The future of keyboards?

[f32h80fsd08h34r5]

What do you people believe is the next big thing in keyboards?

Scented Keycaps? Keyboard Screens? Folding Mechs?

I'm curious as to what predictions GH users have.

So... shoot.

[klennkellon]

keyboards are slowly being phased out by touch screens.

but even a regular rubber dome or scissor switch is a lot better than a touch screen.

[tp4tissue]

there probably isn't a future in keyboards..

This tool is as good as humans can put it to use..


The last thing for the g4m3r is analogue input,  but that's already here.

[Findecanor]

As to commercial manufacturers, many of these trends have been really stupid. One company starts doing something random and then the industry mimics what they have done, because "Wow. I haven't seen that before. It sells, apparently but I don't understand why but I must do it too or I might miss out on the trend."
That's my prediction: There next big trend is going to be utterly unpredictable. The only thing that we can be certain of is that it will be stupid and pointless.

Examples: RGB backlighting effects, exposed mounting plate, ... and older: tinted transparent plastic so that you can see all the lint, crud and dust that fell between the keys, "piano black" that attracts fingerprints, plastic that mimics the look of brushed black-anodised aluminium, keyboard case design like a puddle of melted ice cream with lots of small buttons scattered all over, fixed wrist rest that you can't rest the wrist on because it is sloped and they only slide down.

[FloFoer94]

Keyboard Screens?

There are already keyboards out there with a screen for stuff like gameplay stats etc.

I can't imagine really big changes in the future of a traditional keyboard. Most of the possibilities seem already explored and either dumped or standard.
Touchscreens are getting more important, but they are useless for professional use so i doubt they will replace real keyboards for typists.
The laser-projected keyboard looks futuristic but inpracticable. So is the touch keyboard made out of glass.

Keyboards have not future, they will be replaced sooner or later by some sort of mind-controlled computer interface
Allthough this would be the fastest way of controlling something it would be boring, just sitting around doing nothing but thinking, no click clack satisfaction. I guess when this will be invented (and if it's during my lifetime) i would use both mind and keyboard input ^^
If not we will type on our mechs forever.

[Giorgio]

Silent buckling springs with cherry mount.

[Findecanor]

Trends that I would like to see now:

- Switches with internal damping, especially on the rebound. There are Alps Cream/Matias "Silent Click" , Cherry Silent and Topre Silent ... but the Cherry switches are all linear, Alps are not to everyone's liking and Topre is expensive and the silent are not standard.
Gateron, Kailh, Greetech and the others should get on it and do it! And also for tactile switches! Even clicky switches benefit from them - because then the click would stand out more and provide better feedback.

- "Natural keyboard" clones with mech switches. I have seen lots of requests for this throughout the years.

- Convex keys for bottom row/thumbkeys, also for mech. Better split spacebars and Alt keys for thumb usage.

- Manufacturers standardising on one mount for switches with centred backlighting, so that we can get more backlit keyboards that look as good as Logitech G810 Orion Spectrum and G Pro. No effing light bleed.

[knightjp]

Some advanced version of the Bastron Glass Keyboard.

However I'm convinced that since the recent growing popularity of mechanical keyboards, I think that we're just going to revert to the 80s style keyboards - back when keyboarding was cool. 

[dante]

I'll predict that MX stem keycaps will be as safe as QWERTY.

[Leslieann]

keyboards are slowly being phased out by touch screens.

No they are not, even MS tried to force that on people and failed.
Touchscreens only work in places you can't use a keyboard efficiently.

Many people have predicted the death of the keyboard,pretty much since the first was created and it's still here. Why? Because we have yet to figure out a better way to input data. Imagine doing a 20 page report on touchscreen. Your fingers would be bloody by the time you finished. Voice? How you going to handle an open office floor plan with 50 people talking to their computers, worse, now throw in a customer service center where you are talking to a customer as well. Touchscreen only work in places you can't use a keyboard efficiently.

Until someone figures out a way to do it ergonomically, convenient and quietly, the keyboard will stick around.

[tp4tissue]

keyboards are slowly being phased out by touch screens.

No they are not, even MS tried to force that on people and failed.
Touchscreens only work in places you can't use a keyboard efficiently.

Many people have predicted the death of the keyboard,pretty much since the first was created and it's still here. Why? Because we have yet to figure out a better way to input data. Imagine doing a 20 page report on touchscreen. Your fingers would be bloody by the time you finished. Voice? How you going to handle an open office floor plan with 50 people talking to their computers, worse, now throw in a customer service center where you are talking to a customer as well. Touchscreen only work in places you can't use a keyboard efficiently.

Until someone figures out a way to do it ergonomically, convenient and quietly, the keyboard will stick around.

I am quite confident touch sen flat surface. can replace keyboards..   but i don't see why we need to do it since,  at best it'd work just as well as what we've already got..


the limit is people not the device.

[Unxmaal]

Apple has patented a display that changes shape to provide tactile feedback.

Imagine an iPhone keyboard with "keys" that depressed when touched, sliders that slide, buttons that "push".

That's what's next.

[f32h80fsd08h34r5]

Apple has patented a display that changes shape to provide tactile feedback.

Imagine an iPhone keyboard with "keys" that depressed when touched, sliders that slide, buttons that "push".

That's what's next.

Interesting idea! I guess only time can really tell however.

[klennkellon]

Apple has patented a display that changes shape to provide tactile feedback.

Imagine an iPhone keyboard with "keys" that depressed when touched, sliders that slide, buttons that "push".

That's what's next.

but why not just have a button then?

[LazyDog]

keyboards are slowly being phased out by touch screens.

While touch interfaces are certainly a huge part of how most people interact with computers today, I don't see them pushing out keyboards any time soon. That's not because I think touch interfaces are inherently inferior (it's hard to say, really), but because I think the companies and people that decide how touchable software should work haven't yet come close to making something that isn't awful.

Just as the mouse necessitated the development of the language of the GUI to supersede the CLI, touch screens require not only new interfaces but an entirely new paradigm for computing. Instead of trying to figure out what that paradigm might be, companies have given us: big nondescript buttons that do things the user does not want to do; all useful functionality tucked away within labyrinths; a "reactive" web that shuffles elements that the user actually wants to see all around the page; typing that is equal parts slow, error-prone, and excruciating; a software ecosystem that encourages user-hostile design like in-app advertisements and microtransactions; and no sign of change any time soon.

In press releases and at slick, shareholder-minded trade shows, we're made to understand that the tech industry is not experimenting with ways to solve the problem of touch-computing because they do not see it as a problem. To the industry, this diminished, deeply unsatisfactory version is enough because it represents a shift from the 80s and 90s dream of computers freeing the human mind to the present reality of glorified pocket TVs, devices for consuming and being consumed by endless entertainment.

Meanwhile, in those cases where someone needs to actually get something done, they turn to something with a keyboard and mouse attached.

[f32h80fsd08h34r5]

Meanwhile, in those cases where someone needs to actually get something done, they turn to something with a keyboard and mouse attached.

Well said!

[FloFoer94]

Apple has patented a display that changes shape to provide tactile feedback.

Imagine an iPhone keyboard with "keys" that depressed when touched, sliders that slide, buttons that "push".

That's what's next.

but why not just have a button then?

Because a button is fixed in position, size and label. With a screen like that you would have the advantages of a real button with the flexibility of a screen e.g. the possibility to hide the buttons for more screen size in applications where they are not needed or to change the label,size,position,... of the buttons depeding on context/user.

[SBJ]

Meanwhile, in those cases where someone needs to actually get something done, they turn to something with a keyboard and mouse attached.

Well said!

Indeed.
I need a pc along with a mouse and keyboard if I'm going to be productive. It's just how I've been wired since I was very young and we got our first pc.
A laptop will do but I much prefer the three monitors I have here at home as opposed to the tiny laptop screen I have at work.

[Findecanor]

Keyboards have not future, they will be replaced sooner or later by some sort of mind-controlled computer interface

And I think that the mind-control interface would still have to emulate a real-world object ...
Because that is how the human mind works. We are made to use tools.
It could perhaps still be faster and more precise though, if it could detect intent.

Apple has patented a display that changes shape to provide tactile feedback.

Imagine an iPhone keyboard with "keys" that depressed when touched, sliders that slide, buttons that "push".

The only thing I have seen from Apple in that area are braille-like dots or ridges in the screen, or with a flexible membrane on top of those to provide bars that make it feel different depending on where your touch lands.
It is still a touch-surface.

[kasakka]

There's still no haptic feedback touchscreens but I could see those replacing keyboards eventually. Being able to feel whatever is on the screen is one of the biggest reasons why touchscreens are slow to use and we get around that with predictive text and autocomplete at the moment. We are still years away from having better solutions though.

If we are talking enthusiast keyboards at the moment, split keyboards seem to be on the rise and to me they do make sense as they are just that little bit more ergonomic than normal ones. More options in keysets and profiles too. I would welcome a future with less OEM keycaps.

[Coffee Jack]

Nah the future keyboards are the one's used in Dead Space.
Holographic keyboard with an ear bleeding "ping" sound whenever you push a single key. 

[konart]

The future of input is speech\thought to text obviously. For most common scenarios, for less commont - your traditional keyboards aren't going anywhere as long as humans are the ones doing typing. Mechanical or not will depend mostly on the needs of the particular user\userspece.

[digi]

The future is the past..

[f32h80fsd08h34r5]

The future is the past..

Nailed it!

[WhyYouLikeDis]

I wonder what it would feel like to have haptic feedback on a MX switch...

Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk

[fleischverpackung]

@konart is totally right.
next big android release is going to be build around much better speech recognition and voice synthesis.
who the hell still uses a touchscreen for textinput?

[Jon in PDX]

Previous comments might be applicable if the question were "what's the next big thing in mainstream command input." But it wasn't. The next big thing in keyboards, I predict, will be a manufacturing process that allows folks to easily design their own 3D layout, create it with a 3D printer, install switches, install a controller, and solder everything together properly for about the same cost as the component parts do today. Consequently, you could customize size and shape, including columnar width and curve to match your own fingers with matching caps. Admittedly, not many people would buy one, but those of us who do care about our keyboards would probably become reliably repeat customers.

The beauty of such a product is that, because everything is built to custom spec, there are no returns except in case of actual defect.

Just need to invent (and invest sufficient funds in) the manufacturing robot pipeline.

Either that, or WayTools will hit general release. With what they're promising, they'd be to high-end keyboards what Segway wanted to be to personal transportation.

[f32h80fsd08h34r5]

Previous comments might be applicable if the question were "what's the next big thing in mainstream command input." But it wasn't. The next big thing in keyboards, I predict, will be a manufacturing process that allows folks to easily design their own 3D layout, create it with a 3D printer, install switches, install a controller, and solder everything together properly for about the same cost as the component parts do today. Consequently, you could customize size and shape, including columnar width and curve to match your own fingers with matching caps. Admittedly, not many people would buy one, but those of us who do care about our keyboards would probably become reliably repeat customers.

The beauty of such a product is that, because everything is built to custom spec, there are no returns except in case of actual defect.

Just need to invent (and invest sufficient funds in) the manufacturing robot pipeline.

Either that, or WayTools will hit general release. With what they're promising, they'd be to high-end keyboards what Segway wanted to be to personal transportation.

I was thinking something like this as well!

And maybe quicker and better way to get high-quality custom keycaps, in any profile you want.

[jnav]

I'm rooting for a future keyboard "renessaince" where major computer manufactuers take notice of what's happening in smaller keyboard enthusiast communities and realize that there are many of us who are tired of touchscreens and disposable input devices (and many, many others who just don't know it yet), and who want to use something real and ergonomic and beautifully made. Maybe they'll invest millions in r&d, tooling, equipment just as IBM did, back in the days of the Model F. Costs will come down, high quality keyboards will become more mainstream, and large companies will produce something with the user experience in mind, instead of value-engineering products into the ground. Consumers will take notice, demand better quality, and then most excitingly, the future will be totally unpredictable, and wonderful.

[Giorgio]

After seeing the successful GB on deskthority, IBM will bring back buckling springs, with a - mostly - silenced version, covering 60% and 75% layout.