeks straight I played pretty much every waking hour when I wasn't working. I ate things that were easy to make and didn't need much attention like pasta - I'd just set it to cook and come back when the timer went off, eat, then back to the game.

Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#48

Post by TremendousJudge »

harryf wrote: post #42
veli_joza wrote: post #30

Just look at this nonsense [1]. We have brand new technology with unlimited potential for new abstractions and paradigms. So, what do we do? We make a virtual desktop workstation, the same one we had since 70s! We limit all rendering to a 2D surface, make it curved and put a nebula in the background. Is this really the cutting edge of information technologies? Also, we need both mechanical keyboard to sense key press…

> We make a virtual desktop workstation, the same one we had since 70s! ...plus the QWERTY keyboard design goes back to 1870 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY )

And the Latin alphabet goes back more than two millenia![1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_alphabet

Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#49

Post by silversmith »

veli_joza wrote: post #30

Just look at this nonsense [1]. We have brand new technology with unlimited potential for new abstractions and paradigms. So, what do we do? We make a virtual desktop workstation, the same one we had since 70s! We limit all rendering to a 2D surface, make it curved and put a nebula in the background. Is this really the cutting edge of information technologies? Also, we need both mechanical keyboard to sense key press…

I'm not sure it's nonsense. What I see is incremental change. Take the workstation, and move it to virtual space. Then add more 2D screens. Then try a different input or display method, one small step at a time. Sounds reasonable to me, much more so than re-inventing every part of the interface at the same time, and hoping to get it all within spitting distance of what's right.

Re: Logitech announces a development kit for using keyboards in virtual reality

#50

Post by graphitezepp »

lucaspiller wrote: post #47
pmoriarty wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I work from home full time, I think the biggest downside are the missing meaningful interactions with other people. I think VR has huge potential to bridge that gap." VR also has the potential to be way more addictive than current forms of online interaction and entertainment. I'm reminded of I think it was a Larry Niven story (maybe Ringworld ) in which the protagonist has an electrical wire put in to the pleasure…

Computer games are bad enough now. When I first heard about a certain factory building game (I won't name it to prevent anyone else becoming addicted), for two weeks straight I played pretty much every waking hour when I wasn't working. I ate things that were easy to make and didn't need much attention like pasta - I'd just set it to cook and come back when the timer went off, eat, then back to the game.

You stopped to eat instead of playing through meals? That's impressive. Were you able to sleep at all?
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