http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/12/microsoft-adaptive-keyboard-prototype-debuts-at-center-of-uist-s/


Anyone still in school is eligible. I was all when I saw this on engadget this morning. I worked on this device for a whiiile, never thought it would ever be shown in public though. The hardware team gave me the first dev kit for it, and it's pretty darn cool.

Capacitive touch region across the top, with a full mechanical keyboard underlaid with a high-res LCD display. The entire thing is running Silverlight, which makes is a breeze to develop on top of. And the programming model makes it super easy to customize for individual applications and even screens within a single application.

8/12/2010 6:29:06 PM

no 10-key?

meh

8/12/2010 7:06:55 PM

^was supposed to be a separate product, so you could buy a small version "numpad" or the big boy, or have both.

8/12/2010 7:10:54 PM

Is this the thing they were hinting at on twitter a few weeks ago? Pretty cool.

8/12/2010 9:04:02 PM

8/12/2010 9:06:13 PM

^^ first line of the linked article.

Quote :

"No, it's not the mystery device that Microsoft has been teasing as of late"

8/16/2010 11:37:05 PM

Yeah, definitely different.

8/16/2010 11:51:01 PM

Who reads links anymore? Not this guy.

8/17/2010 10:53:50 AM

That Russian guy is going to be pissed...

8/17/2010 11:06:18 AM

http://gizmodo.com/5575664/art-lebedevs-optimus-polaris-keyboard-looks-stunning

8/17/2010 11:39:25 AM

no num pad, fail.

love my G15 i got the other day though.

8/17/2010 2:18:20 PM

neat, but i don't really ever see myself using that kind of thing. i hardly ever look down at the keyboard and can just as easy use my mouse to do stuff. maybe there's something you could do with it that i'm not thinking of...i dunno

8/17/2010 5:26:16 PM

You tards realize that it's a completely programmable keyboard and display... Why in the he'll does it need a separate numpad? You just have a bank of keys be a ... Wait for it... Numpad

This keyboard is amazingly useful in games like WoW where you can create banks of shortcut keys on the keyboard rather than filling your screen with them.

There's tons of pretty amazing stuff you can do when keys are both virtual and physical. And unlike the optimus Maximus, this is a programmable keyboard that can recognize and react to applicacations and screens dynamically and programmatically

8/18/2010 1:39:49 AM

Quote :

"maybe there's something you could do with it that i'm not thinking of...i dunno"

And that's the point of the contest!

Would be great for use at public terminals in places like large international airports, big city libraries, etc. where culture specific keysets would be helpful to many users.

8/18/2010 1:44:17 AM

in this thread:
microsoft has some late to the game shit they want to recoup some dev costs on and capitalize on free labor to do it! (I'd do it in their position )

the future of UI/UX is getting AWAY from buttons not making one button do a couple contextually aware, different things. the limitations of physical keys are many but the limitations of a limited set of soft buttons is even greater when fluidity and navigation speed are part of the discussion.

I'm sure some up and coming talent will show that they can develop an app that using this keyboard as a true extension of its UI functionality where any other device would have failed but that's going to be the extreme minority exception rather than the rule. In general, you want to keep the user's eye in 1 place..

8/18/2010 8:17:54 AM

^your post is all full of all sorts of [fail]

Quote :

"microsoft has some late to the game shit they want to recoup some dev costs on and capitalize on free labor to do it!"

Late to what game? There's no market for this kind of device (optimus is an extreme niche product that isn't even in the same class). And believe me, this has nothing to do with recouping costs. This is taking a product that didn't make it to market and letting students play with it, rather than just sticking the prototypes on a shelf and no one ever being able to use it for anything (read:courier).

Quote :

"the future of UI/UX is getting AWAY from buttons not making one button do a couple contextually aware, different things. the limitations of physical keys are many but the limitations of a limited set of soft buttons is even greater when fluidity and navigation speed are part of the discussion. "

This is unintelligible bullshit. Touchscreens aren't the end-all be-all solution to every experience problem in software. They work well for small form factors, but they are abysmal for productivity and larger format products.

And "limitations of a limited set of soft buttons"? What are you smoking? THE WHOLE BOARD is hard buttons with software flexibility. Fluidity and navigation speed are increased when you have spacial constancy + adaptable context.

Quote :

"In general, you want to keep the user's eye in 1 place.."

Wait, what? I don't know where you got your education from, but this is no principle I've ever heard of. You want to keep the user in the FLOW of an activity, which is entirely different.

It's really easy to play armchair quarterback here, but keep in mind this is a product with years of research, engineering work, design and testing behind it. Microsoft isn't going to put that kind of money into any project without significant, known, data backed applications for the technology.

8/19/2010 11:10:00 PM

Quote :

"You tards realize that it's a completely programmable keyboard and display... Why in the he'll does it need a separate numpad"

numpad is useful b/c the keys are arranged in a square. trying to mimic that experience with offset qwerty keys doesn't quite match what i like (and am used to) with a traditional numpad. i mean, i could just use the numeric keys on the top row and that would be fine too right? well, i've been touch-typing since middle school and i STILL don't naturally use those keys. i always go to the numpad. now if you could programmatically alter the physical layout of the keys...

8/19/2010 11:29:57 PM

Quote :

"Microsoft isn't going to put that kind of money into any project without significant, known, data backed applications for the technology."

8/20/2010 12:45:07 AM

lol

8/20/2010 10:34:27 AM

numpads are discriminatory against us leftys

8/20/2010 10:40:31 AM

EXTERNAL WIRELESS NUMPAD USERS UNITE!

8/20/2010 10:44:55 AM

^^ you right brained people only care about flowers and dancing anyways, y'all don't need numbers

8/20/2010 10:47:42 AM

Kin failed because of corporate politics, not because of product design. There's a BIIIIG difference.

8/20/2010 5:43:22 PM