News MS patents on-screen touch-type keyboard

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2009/09/28/ms-patents-on-screen-touch-type-keyboard/1

 

Thats pretty neat, how long before either a patent troll pitches up with a suit or it turns out MS has pilfered some one elses patent and will buy them off with some scraps.

 

Clever, but I wouldn't agree with the hand positioning - either f and j or g and h for the "home" keys surely? I prefer g and h as then my fingers can find each other but thats just personal I suppose.

 

A good typist doesn't rest their wrists. Nice try though Microsoft!

 

What? Never heard of RSI?

 

Interesting. Will give this a try once it's actually affordable.

 

A good typist won't extensively be using a tablet either. For the brief amounts of typing one does with a tablet, it seems like a step in the right direction.

 

I work at a school and we teach touch typing. You shouldn't rest your wrists on the table.

 

Good typing position:

http://www.hp.com/ergo/forearms.html

 

why bother keeping the home row straight though? surely if they went through the effort of aligning the home row to the palm, they should also align the curvature with the natural curve that your fingers fall in too.

Personally, when I rest my fingers on a keyboard in their natural falling position, left hand is on CAPS Lock, W, E, F and right is on J, O, P, '/@ so an adaptive touch-typing "screenboard" (that should blatantly be trademarked as a new name for on-screen keyboards) should arrange the home-keys to that layout...

 

i say that's really a nice idea.. , i can just imagine though getting used to for the first few tries,hehe

 

Thanks areth

 

i really hope they have an azerty version of that...

 

I have to say tho, I have my right index finger on the j, then k then l then : which isnt what microsoft have in that one image there... hmmmm..

 

This sounds like a combo of the Fingerworks keyboards and a touch screen (and perhaps that OLED keyboard). The only thing MS has added is adjusting the keyboard position relative to the palm detection. Hopefully that is all the patent protects - otherwise it's a stupid patent.

 

Im either a freak or microsoft forgot to check their hands, the inside of my hand touches the bottom of my keyboard but theres no way it could orientate 20+ keys from that...

 

That's pretty clever, but they better come out with a version that uses WASD as the centre, for us FPS junkies.

 

With no feedback I'd think you'd still have to look at what you're doing.

 

Honestly, I don't feel 'touch-typing' without feeling keys. My fingers touch 'home keys' every time I think what to type next, so how will this 'magical' keyboard know that I stopped writing and right now I have just started putting my fingers back onto the screen?