Keyboard Gloves

[ASETNIOP]

Hi folks,
I've been looking at various platforms to host my keyboard replacement design (ASETNIOP) and one of the ideas I've had for a long time is a set of keyboard gloves; i.e. a set of gloves with sensors at the fingertips that respond to pressure.  Based on an extremely limited knowledge of electronics, I put together the set you see in the following video - it's just a set of gloves with some snap fasteners wired into the fingertips and a metal plate that closes a circuit as the gloves touch down.  Despite their appearance, they actually work quite well.  I'd love to connect with someone who has the skill/tools/interest in making something a little more sleek.  Is anyone in this community working on something like this, or does anyone have any interest in this sort of project?  If so, speak up!

[edujackass]

wow this actually looks really cool! you have my interes! i am still wondering how the normal consumer will think about this.. it could be that they are not into complicated things and prefer to press visible keys.. hmm.. Can't the mettal in the gloves be on your arm, thus touching the plate with bare fingers would close the circuit?

[ASETNIOP]

Yeah, the whole learning curve aspect is something that I'm going to have to fight a war against.  I'm hoping that the whole "type at 60+ wpm in thin air" aspect will outweigh the [Simpsons quote] "if something's hard to do, it's not worth doing" mentality, but I keep reminding myself to stay realistic. 

Each finger has a specific connection, so I don't think it's an option to have the connection in the arm...but a real system for this wouldn't need any of that at all; it would just consist of pressure sensors in the fingertips and a wireless signal sent to the computer.  I don't have any experience with that sort of thing, but I bet someone else around here does!

[Parak]

This will never be popular - it doesn't have any potential for aftermarket custom keycaps, I'm afraid.

Cough.

No, but seriously, that's pretty awesome. How are you determining which letter each finger presses, or are you using some sort of a chording method?

[ASETNIOP]

It's a chording method - that way it doesn't matter where the finger action happens (in principle you could cross hands - like a drummer - and the keystrokes wouldn't change.  The chords are based on the QWERTY layout - I use the most common letter from each finger as primary keys (hence ASETNIOP) and the remainder are obtained by chords.  I also put together layouts for Colemak and Dvorak (which are actually a little easier to learn since the home keys in Colemak are identical and Dvorak are almost identical. 

[islisis]

even without glass, i've dreamt of how amazing this would be for half of my life now

but, i don't see the connection between 'typing in thin air' and the contact prototype in the video, why did you choose that as a place to start? you state yourself the mechanism is completely different...

also, have you thought about a license you would wish to grant for such a design?

[Internetlad]

inb4 this guy is rich.

[ASETNIOP]

For physical devices, the license would be a fairly simple per-unit royalty.  The IP I'm getting is actually based more on the autocorrection and stenography components of the method rather than the actual layout - I can make a good argument for why ASETNIOP is the best arrangement, but I've also put together layouts for Colemak and Dvorak users, and I even put together a layout with ASDF and JKL; as the primary keys, though personally I think it's impractical to waste single-finger presses (of which you only get on letters like J and K and ; and using chords for letters like T and E. 

The "typing in thin air" part is actually reliant on having a flat surface to work with - some of the chords (especially F and M, which consist of the pinky and index finger of the same hand being pressed down) are hard to form without something to push back on.  Either way, though, the idea is predicated on what each individual fingertip is doing (i.e. pressing down on a flat surface), rather than *where* it's doing it. 

[E TwentyNine]

Why do you need the plate at all?  Can't you have a pressure switch of some sort in each fingertip wired up and tap on whatever you want?

Edit: OK, you say this is a prototype and you will be doing pressure switches.  I could've sworn I've seen this technology before (chording gloves).

[ASETNIOP]

Why do you need the plate at all?  Can't you have a pressure switch of some sort in each fingertip wired up and tap on whatever you want?

Edit: OK, you say this is a prototype and you will be doing pressure switches.  I could've sworn I've seen this technology before (chording gloves).

Yep, pressure switches would definitely be the way to go, but I won't be doing it myself - I don't have any electronics experience (or time!).  The metal plate was just a way of making the whole thing work for demonstrating the method, which I'm hoping is the real peach here.

[E TwentyNine]

Side note, looking at your website, I think your iPad chording input method is a killer idea, and one I have not seen before.

But, regarding chording gloves, is this you: chordinggloves.blogspot.com/ ?  That's just the first hit on google, there are others stretching back quite a ways.

I think it's a good idea but I believe it's been done before.  Maybe you're bringing something new to the table that hasn't been tried, but possibly you're trying to enter a market that already has some players.

[ASETNIOP]

Ooh!  I hadn't seen that before - thank you!  I had done a pretty comprehensive search for chording gloves when I got started a long while back, but this guy has only been at it since January or so.  I'm going to get in touch with that guy - I really like what he's doing with conductive fabric.

My idea actually has a lot more to do with the method, rather than the chording glove device itself - I do software (badly, but I'm getting better) and not so much hardware.  I think there will probably be a renewed surge of interest in this area when/if Google Glasses start entering the market, and I'm hoping to make my method basically the QWERTY equivalent for something like this.  The thing that I'm banking on is that humans are *always* going to have ten fingers, and my pitch is that this is the best touch-based solution (in the absence of an actual physical keyboard).

[islisis]

ah, i see, my mistake
i'll keep dreaming of actually typing in thin air then
as far as chording goes, i do hope whatever ideas which come from the community stay in the community. good luck