Look forward to seeing it.
I'm open for an opportunity, but patents can be very difficult, and enforcement is brutal. Often, money wins. I had some experience, and if you might have an interest PM me.
The thing I'm concerned about with patents is not patenting it myself, but having this design violate other patents. That's what bothers me about patents. Patents are patents, they are not ideas. What I have is an idea. If it so happens that my idea and design violates certain patents, I shouldn't have to be concerned. If the patent holder didn't come up with this design or idea, what does it mean to hold that patent?
It's funny. Initially, I came up with this idea purely for myself... I was tired of having to deal with the inadequacies of the keyboard and mouse... of course I understand that they still work well and allow for much flexibility, and that there's a reason for why we continue to use them. Later I became excited and started to think about creating this thing for the whole world... but then I thought, that's too difficult. Let me design it for myself and be done with it, and not worry about the others. The Kinesis Advantage is an example of a nice little product that isn't suitable for the whole world. So that's what I had in mind.
But very soon I realized, if what I wanted was
genuinely a good design, it must be good for everyone, not just for particular groups of people. I could come up with something and say: "Well, this isn't for everyone. It's for computer professionals." But what would I mean by that? That it's too hard for some to use? That it takes time and patience to adjust to? That the advantages brought upon this design are valued only by those with day to day activities on computers?
A design limited to a particular group, might be nice for that group then, but a genuinely excellent input system would knock the living daylights out of anything that's out there, whether you spend 5 minutes on a computer or 5 hours. For me personally, I just want the relationship between me and the computer to be a pleasant one.
The process of designing is also extremely amusing. Many moments I have felt feelings where one will want to shout: "Eureka!!" But as I've found, the best design decisions come not from those moments, but rather when you essentially kill your enthusiasm. I actually think this is what separates good designers from great designers. To keep your own enthusiasm (and therefore your own creativity) in check.
The current design I have looks a lot like that. It's almost too simple looking. In fact, there is a product out there on the market today that looks suspiciously similar to my design. The strange thing is that my design is even simpler looking, while trying to achieve more.
If it so happens that this is the final design, I would be almost remorseful. I went through a roller coaster ride of emotions, ideas and thoughts and this is ultimately what has come out of that? It's disappointing. It doesn't reflect some of the absolutely insane ideas I had at one point or another. But on the other hand, I understand that the simplicity might imply that I have arrived at the final design. It has nothing of the mechanisms and contraptions I had in mind at one point. There's nothing left for me to add or take away. It's a design that you'll look at and say: "What? That's it? You mean it's basically like (...)
"
Now all that's left is to prove the bloody thing works.
