What are your ideas for a multi-touch keyboard...
... and/or are you afraid to say because it might be patentable?
I am personally a bit apprehensive about detailing what I think would be a good multi-touch method for text input as I'm afraid someone could lock the idea up in a patent. I'm on the fence as to whether such a system should be proprietary anyway. I don't think my ideas are that unique, but I haven't seen them described on the web so far.
But hey, if you are braver than me, fire away...
I am personally a bit apprehensive about detailing what I think would be a good multi-touch method for text input as I'm afraid someone could lock the idea up in a patent. I'm on the fence as to whether such a system should be proprietary anyway. I don't think my ideas are that unique, but I haven't seen them described on the web so far.
But hey, if you are braver than me, fire away...
Comments
I'm not opposed to learning a new paradigm...but if it's doing a lot of auto correction like the iPhone, no thank you. So while I'm sure Apple wants a patent on it, I don't know if they'd put it on the masses.
... and/or are you afraid to say because it might be patentable?
What?
Oh I see what you're saying now. I wouldn't worry about that. Someone cannot steal an idea and patent it now if you talk about it. I wouldn't let that worry you or stop you, unless you were about to someone patent this idea yourself, which would set you back about $50,000.
http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html
FingerWorks sold a multi-touch keyboard called the TouchStream LP before being acquired by Apple in 2005. I still have one, although I don't use it anymore.
http://www.fingerworks.com/ST_product.html
So I'm guessing that it was not substantially more useful than a regular keyboard if you don't use it anymore.
From the link it would appear that text entry is still old school.
So I'm guessing that it was not substantially more useful than a regular keyboard if you don't use it anymore.
From the link it would appear that text entry is still old school.
I actually quite liked the multi-touch gestures for text editing and the lack of effort needed to press "keys". But, there were some nagging problems like the mouse acceleration curve being different than Apple's trackpads, Windows-centric positioning of the alt/option and meta/command keys, finger drift, and other details.
What I'd love to have is the same keyboard, but with one big surface instead of two small ones joined together, and an e-paper display instead of the preprinted surface.