Remember when you were younger, and saw all those sexy, hi-tech looking keypads & displays on Star Trek? Did you ever think you'd be able to purchase one? Well hopefully in the near future you will! Jason Giddings has been working on a project which would immediately make your gaming keyboard and mouse look like they belonged to a Commodore 64 and not your current PC.
This revolution in technology has an elegant design, featuring tempered glass over a solid metal base. There are no moving parts, no wires, and are designed using existing & simple technology. If that info doesn't get your motor running, how about this... the software is open source.
That's right Jason believes that "in order to realize the true potential of a multi-touch keyboard and
mouse we are going to need everyone's great ideas! Imagine a mouse that
can select objects and zoom like an iPad or rotate puzzle parts while
moving them to position, or a keyboard that can toggle from a standard
keyboard to a tool to smear separate areas of color for each finger on
an image. You might want to toggle your number pad off and dedicate that
space to video-editing CAD design or music mixing. The functions of
these spaces are limited only by our imagination!"
The design is based on a touch screen technology known as FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection). Basically infrared LED's placed at the edge of the glass, pass the light along the interior of the keyboard/mouse up to the point where you touch it. At this point it frustrates the reflection and the IR light is diffused downward out of the glass allowing a camera to see it, built in software then determines where you pushed your finger and then sends the appropriate information into your computer.
While this product is still in the development phase, eta on the official release date is slated for April/May 2012. You can find out more information on the devices and also how you can help get this on the market by visiting the website here.
No comments:
Post a Comment