Author Topic: Bastron Glass keyboad on Massdrop  (Read 43116 times)

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Offline dantan

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Bastron Glass keyboad on Massdrop
« on: Sat, 04 March 2017, 21:12:34 »
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/bastron-glass-touch-smart-keyboard?clickid=3C4QJrWv1wJSSSg2E83sa180Ukhw3QVRqSbW340&utm_term=252901&utm_content=Skimbit%20Ltd.&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=impactradius&irgwc=1

I saw this. If that board is really just a tempered glass surface, can't we customize it and use whatever layout we like? Someone should come up with an app for that.

Maybe what we need is a kickstarter for two small pieces of tempered glass that can be tented. Then we can have our custom layouts anyway we want. It's very interesting.

Offline johnthedong

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Re: Bastron Glass keyboad on Massdrop
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 04 March 2017, 21:42:40 »
Hmm... as a piece of tapered glass it's no different then my iPad on screen keyboard tbh. Would be a bit of pain to touch type on it. Seems pretty cool though as a standalone keyboard.

Offline Findecanor

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Re: Bastron Glass keyboad on Massdrop
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 05 March 2017, 06:55:52 »
I fixed the link for you:
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/bastron-glass-touch-smart-keyboard?mode=guest_open

Glass keyboards and laser keyboards are harder to use than even touchscreen keyboards because there is no feedback to tell you that you have pressed the correct key.
This keyboard blinks when it registers a key press, but it blinks the entire keyboard which I think is a bit superfluous as you would already felt that you had touched it.

The FingerWorks' keyboards worked around not having tactile feedback by adapting the location of the virtual keys by where on the keys that you typed, which would allow you to touch-type on it. It would be cool if this keyboard has something like that but I have not heard about it.

The only upside I can find with it is that it also acts takes touch-gestures.
« Last Edit: Sun, 05 March 2017, 07:13:43 by Findecanor »

Offline tp4tissue

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Re: Bastron Glass keyboad on Massdrop
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 05 March 2017, 09:42:13 »
This is superior to every other flat keyboard..

Switches are  pointless once you have perfected general touchtyping.

The only downside which may occur with these budget iterations , is how the matrixing is done.. and what sort of weird roll-over issues you end up encountering.

Offline dantan

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Re: Bastron Glass keyboad on Massdrop
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 05 March 2017, 11:04:17 »
If keyboard could be programmed and the locations of the keys arranged to fit your hands, then you can type on it as per normal without looking. And if they have tactile feedback like the vibrations on any cell phone, that would be all you need.

Offline Findecanor

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Re: Bastron Glass keyboad on Massdrop
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 05 March 2017, 16:19:46 »
Mythbusters showed that you can't walk in a straight line very far when blindfolded - you will always veer in some direction or other.
The same is true for your hands - they will veer off if you can't see or feel the keys. You'd need constant feedback so that your proprioception will keep your hands in the right position.

I have tried to type on the Lenovo Yoga Book - which has a similar "keyboard" that is a backlit touch-surface. It was absolutely horrible. It did have active haptic feedback via vibration on each "key press" but it is actually not that useful. The vibration comes after each press when you have already lifted the finger from the key. If you type correctly, you will notice the key on screen anyway.
The description of the Bastron mentions that the size of the keys has been increased to compensate for it being hard to type on ... which is bull****! What you need to prevent veering off is properly small keys that give you some kind of feedback when you don't press them in the centre - and a keyboard with physical keys has that.
What you get instead is that you do veer off when typing occasionally - and each time that makes you look at the keyboard to adjust your hand positions.
« Last Edit: Sun, 05 March 2017, 16:23:22 by Findecanor »