What about a keyboard with lasers and a sound?

[fateswarm]

It's a board with gaps where the keys are and you slide your fingers in them in a non-corporeal manner. You basically deal with no forces at all and the feedback is perfect synchronicity of the laser with audio feedback.

[tp4tissue]

what you mean like a touch screen which we already have?

[Rule16]

You mean this?

[tp4tissue]

You mean this?

^^ btw this thing isn't very responsive... I tried it out at the store..

[Latin00032]

I prefer sharks with frickin' last beans attached to their heads.

[fateswarm]

You mean this?

The keys should be on 'air', no touching anything. The feedback should come only from audio or/and screen.

[daerid]

I prefer sharks with frickin' last beans attached to their heads.

I originally was going to post "you mean laser beams" but then I thought: "last beans" is so much better.

[Rule16]

You mean this?

The keys should be on 'air', no touching anything. The feedback should come only from audio or/and screen.

I'm pretty sure what you're wanting is impossible to make at this time.

[fateswarm]

You mean this?

The keys should be on 'air', no touching anything. The feedback should come only from audio or/and screen.

I'm pretty sure what you're wanting is impossible to make at this time.

There must be a way to cut off light so that if it doesn't pass it registers a stroke.

[McWilloughby]

You mean this?

The keys should be on 'air', no touching anything. The feedback should come only from audio or/and screen.

I'm pretty sure what you're wanting is impossible to make at this time.

There must be a way to cut off light so that if it doesn't pass it registers a stroke.

Yeah but the technology to have the laser beam "stop" in the air doesn't exist. You could focus the beam to a point in the air in front of you but without anything for the beam to focus on to you would just end up with an unfocused image somewhere behind that point.

Basically from what you're saying I assume you mean a hologram keyboard. Projected holograms are currently a pretty basic technology (you can do it with a tank filled with a semi-opaque gas, basically like smoke, and I seem to remember seeing one with a clear liquid) and we're a long way off the point where it'll be possible to construct a keyboard based on this.

Detecting the strokes isn't the issue, projecting the keyboard into air is.

[Rayne]

There must be a way to cut off light

if there was, we would have light sabers by now...

[fateswarm]

You mean this?

The keys should be on 'air', no touching anything. The feedback should come only from audio or/and screen.

I'm pretty sure what you're wanting is impossible to make at this time.

There must be a way to cut off light so that if it doesn't pass it registers a stroke.

Yeah but the technology to have the laser beam "stop" in the air doesn't exist. You could focus the beam to a point in the air in front of you but without anything for the beam to focus on to you would just end up with an unfocused image somewhere behind that point.

Basically from what you're saying I assume you mean a hologram keyboard. Projected holograms are currently a pretty basic technology (you can do it with a tank filled with a semi-opaque gas, basically like smoke, and I seem to remember seeing one with a clear liquid) and we're a long way off the point where it'll be possible to construct a keyboard based on this.

Detecting the strokes isn't the issue, projecting the keyboard into air is.

The board has gaps. It's in the OP. The receptors are there for each key plus a laser source for each.

[IvanIvanovich]

Hmn, I wonder you could adapt a laser theremin for typing? If so, problem solved.

[fateswarm]

Hmn, I wonder you could adapt a laser theremin for typing? If so, problem solved.

I'm surprised it's 2013 and we still don't have hovering-hands-and-fingers input devices with delicate finger gestures.

I said delicate finger gestures, get Wii out of your head.

[IvanIvanovich]

Well, skip the lasers part and you have instrument played with air since the late 1920's.

I suppose with some work you could adapt this into an input device.
Only more recently have lasers been used for this type of instrument, mostly as entertainment factor for live performance I guess.

[davkol]

Hmn, I wonder you could adapt a laser theremin for typing? If so, problem solved.

I'm surprised it's 2013 and we still don't have hovering-hands-and-fingers input devices with delicate finger gestures.

I said delicate finger gestures, get Wii out of your head.

That's one of the worst ideas ever, and people who are serious about user interfaces have cursed creators of Minority Report numerous times because of this. Let me find some articles now... Yeah, the most recent one that I'm aware of: here we go.

[fateswarm]

> Implying I said anything about full size hover screens and all kinds of other irrelevant science fiction things