Mokibo - keyboard with multi-touch trackpad surface on keys

[Coreda]

Saw this pop up on Hacker News. Site. Essentially similar to what BlackBerry had been doing since their BlackBerry 10 OS days (which I still enjoy) where the keys can be touched and utilized as a trackpad.







I'd actually wondered if a keyboard maker would attempt something like this after using a BlackBerry Passport, though its functionality on BlackBerry's OS was limited to certain apps while here it appears to function everywhere as a regular trackpad. It also features an entirely flat key surface while the Passport had distinctly shaped keys which helped with touch typing:

[Coreda]

One thing that I'd like to know is how false positives are handled. That is, how it distinguishes between an accidental gesture while fingers are lightly touching keys and intentional gestures, since single-finger gestures are shown to be supported.

With BlackBerry's implementation since the keys are so relatively small and the touch functionality limited to certain gestures for certain apps I've never had a false positive whereas here it seems the potential for the cursor to begin moving for example is high so they'd have to have some threshold for triggering it (which may lead to some undesirable lag/delay but I'd have to wait for user impressions once the product releases).

[Findecanor]

They have a few videos on Youtube showing fine cursor control, but I wonder if they are not faked.
The touch sensors in the keys -- as seen in their prototype manufacturing videos -- seem to be pretty coarse.
It needs an independent review before I am going to trust this.

And no, I don't want to type on a flat keyboard, even when travelling.
In general, keyboards should go the other way: A tented split keyboard with contoured keys and a vertical mouse beats this hands down.

[Coreda]

They have a few videos on Youtube showing fine cursor control, but I wonder if they are not faked.
The touch sensors in the keys -- as seen in their prototype manufacturing videos -- seem to be pretty coarse.
It needs an independent review before I am going to trust this.

Yeah I'd like see some user reviews.

In general, keyboards should go the other way: A tented split keyboard with contoured keys and a vertical mouse beats this hands down.

I doubt this is really in competition with those. While it remains to be seen how well this is executed I still think it's an interesting concept that could potentially lead to alternative form factors for laptops.

Problem is unless they nail responsiveness and durability this could end up just as semi-functional gimmick, which is a shame. BlackBerry's implementation holds up well as a decent example but it's limited in size and scope (durable though).

[Findecanor]

In general, keyboards should go the other way: A tented split keyboard with contoured keys and a vertical mouse beats this hands down.

I doubt this is really in competition with those.

Oh, I'm not saying that it won't sell. I'm saying that I think that this direction would be a bad industry trend from the perspective of ergonomics and usability.

[Coreda]

Oh, I'm not saying that it won't sell. I'm saying that I think that this direction would be a bad industry trend from the perspective of ergonomics and usability.

You got me thinking what some split tented inbuilt laptop keyboard would look like A return to that chunky thickness.