A Multi-touch Keyboard Made of Glass
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Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, some PCs came with touch pads (“membrane keyboards”). They were hard to type on, and were quickly supplanted. Touch screens are much better, but they take up display space.
Now an inventor from Oregon, Jason Giddings, has a Kickstarter project that brings style and design sense to the wireless keyboard that even Steve Jobs would envy. It’s called a multi-touch keyboard, and Giddings is actually offering one as a prize to the person who comes up with the product name.
It works because it is entirely made of glass. Infrared light is shined into it, and the light rays are reflected inside the keyboard. When touched, a finger alters the reflection and that change is detected as a key press by a small camera below it. The keyboard also has a matching mouse. As an added bonus for tinkerers, Giddings is using open-source software to control the keyboard. (Apple recently patented a similar idea, but it works very differently, relying on pressure sensors).
Giddings has raised $122,000 so far, more than twice his original goal, so his product will be funded in January. For a pledge of $250 or more you get one of the first keyboards off the production line.
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