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Author Topic: Synaptics Thintouch  (Read 1939 times)

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Offline bear95

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Synaptics Thintouch
« on: Mon, 20 August 2012, 08:43:45 »
Synaptics is entering the keyboard industry and they've come up with something to replace scissor switch-keyboards.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6172/synaptics-thintouch-bringing-the-capacitive-touch-revolution-to-mechanical-keyboards
The height is decreased but I wonder if the slanted key travel helps travel distance significantly?
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fartq

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Synaptics Thintouch
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 20 August 2012, 12:34:38 »
interesting. so ultra-thin laptops could end up having mechanical keyboards..
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Offline hashbaz

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Re: Synaptics Thintouch
« Reply #2 on: Mon, 20 August 2012, 12:47:54 »
Interesting.  I'd like to try the force sense thing for typing capital letters.
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Offline daerid

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Re: Synaptics Thintouch
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 20 August 2012, 12:54:43 »
"Mechanical" is a misnomer, as the actual switching mechanism isn't based on an electrical switch with parts, but it definitely seems interesting.

I'd like to know for one how they plan to allow users to rest their fingers on the keys, as I do and I'm sure most other do as well.
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Offline hashbaz

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Re: Synaptics Thintouch
« Reply #4 on: Mon, 20 August 2012, 13:22:07 »
There is still travel and contact involved unless I'm mistaken.  Should be able to rest your fingers on it like any other physical keyboard.
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Offline dotancohen

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A tactile keyboard with no mechanical parts
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 21 August 2012, 05:56:28 »
Might be coming to a laptop near you:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/23432/2
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Offline fohat.digs

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Re: A tactile keyboard with no mechanical parts
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 21 August 2012, 07:02:48 »
Interesting.

I always love the concept of "no moving parts" but as a hardened user of buckling springs, I think that my definition of "tactile" may be a bit different ....
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Offline dorkvader

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Re: Synaptics Thintouch
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 21 August 2012, 09:19:01 »
Hmm, this is interesting. Thanks for posting. I really hate the low-travel scissor keyboards (Like the one on Apple's Macbook air). I was about to poo-poo this as well, but it says that the key moves towards the user and down a little, which would give the illusion of more travel. I don't know how good it'd be in practise, but I'm interested to try it now.
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Offline daerid

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Re: A tactile keyboard with no mechanical parts
« Reply #8 on: Tue, 21 August 2012, 11:18:30 »
I constantly run my fingers over the top of my keys to locate the home row. I wonder how they're going to handle that. I think most people probably lightly rest they're fingertips on the keys while typing as well.
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Offline Computer-Lab in Basement

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Re: A tactile keyboard with no mechanical parts
« Reply #9 on: Tue, 21 August 2012, 11:30:40 »
Hmm... this thread seems awfully familiar:

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=34810.0
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Quote from: Computer-Lab in Basement on Mon, 23 March 2015, 15:14:18
tp thread is tp thread
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Offline Keyboarder

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Re: A tactile keyboard with no mechanical parts
« Reply #10 on: Tue, 21 August 2012, 12:53:08 »
I wonder how much it will cost to deploy these keyboards on laptops...
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Offline dorkvader

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Re: Synaptics Thintouch
« Reply #11 on: Tue, 21 August 2012, 22:16:16 »
Quote from: Keyboarder on Tue, 21 August 2012, 12:53:08
I wonder how much it will cost to deploy these keyboards on laptops...
Too much. Most manufacturers won't go in for the added expense, because they can't justify raising their price by the same amount (plus margin). Consumers (and most people) want to buy the cheapest item that will do what they want (which in this case means getting on facebook). They won't spend an extra $50 for a laptop with a better "keyboard" that doesn't have any other benefits. Only if a large company like Apple pics it up will it survive.

No, I expect this well be relegated into the medical/industrial fields, because it con probably mbe made to be pretty waterproof.

I imagine it'd only be useful as a large screen, so that haptics will be easy. That's a good application that phone manufacturers wight pick up.
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