virtual keyboard... just a thought

[ramonD]

just a thought.

a touch typist always has eight fingers on the home keys.

i'm thinking you may not be able to do that on the virtual keyboard,
right? as i speculate, your fingers should all be floating unless
you really want to hit a key. otherwise you risk registering eight
key hits at the same time?

hmmm... i wonder how it would actually be...

[Palm Cow]

I touch-type. Here I do an experiment. I rest my fingers an inch above the desk like I were in Home Position, and start typing like normal.

I'm actually going faster on the desk, maybe because i'm not waiting to hear the click. But there will be a click in the final product ... blyech ...

[ramonD]

yes, you may be going faster but wouldn't you get tired after some time without resting your hands on the desk?

[Trimac20]

Here's a realisation which materialised in my deepest thought: If you use a virtual keyboard, won't you get alot of unsightly fingerprints on the screen? Basically (unless you don't mind fingerprints) you would have to clean the screen after every time you use the 'virtual keyboard', which, by the way I think is not so good an idea. A built-in keyboard is far more practical and offers just as much functionality. After all, no one actually types documents using those tiny keyboards.

Which reminds me, I have a few annoying fingerprint patches which seem to have materialised - out of thin air, mind you - UNDERNEATH the screen protector. It seems those nasty fingerprints have done something which defies the laws of physics. Which begs the question, how on earth do those particles of dust, crap get BENEATH the screen protector? Ah, the every losing battle against unclean PDA screens...

[ramonD]

oops. sorry Trimac20. the post may not have been clear. what we have in mind is this http://shop.store.yahoo.com/ibizpda/vike.html keyboard. :wink:

[jkendrick]

It seems to me that without the two little bumps on the home keys for positioning you will have to look at the virtual keyboard a lot more than a traditional one when typing fast.

[Steven Cedrone]

It seems to me that without the two little bumps on the home keys for positioning you will have to look at the virtual keyboard a lot more than a traditional one when typing fast.

Why not just "affix" something to the desktop for the two little bumps?

Steve

[jkendrick]

Then you'd have to do the little bump alignment every time you used it. I'm hoping to get my hands on one of these to test drive it.

[ramonD]

and later you will want to "affix" the two little bumps on every surface you project the keyboard on.

[Steven Cedrone]

Just typin' out loud. I'm a hunt and peck kinda guy anyway... :wink:

But something like the little feet on the bottom of a small speaker that you could pull off the desk and stick to the cube/projector (for storage). Then when you go somewhere else, you turn on the display and stick your two spots to the surface again...

Just a thought...

Steve

[Palm Cow]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't rely on the bumps very much. They just arn't so important to question a products usefulness. imo of course :).

[stitics]

And, maybe this is just ME, but when I pay attention to the way I type, my fingers don't really rest on the keyboard very much at all while I am typing. I admit, there's a little bit of resting on the keyboard while "poised for thought", but not while the actual typing is going on. Though, I agree about the little bump thing. I DO find myself "checking" position frequently by brushing the little bumps with my fingertips.

[wing]

Avantgo just emailed me an ad about a virtual keyboard...

That uses any FLAT SURFACE, like your DESK!


Its a lil laser projector that stands up between you and your PPC.

It sprays a laser image of a keyboard onto the flat surface in front of it. you press down on the button you want, it detects the irregularity, and then beams the key strokes back to your PPC.

Awesome idea! Personally, transcriber is way fast enuff for me, but if I ever want to write the next best seller, i'll need one of these toys.








They're sharks with frikkin lasers attached to them!!!!