especially for ergonomic sake. As a recent Graphic Design graduate, I spend eight+ hours a day using a keyboard and mouse. I started getting hand cramps just 3 months into my job and decided to give the Wacom pen and tablet a try. Though it eased the cramping in my wrist, the learning curve to using it like a mouse (vs. illustrating with it) was a slow one.
It won't be for a while, but I can totally see the keyboard and mouse replaced with a simple, super flat touchscreen with hordes of additional functionality. However, simple things I use all the time, like quick, multiple, consecutive keyboard shortcuts might be slowed down due to lack of being able to feel the keys.
I don't think this is as far off as people think. The fact that multitouch is available on an small device like the iPhone makes it much easier to upscale to larger portable or desktop iterations; rather than if they had started with giant multitouch surfaces and had to develop the technology to scale them down.
I imagine the real challenge here for Apple engineers is developing this new keyboard language. Again, Apple's goal isn't just to put it out there, but to do so in a way which makes the user process better and easier.
Since the release of the iPhone people had been thinking about how this would perpetuate up to mac's other computers. The idea of multitouch on an ACD or iMac screen is impractical. People don't want to work with their arms stretched out in front of them, and I also don't think we're going to see the next generation of computers where everyone is looking "down" at their screen on the table. Comfort of viewing and hand placement do not coincide, so I think we're going to be with a separated "viewer" and "input" device for a while.
I knew Apple was on the right rack when they talked about the interface changing to meet the needs of the application.
Imagine this: Open your MacBook and what you find is for all intents and purposes TWO screens, instead of a screen and a keyboard. The top screen will continue to serve it's current function- to allow the user to view the result of their input at a comfortable angle. The "keyboard" screen will be a completely amorphous interface: a keyboard when typing, blank sheet for drawing-- a specialized interface for whatever program you use. Audio programs get a mixing board and knobs, editors get a mixture of new and old tabletop film editing controls. Each program's interface eliminates the clutter of unnecessary buttons, and each button is labeled with it's actual function, rather than having to remember keyboard shortcuts or keystroke combinations to execute complex commands.
Desktops would be similar, with the elimination of the keyboard and mouse for this new tablet-style interface.
As I said, I don't think this is too far off. In fact, I can't think of a reason why if Apple released one of these today, that I couldn't plug it into my MacPro right now, save for a software update that installs the programs necessary on my machine. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple wasn't making plans to release this as early as 2010- maybe even sooner? Again, we already have the technology in our hands now-- literally!
I don't think this is as far off as people think. The fact that multitouch is available on an small device like the iPhone makes it much easier to upscale to larger portable or desktop iterations; rather than if they had started with giant multitouch surfaces and had to develop the technology to scale them down.
I imagine the real challenge here for Apple engineers is developing this new keyboard language. Again, Apple's goal isn't just to put it out there, but to do so in a way which makes the user process better and easier.
Since the release of the iPhone people had been thinking about how this would perpetuate up to mac's other computers. The idea of multitouch on an ACD or iMac screen is impractical. People don't want to work with their arms stretched out in front of them, and I also don't think we're going to see the next generation of computers where everyone is looking "down" at their screen on the table. Comfort of viewing and hand placement do not coincide, so I think we're going to be with a separated "viewer" and "input" device for a while.
I knew Apple was on the right rack when they talked about the interface changing to meet the needs of the application.
Imagine this: Open your MacBook and what you find is for all intents and purposes TWO screens, instead of a screen and a keyboard. The top screen will continue to serve it's current function- to allow the user to view the result of their input at a comfortable angle. The "keyboard" screen will be a completely amorphous interface: a keyboard when typing, blank sheet for drawing-- a specialized interface for whatever program you use. Audio programs get a mixing board and knobs, editors get a mixture of new and old tabletop film editing controls. Each program's interface eliminates the clutter of unnecessary buttons, and each button is labeled with it's actual function, rather than having to remember keyboard shortcuts or keystroke combinations to execute complex commands.
Desktops would be similar, with the elimination of the keyboard and mouse for this new tablet-style interface.
As I said, I don't think this is too far off. In fact, I can't think of a reason why if Apple released one of these today, that I couldn't plug it into my MacPro right now, save for a software update that installs the programs necessary on my machine. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple wasn't making plans to release this as early as 2010- maybe even sooner? Again, we already have the technology in our hands now-- literally!
Maybe you're right. I personally think it's further away, but I wouldn't complain at all if you turned out to be right and I was wrong.
Those of us who have been in favor of this for a while will hope to see it soon.
I'm sure that a keyboard could still be used with this. The best of two worlds.
As someone who has used tablets since the late '80's, I find them to be very useful. I also suppose that it's something like when keyboards first arrived in the 19th century. They were very bad, jammed up constantly, hence the QWERTY layout, etc. People didn't like them, and it was said to lower people's standards, morals, and was the cause of a whole world of other depravities.
We're hearing about the same thing about these multitouch keyboards, but it won't last.
Without our focus being around keyboards in front of us, the tablet monitor could be mounted close, and low, at a slope of about 30 degrees. This would solve a lot of ergonomic problems with the monitor as well.
If the keyboard is needed, it could be pulled out from underneath, as many keyboards are now. No problem there.
An iMac could be used this way, with the "chin" being used as a handrest, finally eliminating the arguments against it being there.
Imagine this: Open your MacBook and what you find is for all intents and purposes TWO screens, instead of a screen and a keyboard. The top screen will continue to serve it's current function- to allow the user to view the result of their input at a comfortable angle. The "keyboard" screen will be a completely amorphous interface: a keyboard when typing, blank sheet for drawing-- a specialized interface for whatever program you use. Audio programs get a mixing board and knobs, editors get a mixture of new and old tabletop film editing controls. Each program's interface eliminates the clutter of unnecessary buttons, and each button is labeled with it's actual function, rather than having to remember keyboard shortcuts or keystroke combinations to execute complex commands.
So like for instance a generic program like Garageband would have say on the main viewing screen the tracks in the order they appear today, though on the bottom user input screen you might have a bar at the top that is the tempo, reverse, play/pause, forward and record, volume, etc. below could be programmed to be a keyboard, or a chaos pad.. a slide on a guitar or a slider for some weird effect, and maybe on the right and left are tabs, and if you tap and slide them over like you would scrolling for contacts on an iPhone, your midi music scroll, the notes or modulation would slide over, or maybe a set of drums... oh me oh my...
I don't think this is as far off as people think. The fact that multitouch is available on an small device like the iPhone makes it much easier to upscale to larger portable or desktop iterations; rather than if they had started with giant multitouch surfaces and had to develop the technology to scale them down.
<snip>
As I said, I don't think this is too far off. In fact, I can't think of a reason why if Apple released one of these today, that I couldn't plug it into my MacPro right now, save for a software update that installs the programs necessary on my machine. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple wasn't making plans to release this as early as 2010- maybe even sooner? Again, we already have the technology in our hands now-- literally!
The real limitation I see is tactile response. Without it you won't be replacing the keyboard anytime soon, and even with it I don't see it going away. While the iPhone rocks I can't do SMS without looking at the screen for every character. I believe Pioneer has made a touchscreen car stereo with a tactile energy field to simulate the button locations.
What I foresee is that a new input technology won't obsolete an older one (at least not right away) but will compliment it. Like how the advent of the mouse complimented the keyboard. For instance, a MacBook Pro with a typical keyboard and display in the usual location, but a trackpad as wide as the keyboard, that is OLED and has tactile response included.
Tactile response could even go so far as to increase the electrical output as you choose a screen option to mimic the sensation of the slight resistance offered by a physical mouse button or keyboard key.
The only thing with higher human-computer bandwidth that a keyboard is Voice.
When voice works, the keyboard can disappear.
Actually, I don't agree. Oh, maybe in the far future, when computers have genuinely intelligent AI and you can hold a conversation with them, like in Star Trek TNG; maybe then the primary interface will be voice. But while we still have to drag windows around, launch applications and do other menial computing tasks, there's no way that voice commands are going to be more important than keyboard etc.
Certainly, speaking as a writer and editor, although I can probably speak faster than I can type for short periods, I definitely produce better written work by typing at the keyboard than I would if I attempted to speak what I wanted to say. It uses different parts of the brain; I'm much better at marshalling my thoughts when I'm writing than when I'm speaking. I suppose I could get used to it over time, but it'd be a different way of working. Besides, typing is a private activity, whereas speaking at a computer certainly isn't.
Anyway, to get back to the point, I think that the most interesting potential here is for a truly adaptable input interface that can be reconfigured to suit whatever purpose is at hand. The QWERTY keyboard, regardless of how many people are facile with it, has always been a cumbersome input method. Indeed, it was designed to be exactly that: as many people know, this keyboard layout came from mechanical typewriter days when input had to be slowed down to prevent the mechanism from jamming, and the layout was chosen to be as unnatural as possible in order to achieve the goal of slowing down the typist.
So it seems to me pretty obvious that, in due course, there will be a new input device with a dynamic interface, that can become a QWERTY keyboard or a Dvorak keyboard or an alphabetical-order keyboard or something far more exotic. Anything can be achieved by programming it in software, and different applications could have their own dynamic layouts. This is, after all, only taking the approach that already exists in the iPhone and extending it further for the greater capabilities of full computers.
The possibilities of a reconfigurable touch-sensitive display device for input are pretty obvious, and if gestures are built into the device as well, then so much the better. What intrigues me most, though, is the possibility of tactile feedback. A device that could sculpt its own surface somehow, and provide at least some measure of motion feedback for the user's fingers, would solve a lot of problems. (There's no mention of surface-sculpting here, but I'm sure I've read something along these lines on AppleInsider previously, and tactile feedback has to be achieved via some kind of motion, presumably.)
Seriously, I wonder if the new laptop-style Pro keyboards that Apple is now supplying with all its new machines are attempting to prepare us for something of this nature. Tactile feedback from a device of the kind we're speculating about here might be possible, but it would only be available to a limited extent; much less than more traditional keyboard keys. I think it's possible that by getting its users used to the limited travel of the keys in its flat laptop-style keyboards now, Apple is training us to expect less finger travel when typing. Thus its users will be more ready to accept a 'keyboard' of this nature when eventually it comes.
But it sounds like... Apple ... has gone beyond multitouch alone and really has come up with a comprehensive alternative to the traditional keyboard and mouse.
yeah. I've often wondered why someone hadn't developed "input recognition" the sameway some apps master "speech recognition". For the speech recognition software you speak a proscribed number of sounds and the software "learns" how to interpret your speech. Couldn't a multitouch pad have software that directed you to touchtype a number of words and characters on the keyless pad: from that input it would modify the key positions to match your variations in reach--thus you'd put your fingers on the multitouch pad, maybe type your two index fingers to indicate you were at a "start" or "rest" position, and then type on. Would work only for touch-typing and its specific gestures, though, just as speech recog is based on a specific spoken language.
This is interesting but I am still not expecting this to be implimented in tablet form for a while still. In fact, we might not, if some of the ideas people are discussing here are true.
I think we will see this implimented into an input device for a desktop first. That seems to be what this patent refers to. Intergrating it into a portable form will require a lot of work to get things small enough and light enough. Even then, it might not be a tablet but just a dual screen notebook as per above.
I say this, though, having just bought a tablet last night.
This is interesting but I am still not expecting this to be implimented in tablet form for a while still. In fact, we might not, if some of the ideas people are discussing here are true.
I think we will see this implimented into an input device for a desktop first.
In my opinion no way not a chance. Portable devices are where it's at. It will definitely hit a multi-touch tablet device first.
I dunno, Ireland. I respect your opinion, I do...and I am with you for the desire for a Mac tablet eventually...and I think this is the tech to get us there...but I don't see this being implimented in tablet form first.
The way the patent is describing the technology, in particular the size, it seems like it isn't meant to be used for a portable. Look at the diagram. Read the emphasis on this being designed for a curved, ergonomic surface. Far too large to be portable like a tablet. No, this will go to the iMac/Mac Pros first.
Now, I am certain Apple will be able to create a portable variation, but what it will be, neither you or I know. It may be a tablet slate...it may be a tablet convertable...it may be a dual screened notebook.
So like for instance a generic program like Garageband would have say on the main viewing screen the tracks in the order they appear today, though on the bottom user input screen you might have a bar at the top that is the tempo, reverse, play/pause, forward and record, volume, etc. below could be programmed to be a keyboard, or a chaos pad.. a slide on a guitar or a slider for some weird effect, and maybe on the right and left are tabs, and if you tap and slide them over like you would scrolling for contacts on an iPhone, your midi music scroll, the notes or modulation would slide over, or maybe a set of drums... oh me oh my...
i like this idea already!
Exactly. The interesting programing challenge comes in the fact that now each program has to design it's interface as well- an extension of what's done for the display.
In fact I could see the need for 2 sizes of this new "keyboard". One for consumer users which would be about the same size as today's keyboards, perhaps a bit "taller"; and a pro version about the size of a audio board, more appropriate for music, painting, and video editing- essentially more real-estate to work with for more involved programs.
I dunno, Ireland. I respect your opinion, I do...and I am with you for the desire for a Mac tablet eventually...and I think this is the tech to get us there...but I don't see this being implimented in tablet form first.
The way the patent is describing the technology, in particular the size, it seems like it isn't meant to be used for a portable. Look at the diagram. Read the emphasis on this being designed for a curved, ergonomic surface. Far too large to be portable like a tablet. No, this will go to the iMac/Mac Pros first.
Now, I am certain Apple will be able to create a portable variation, but what it will be, neither you or I know. It may be a tablet slate...it may be a tablet convertable...it may be a dual screened notebook.
And I appreciate your respect!
You do know the iPhone originated from tablet research don't you? The Apple guys were researching and making tablet prototypes for about a year, when the suggested to Steve they thought they could successfully bring this user interface to a phone, thus eliminating the needs for all those buttons. That gamble paid off. I think it is without a doubt in my mind going to materialize in a tablet first. Likely around Macworld 2009, or possibly even earlier.
I'd say we'll see that MT desktop keyboard at Macworld 2010, not much earlier.
This patent, combined with the Patent for the keyboard with LED (read:configurable) keys will make for a very, very interesting Mac in the near future!
Combine that with a Multi-Touch screen for iMac and it screams sold out before you can say "nano!".
I can see the LED keyboard being standard, with the MT keyboard being more of a Pro Upgrade!
I too like the innovation that Apple brings, however, I feel like some of you people are mindless lemmings. This is nothing new, Microsoft launched Surface (http://www.microsoft.com/surface/) quite a while ago. It's funny how nothing is "innovative" and "awesome" until Apple does it. How lame.
Comments
It won't be for a while, but I can totally see the keyboard and mouse replaced with a simple, super flat touchscreen with hordes of additional functionality. However, simple things I use all the time, like quick, multiple, consecutive keyboard shortcuts might be slowed down due to lack of being able to feel the keys.
I imagine the real challenge here for Apple engineers is developing this new keyboard language. Again, Apple's goal isn't just to put it out there, but to do so in a way which makes the user process better and easier.
Since the release of the iPhone people had been thinking about how this would perpetuate up to mac's other computers. The idea of multitouch on an ACD or iMac screen is impractical. People don't want to work with their arms stretched out in front of them, and I also don't think we're going to see the next generation of computers where everyone is looking "down" at their screen on the table. Comfort of viewing and hand placement do not coincide, so I think we're going to be with a separated "viewer" and "input" device for a while.
I knew Apple was on the right rack when they talked about the interface changing to meet the needs of the application.
Imagine this: Open your MacBook and what you find is for all intents and purposes TWO screens, instead of a screen and a keyboard. The top screen will continue to serve it's current function- to allow the user to view the result of their input at a comfortable angle. The "keyboard" screen will be a completely amorphous interface: a keyboard when typing, blank sheet for drawing-- a specialized interface for whatever program you use. Audio programs get a mixing board and knobs, editors get a mixture of new and old tabletop film editing controls. Each program's interface eliminates the clutter of unnecessary buttons, and each button is labeled with it's actual function, rather than having to remember keyboard shortcuts or keystroke combinations to execute complex commands.
Desktops would be similar, with the elimination of the keyboard and mouse for this new tablet-style interface.
As I said, I don't think this is too far off. In fact, I can't think of a reason why if Apple released one of these today, that I couldn't plug it into my MacPro right now, save for a software update that installs the programs necessary on my machine. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple wasn't making plans to release this as early as 2010- maybe even sooner? Again, we already have the technology in our hands now-- literally!
Very cool.
I can't wait to see Macs with these features. Hopefully we get some insight at WWDC 2208.
I really hope we don't have to wait 200 years for this!
I don't think this is as far off as people think. The fact that multitouch is available on an small device like the iPhone makes it much easier to upscale to larger portable or desktop iterations; rather than if they had started with giant multitouch surfaces and had to develop the technology to scale them down.
I imagine the real challenge here for Apple engineers is developing this new keyboard language. Again, Apple's goal isn't just to put it out there, but to do so in a way which makes the user process better and easier.
Since the release of the iPhone people had been thinking about how this would perpetuate up to mac's other computers. The idea of multitouch on an ACD or iMac screen is impractical. People don't want to work with their arms stretched out in front of them, and I also don't think we're going to see the next generation of computers where everyone is looking "down" at their screen on the table. Comfort of viewing and hand placement do not coincide, so I think we're going to be with a separated "viewer" and "input" device for a while.
I knew Apple was on the right rack when they talked about the interface changing to meet the needs of the application.
Imagine this: Open your MacBook and what you find is for all intents and purposes TWO screens, instead of a screen and a keyboard. The top screen will continue to serve it's current function- to allow the user to view the result of their input at a comfortable angle. The "keyboard" screen will be a completely amorphous interface: a keyboard when typing, blank sheet for drawing-- a specialized interface for whatever program you use. Audio programs get a mixing board and knobs, editors get a mixture of new and old tabletop film editing controls. Each program's interface eliminates the clutter of unnecessary buttons, and each button is labeled with it's actual function, rather than having to remember keyboard shortcuts or keystroke combinations to execute complex commands.
Desktops would be similar, with the elimination of the keyboard and mouse for this new tablet-style interface.
As I said, I don't think this is too far off. In fact, I can't think of a reason why if Apple released one of these today, that I couldn't plug it into my MacPro right now, save for a software update that installs the programs necessary on my machine. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple wasn't making plans to release this as early as 2010- maybe even sooner? Again, we already have the technology in our hands now-- literally!
Maybe you're right. I personally think it's further away, but I wouldn't complain at all if you turned out to be right and I was wrong.
I'm sure that a keyboard could still be used with this. The best of two worlds.
As someone who has used tablets since the late '80's, I find them to be very useful. I also suppose that it's something like when keyboards first arrived in the 19th century. They were very bad, jammed up constantly, hence the QWERTY layout, etc. People didn't like them, and it was said to lower people's standards, morals, and was the cause of a whole world of other depravities.
We're hearing about the same thing about these multitouch keyboards, but it won't last.
Without our focus being around keyboards in front of us, the tablet monitor could be mounted close, and low, at a slope of about 30 degrees. This would solve a lot of ergonomic problems with the monitor as well.
If the keyboard is needed, it could be pulled out from underneath, as many keyboards are now. No problem there.
An iMac could be used this way, with the "chin" being used as a handrest, finally eliminating the arguments against it being there.
Imagine this: Open your MacBook and what you find is for all intents and purposes TWO screens, instead of a screen and a keyboard. The top screen will continue to serve it's current function- to allow the user to view the result of their input at a comfortable angle. The "keyboard" screen will be a completely amorphous interface: a keyboard when typing, blank sheet for drawing-- a specialized interface for whatever program you use. Audio programs get a mixing board and knobs, editors get a mixture of new and old tabletop film editing controls. Each program's interface eliminates the clutter of unnecessary buttons, and each button is labeled with it's actual function, rather than having to remember keyboard shortcuts or keystroke combinations to execute complex commands.
So like for instance a generic program like Garageband would have say on the main viewing screen the tracks in the order they appear today, though on the bottom user input screen you might have a bar at the top that is the tempo, reverse, play/pause, forward and record, volume, etc. below could be programmed to be a keyboard, or a chaos pad.. a slide on a guitar or a slider for some weird effect, and maybe on the right and left are tabs, and if you tap and slide them over like you would scrolling for contacts on an iPhone, your midi music scroll, the notes or modulation would slide over, or maybe a set of drums... oh me oh my...
i like this idea already!
I don't think this is as far off as people think. The fact that multitouch is available on an small device like the iPhone makes it much easier to upscale to larger portable or desktop iterations; rather than if they had started with giant multitouch surfaces and had to develop the technology to scale them down.
<snip>
As I said, I don't think this is too far off. In fact, I can't think of a reason why if Apple released one of these today, that I couldn't plug it into my MacPro right now, save for a software update that installs the programs necessary on my machine. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple wasn't making plans to release this as early as 2010- maybe even sooner? Again, we already have the technology in our hands now-- literally!
The real limitation I see is tactile response. Without it you won't be replacing the keyboard anytime soon, and even with it I don't see it going away. While the iPhone rocks I can't do SMS without looking at the screen for every character. I believe Pioneer has made a touchscreen car stereo with a tactile energy field to simulate the button locations.
What I foresee is that a new input technology won't obsolete an older one (at least not right away) but will compliment it. Like how the advent of the mouse complimented the keyboard. For instance, a MacBook Pro with a typical keyboard and display in the usual location, but a trackpad as wide as the keyboard, that is OLED and has tactile response included.
Tactile response could even go so far as to increase the electrical output as you choose a screen option to mimic the sensation of the slight resistance offered by a physical mouse button or keyboard key.
The only thing with higher human-computer bandwidth that a keyboard is Voice.
When voice works, the keyboard can disappear.
Actually, I don't agree. Oh, maybe in the far future, when computers have genuinely intelligent AI and you can hold a conversation with them, like in Star Trek TNG; maybe then the primary interface will be voice. But while we still have to drag windows around, launch applications and do other menial computing tasks, there's no way that voice commands are going to be more important than keyboard etc.
Certainly, speaking as a writer and editor, although I can probably speak faster than I can type for short periods, I definitely produce better written work by typing at the keyboard than I would if I attempted to speak what I wanted to say. It uses different parts of the brain; I'm much better at marshalling my thoughts when I'm writing than when I'm speaking. I suppose I could get used to it over time, but it'd be a different way of working. Besides, typing is a private activity, whereas speaking at a computer certainly isn't.
Anyway, to get back to the point, I think that the most interesting potential here is for a truly adaptable input interface that can be reconfigured to suit whatever purpose is at hand. The QWERTY keyboard, regardless of how many people are facile with it, has always been a cumbersome input method. Indeed, it was designed to be exactly that: as many people know, this keyboard layout came from mechanical typewriter days when input had to be slowed down to prevent the mechanism from jamming, and the layout was chosen to be as unnatural as possible in order to achieve the goal of slowing down the typist.
So it seems to me pretty obvious that, in due course, there will be a new input device with a dynamic interface, that can become a QWERTY keyboard or a Dvorak keyboard or an alphabetical-order keyboard or something far more exotic. Anything can be achieved by programming it in software, and different applications could have their own dynamic layouts. This is, after all, only taking the approach that already exists in the iPhone and extending it further for the greater capabilities of full computers.
The possibilities of a reconfigurable touch-sensitive display device for input are pretty obvious, and if gestures are built into the device as well, then so much the better. What intrigues me most, though, is the possibility of tactile feedback. A device that could sculpt its own surface somehow, and provide at least some measure of motion feedback for the user's fingers, would solve a lot of problems. (There's no mention of surface-sculpting here, but I'm sure I've read something along these lines on AppleInsider previously, and tactile feedback has to be achieved via some kind of motion, presumably.)
Seriously, I wonder if the new laptop-style Pro keyboards that Apple is now supplying with all its new machines are attempting to prepare us for something of this nature. Tactile feedback from a device of the kind we're speculating about here might be possible, but it would only be available to a limited extent; much less than more traditional keyboard keys. I think it's possible that by getting its users used to the limited travel of the keys in its flat laptop-style keyboards now, Apple is training us to expect less finger travel when typing. Thus its users will be more ready to accept a 'keyboard' of this nature when eventually it comes.
Very cool.
I can't wait to see Macs with these features. Hopefully we get some insight at WWDC 2208.
i'll be dead by them, would you take notes for me and forward to my estate
Or The Matrix Reloaded.
Well, you already live in a vat. Surely someone has told you by now. What more do you want?
But it sounds like... Apple ... has gone beyond multitouch alone and really has come up with a comprehensive alternative to the traditional keyboard and mouse.
yeah. I've often wondered why someone hadn't developed "input recognition" the sameway some apps master "speech recognition". For the speech recognition software you speak a proscribed number of sounds and the software "learns" how to interpret your speech. Couldn't a multitouch pad have software that directed you to touchtype a number of words and characters on the keyless pad: from that input it would modify the key positions to match your variations in reach--thus you'd put your fingers on the multitouch pad, maybe type your two index fingers to indicate you were at a "start" or "rest" position, and then type on. Would work only for touch-typing and its specific gestures, though, just as speech recog is based on a specific spoken language.
I think we will see this implimented into an input device for a desktop first. That seems to be what this patent refers to. Intergrating it into a portable form will require a lot of work to get things small enough and light enough. Even then, it might not be a tablet but just a dual screen notebook as per above.
I say this, though, having just bought a tablet last night.
This is interesting but I am still not expecting this to be implimented in tablet form for a while still. In fact, we might not, if some of the ideas people are discussing here are true.
I think we will see this implimented into an input device for a desktop first.
In my opinion no way not a chance. Portable devices are where it's at. It will definitely hit a multi-touch tablet device first.
The way the patent is describing the technology, in particular the size, it seems like it isn't meant to be used for a portable. Look at the diagram. Read the emphasis on this being designed for a curved, ergonomic surface. Far too large to be portable like a tablet. No, this will go to the iMac/Mac Pros first.
Now, I am certain Apple will be able to create a portable variation, but what it will be, neither you or I know. It may be a tablet slate...it may be a tablet convertable...it may be a dual screened notebook.
So like for instance a generic program like Garageband would have say on the main viewing screen the tracks in the order they appear today, though on the bottom user input screen you might have a bar at the top that is the tempo, reverse, play/pause, forward and record, volume, etc. below could be programmed to be a keyboard, or a chaos pad.. a slide on a guitar or a slider for some weird effect, and maybe on the right and left are tabs, and if you tap and slide them over like you would scrolling for contacts on an iPhone, your midi music scroll, the notes or modulation would slide over, or maybe a set of drums... oh me oh my...
i like this idea already!
Exactly. The interesting programing challenge comes in the fact that now each program has to design it's interface as well- an extension of what's done for the display.
In fact I could see the need for 2 sizes of this new "keyboard". One for consumer users which would be about the same size as today's keyboards, perhaps a bit "taller"; and a pro version about the size of a audio board, more appropriate for music, painting, and video editing- essentially more real-estate to work with for more involved programs.
I dunno, Ireland. I respect your opinion, I do...and I am with you for the desire for a Mac tablet eventually...and I think this is the tech to get us there...but I don't see this being implimented in tablet form first.
The way the patent is describing the technology, in particular the size, it seems like it isn't meant to be used for a portable. Look at the diagram. Read the emphasis on this being designed for a curved, ergonomic surface. Far too large to be portable like a tablet. No, this will go to the iMac/Mac Pros first.
Now, I am certain Apple will be able to create a portable variation, but what it will be, neither you or I know. It may be a tablet slate...it may be a tablet convertable...it may be a dual screened notebook.
And I appreciate your respect!
You do know the iPhone originated from tablet research don't you? The Apple guys were researching and making tablet prototypes for about a year, when the suggested to Steve they thought they could successfully bring this user interface to a phone, thus eliminating the needs for all those buttons. That gamble paid off. I think it is without a doubt in my mind going to materialize in a tablet first. Likely around Macworld 2009, or possibly even earlier.
I'd say we'll see that MT desktop keyboard at Macworld 2010, not much earlier.
Combine that with a Multi-Touch screen for iMac and it screams sold out before you can say "nano!".
I can see the LED keyboard being standard, with the MT keyboard being more of a Pro Upgrade!
Humans are the shit. Take that dolphins.