Looks this would be perfect as a "sofa keyboard" for controlling a home media center or similar. I guess that the main difficulty would be not pressing the keys while using it as a touchpad, but I imagine it would be possible to get used to that.
Their proposed use-case of e.g. phones and tablets (see: already touch-enabled devices) makes me wonder... why use an inferior touchpad on a keyboard when you could just reach up and touch the screen to begin with? Especially with the things they're demoing: moving your cursor to click on something (just tap it) or scrolling (just... scroll normally?). I use a laptop with a "real" touchpad and still prefer just reaching out and touching the screen for most of these tasks already; if I'm not going to use a real touchpad for these kinds of things, why would I use a worse version built into a keyboard (which also probably prevents the keyboard from being as good of a keyboard)?
Using this for a non-touch device or from longer distances (like from your couch) makes so much more sense... especially when you consider how awful mice (and separate touchpads) are on e.g. couches.
A lot of people don't want to take the time and/or lose the flow due to shifting the hands away from the keyboard and in particular orientation with the home row.
The laptop approach of the touchpad close to and rigidly coupled to the keyboard is a big improvement as you can move thumbs from the spacebar and back without looking. This is why I use the internal keyboard even when an external keyboard would be otherwise convenient.
This device could be a way to reduce even that friction. Though I think we're better off encouraging people to make sure their apps can be completely controlled from the keyboard (unless of course the app really is appropriate for a pointing device, such as some photo editing).
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A lot of people don't want to take the time and/or lose the flow due to shifting the hands away from the keyboard and in particular orientation with the home row.
I liked the idea but it never exhibited the dynamic performance (accelleration-to-distance/decelleration-to-precision) of a trackpad which is why I think it faded away, even at IBM.
>which is why I think it faded away
You do realise trackpoints still exist on all new thinkpads and some Dell and HP laptops?
the reason they never became popular is that they are ont easy to master as soon as you first use them. the muscle patterns take a fair bit of getting used to before you get out of the awkward stage. However once you do they are as precise (if not more so) than touchpads with out having to move you hands into an entirely new position (much like this touchpad keyboard) however I think for this new keyboard to be effective, the activation force on the keys is going to need to be too high to resist accidental keypresses while using as a touchpad.
I think I'll stick with the trackpoint thanks.
I'm dreaming of a keyboard where the touchpad would be placed in the middle between the two halves for left and right hand. Because arms aren't growing in front of people's bodies (as e.g. Kinesis well know). Still waiting for which manufacturer has this idea first.
But the thing in the post might be a better solution if both the keyboard and the touchpad work well. A great illustration of the classic principle: good design compromises in a contradiction, clever design eliminates the contradiction.
There's split keyboards that have a trackball in the middle, like the Ultimate Hacker Keyboard[0]. There's also the KeyMouse[1], which is two wireless mice with split mechanical keyboards built into them
One problem with using the screen of a tablet (when you are using it with a physical keyboard) is you have nothing to stabilize your hand on. I tend to miss things when using my Chromebook touch screen because my hand is a tad shaky when holding it in the air to touch the screen. On the trackpad (or keyboard), my hands or wrists tend to rest on the table surface.
Not sure how it’s any better than the Logitech K400 or the Microsoft All in One keyboard, especially since those don’t need any special software support so can work with your Android TV, Apple TV, HTPC and essentially any other device that supports USB HID, and those cost only like $20-30 I don’t see this thing being sold for less than $150-200.
I have only owned the Logitech K400 before and its touchpad is rubbish. I threw it out because it was so frustrating to use. Lots of accidental taps when just trying to move the mouse pointer and issues like that.
I'm using the Logitech K830. I don't have many issues with the trackpad on that model. It's not great, like your average Windows laptop's trackpad, but I nowhere near throwing it out cause it's so bad.
Not really since there is little chance for this to work well without additional software which likely would limit its functionality, also it doesn’t seem to matter that much for a couch keyboard and if you want smaller there are smaller keyboards.
Because these types of trackpads need special drivers these days e.g. windows precision drivers.
Even basic things like palm rejection is done in software and for this one to switch between keyboard and trackpad in the fly you’ll need very good software that can predict just what you were intending to do.
Most "windows precision" touchpads are handled in Linux with just one module. Even Apple's Magic Trackpad can show up in system as a regular mouse (although with limited functionality).
Palm rejection is a thing that kinda makes sense to handle in software. For this thing, I'd expect firmware to be actually a bit beefer than usual.
