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Hardware

Making a Keyboard with Mutating Keycaps? 64

Posted by Cliff from the keyboards-of-the-future dept.
Montreal Geek asks: "I'm currently working on a pet project of mine for which I now find myself with the financial resources to bring to completion: the International Keyboard from Heck. The basic idea (most of the electronics and software for it have already been written) is that the keyboard has a variable layout (and a nice interface to change that layout) with the actual images on the keycaps changing to match what glyph/code-point it will generate. My problem is that I am unsure of which hardware solution to use for the actual, physical keycaps. My original prototype keycap uses a 7x9 array of leds under a lexan surface, but the power requirements of this many leds on a whole keyboard (even when scanning) is a tad prohibitive, and the lexan doesn't feel very good under a finger. Although glowing red keycaps look cool at first, I'm a bit worried that they will end up overly aggressive and annoying in the long run. Can you think of better alternatives? Keep in mind that the design must be resistant to repeated impacts (it is a keyboard after all) and, preferably, have fairly low power consumption so that the device remains practical for laptops." Although a few years from being truly affordable, might OLED technology be appropriate for this project? What other ideas might work out well for such a piece of hardware?
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Making a Keyboard with Mutating Keycaps? More

Making a Keyboard with Mutating Keycaps?

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  • Can you think of better alternatives? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Nope, sorry. Hope that helps.

  • Fiber optics? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by diesel_jackass ( 534880 ) <travis...hardiman@@@gmail...com> on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @05:44PM (#4602343) Homepage Journal
    Have you researched optical fiber [google.com] at all?
    • Yes. The problem is that I'm no mechanical engineer, and I can't seem to find a reasonable way of doing fiber.

      First off, its usefulness seem to depend on the ability to "switch" between keycaps while reusing the same light emitting hardware. Is that even possible?

      Secondly, I would expect there is a hard problem with the keys' movement needing to bend the fibers up to several times per second for the lifetime of the keyboard. My understanding of fiber is that it's flexible, to a point, but prone to fatigue if bent repeatedly.

      -- MG

      • How about this plastic optical fiber from Asahi Kasei...

        Multi-core POF LUMINOUS M GRADE [asahi-kasei.co.jp]
        Until now, the versatility of optical fibers has been limited by the increased attenuation which accompanied bending. M-grade Luminous, with its unique multi-core structure, has eliminated this problem for all practical purposes. Even the tightest kink in the cord will not cause attenuation to rise significantly.

        With freedom from concerns of increased attenuation, M-grade Luminous enables a whole new range of applications and installation configurations.

        Unrelated to the original topic, the V-Grade [asahi-kasei.co.jp] would be pretty sweet for case-modding.
  • --can't help ya but I want a lit up keyboard real bad. Always wanted one. I like to be able to sit in front of the monitor but NOT have to have an overhead light to see the keys. I wish ya luck, get one on the market ya got a sale! As to re mapping it, that's frosting and cool too.
    • Check with police supply houses. I've seen red backlit keyboards for sale for that very purpose. Around $100 IIRC.
      • --I'll have to google for it but thanks for telling me they exist already. 100 clams is steep for a keyboard but it's worth a look to at least find the name of the thing, then maybe ebay for one.
    • --can't help ya but I want a lit up keyboard real bad. Always wanted one. I like to be able to sit in front of the monitor but NOT have to have an overhead light to see the keys

      Try placing one of those small strands of Christmas lights under your desk. I have had this setup for a few years. I have the lights (blue) strung between the legs/supports of the desk.

      When I sit back in my chair I can't see the lights and I have the strand plugged into the aux outlet on my stereo and can turn it off and on by turnign the radio off and on (and when I don't want the radio on I just flip it over to the aux/computer channel).

      I've pondered making some kind of LED thing to go under the desk and erplace the Christmas lights but the lights "Just Work".

      • --I hadn't thought of the small christmas lights but that might work. Right now I have a 12 volt fluorescent over the keyboard (we cruise on solar, every watt counts) and ideally I'd like led's but the christmas lights might throw enough light without being annoying. thanks.

  • Sticky tape (Score:4, Funny)

    by tsa ( 15680 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @05:44PM (#4602348) Homepage
    Stick the letters on with sticky tape. If you want to change the layout you can easily pull them off.

  • Clear keycaps + LCD? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rpresser ( 610529 ) <rpresser&gmail,com> on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @05:46PM (#4602366)
    Just guessing here, but what about using an lcd panel under the keycaps, and using clear keycaps?

  • Darn. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dannon ( 142147 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @05:46PM (#4602376) Journal
    Misread the title for a moment there. Thought it was talking about muting keycaps.

    I was hoping this would be a cure for IRC shouting.

  • Electroluminescent (Score:3, Interesting)

    by perlyking ( 198166 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @05:49PM (#4602404) Homepage
    Lots of Electroluminescent panel squares?

    It would be fiddly but be low power and look cool.
  • ... and clickable transparent keys on top to
    provide tactile feedback.

    Even better if screen is backlit and each key
    has a built-in lens to focus whatever is
    on screen on slightly matted keycap surface.

    Sounds like a patentable idea! :) Maybe we should
    give it a try? ;-)

    Paul B.

  • Animation. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by perlyking ( 198166 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @05:52PM (#4602433) Homepage
    And.... if you get it to work you could animate the keyboard :-) Imagine ripples spreading out from each key as it is pressed...

    • Re:Animation. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by p4ul13 ( 560810 )
      Doesn't quite fit the low power consumption requirement, or for that matter practicality, but the thought of a fully skinnable keyboard is really quite slick.

    • Re:Animation. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Wiwi Jumbo ( 105640 )
      Or for that matter helping people with choices.. "Y" or "N" flashing on the keyboard when you have a yes or no decision.

      There's probably lots of stuff you could do with an animated keyboard....
  • . . . like the Scramblepad [hirschelectronics.com], except in a a full size keyboard?
    • I've used the scrable pads before. They were cool, in an annoying sort of way. The cool part was obviously that they would rearrange themselves when you went to enter your password. The annoying part, (and this isn't really their fault) is that the security folks who issued the passcodes for them didn't give good directions for entering the codes which led to some frustration at first.

  • LCD keycaps (Score:5, Informative)

    by Hurga ( 265993 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @06:01PM (#4602521)
    Check http://www.lcd-keys.com/ [lcd-keys.com]

    Hurga

    • Re: LCD keycaps (Score:3, Informative)

      by Montreal Geek ( 620791 )
      Those are indeed very cool, but they do not "feel" like a traditional keycap (yes, I have one I've been playing with).

      LCD also suffers from angle of vision; you'd be surprised at how faded a keycap looks when it's at the edge of the keyboard. Place yourself in a confortable typing position and look at the numeric keypad on a typical PC keyboard: already over 30 degrees of angle for most people.

      OLCD [as the editor suggested] looks promising, but very expensive.

      -- MG

      • Um.. how about making the top of the key like a lens which would bend the image to more angles?
        • I am an Industrial Design student, and did some related research for custom keyboard products last year. You might check http://www.nkksmartswitch.com (I don't work for anyone, including them) The PDF says they have an adjustable viewing angle, solving one of the issues mentioned. As a designer, I'd lean heavily to the ideas of projecting images onto a blank keyboard. This would be most flexible for prototyping, and require the least hardware interfacing of any options mentioned so far. Also, you'd be able to see what key you were pressing at anytime, as the image would be on your finger, not under it. I'd love to discuss it with you more!


    • [New Page 1] ...
      Seriously, a technology company with a site title of 'New Page 1' makes me think they are a bit under-staffed for the job.

  • Switches with built in graphical LCD's (Score:3, Informative)

    by ikeleib ( 125180 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @06:03PM (#4602546) Homepage
    If you are made of money, check out these push buttons with built in graphical LCD's. They even have multicolor backlights.

    www.screenkeys.com

  • Not quite the same, but... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rick the Red ( 307103 ) <Rick.The.Red@nOsPaM.gmail.com> on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @06:07PM (#4602603) Journal
    Years ago I had an idea for a keyboard where you could change the layout as you saw fit, but unlike you I lack the resources to do anything with it. The basic idea is that each keycap has one to eight pins that fit into eight sockets in each underlying switch. Each socket has an optical sensor to tell if a pin has entered the socket when you press the key. Each keycap has a unique combination of pins, making 255 possible values for any given keycap (you can't use "0" because if you remove all the pins the switch can't tell when you press the key). E.g., the "A" key has an ASCII value of 65 and has two pins, one in the 1s position and the other in the 64s position. You could put the "A" key in any position you want and the keyboard will know it's an "A" when you press it. Just don't break off any pins when you move keycaps!

    There, it's out in the public now, so use it but don't try to patent it or I'll sue your lame ass.

    Sorry, but I don't have any ideas for making the printing on the keycap change dynamically.

  • LCD? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Panoramix ( 31263 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @06:13PM (#4602678) Homepage

    I don't think there'll be many options to choose from.

    Maybe opaque keys with a hole on the top, and a single-character LCD panel fitted in the hole (not 7-segment but pixelled, like those in "scientific" calculators). Then you can use a single bright light inside the keyboard that will shine through the white dots. And you could add a potentiometer to control the intensity of the light, like a car dashboard, in case it gets annoying. And you can put two lights, one green and one red, and a switch to turn on one or the other, or both, so you can change the light color.

    I'm guessing power consumption should be much lower than leds on each key, too.

  • Use Software! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Arthur Dent ( 76567 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @06:14PM (#4602701)
    Hardware?

    To paraphrase and mutilate:

    I just want to say one word to you - just one word : Software!

    Check out a picture [electricnews.net] and the marketing stuff [canesta.com].

    Should be real easy to project any kind of key using this technology.

    • Heh. Those are cool devices, but I very much doubt anyone would want to work by drumming their fingers on a flat surface all day. It gets /really/ unconfortable very soon, and not having mechanical feedback makes the whole process much more error prone.

      It's a wonderful idea for occasional typing on a device that does not normally provide good facilities for that, but I doubt anyone would want this as a primary input device for day-to-day work.

      This is why the TRON idea of a CRT (or other graphical device) lying beneath a transparent touch-sensitive surface is impractical (but amazingly cool-looking).

      The whole idea has been prompted by a friend of mine (a librarian) that types during his whole work day in two languages but needs frequent short 'switches' to other character sets-- the ability to switch to, say, cyrillic and see the unfamiliar layout would be very useful.

      But since that keyboard is used day-in and day-out, it is important that it 'feels' like a normal keyboard.

      -- MG

    • Brilliant suggestion. Everyone is trying to think of a way to have a detailed image displayed below a transparent keyboard. The cheaper answer, as A.Dent suggests, is to project the image onto the keyboard. This works since using reconfigurable key images implies that the user will be hunting and pecking. Thus, their hands will not be blocking the key projection while they hunt for the right character.

      Yes, you would have to reconfigure the canesta software to project onto a keyboard form factor. Once that was done, you wouldn't even need to sell the actual keyboard. Maybe a membrane keyboard cover that can be laid upon the user's current keyboard. Pick a matte material that will difuse the laser image better than a shiny plastic surface.

      All the user would have to do is unplug their current keyboard and plug in the canesta projection keyboard. Then type away at their old keyboard while the canesta registers the keystrokes visually.

      Slick
  • And talk to CRL Opto. [crlopto.com]

    IANAEE, but 15mm LCD's and Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Micro Displays both sound promising.

  • ...how about making a keyboard without ...keys (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jukal ( 523582 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @07:10PM (#4603274) Journal
    I had this idea some two-or-so years ago. Meanwhile, I think someone already implemented it. I personally, and I think a significant percentage of others, don't have a look at the keyboard very often. After typing millions of characters you just know where the keys of the qwerty keyboard are. So, I think the perfect solution for especially PDA usage, would be to wear "data gloves" - with no physical keyboard at all.

    You would just "calibrate" your "keyboard" by typing "Ok, now lets calibrate this keyboard - the keys are here 123 poi zxc mnb". And after then just start typing.

    The only problem with this is that - the "data gloves" are expensive and clumsy. If someone knows how build something like this otherwise, please let me know :))

    • Such a device (virtual keyboard using a data glove) would need some sort of feedback for the user, either visual or haptic (touch).

      A standard keyboard gives multiple kinds of haptic feedback, both the up/down response (spring) when you click it, and the information about alignment (you can feel it when you don't hit the key in its center).

      [Imaging touch typing without a sense of touch.]

      Visual feedback (say from display goggles) would kinda defeat the purpose (touch typing).

      Some "data gloves" do give force feedback, but they are very expensive

      Without feedback there would be no way to keep your hands aligned to the virtual keys. The computer could use some sort of algorithm that continuously repositioned the "keyboard" based upon contexual information about what you type, but that is probably too complex. [Of course if would go nuts if you typed stuff like fsck -F ufs ...]
  • You can buy plastic "keyboard skins" that protect keyboards from spills and dirt. If your keyboard had blank keys, you could write the letters on the underside of the skin (backwards, I suppose) with a magic marker.

    Or, make the front sides (not the top) magnetic, and then have a lot of little metal rectangles with letters on them. You re-arrange the keys in software, then you move the rectangles to the right keys. The rectangles won't get in the way because you'll be touching the tops of the keys when you type, not the sides. (I remember using keyboards long ago that had things printed on the fronts of the keys.)

    Or better yet, find out what material is used for those static-stick stickers that attach to things without glue. Then print up a bunch of those and you can stick them on the sides of the keys instead.

    Or, have a small strip of plastic between each row (like the strip between the F keys and the number keys, but thinner). Your software can print out thin strips of paper which you can then attach to the strips of plastic.

    Or, have a bunch of non-attached strips of plastic that can fit between the rows of keys and which sit at a 45 degree angle or so. They can attach at either side of the keyboard. Then your software can print out thin strips of paper with the keys on them, you can attach the paper to the plastic strips, and insert the strips.

    Of course, none of this is as cool as having it done electronically, but one of these ways actually might work.

    You owe the Oracle a Mutating Mouse, a beer, and $1000 if you use his brilliant ideas.

  • OT: Warm the keys, reduce the RSI risk? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ivi ( 126837 ) on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @07:27PM (#4603436)
    The following is -pure- speculation on my part:

    As the symptoms of RSI (that we experience - all
    too often, eg when mousing & keying at all hours
    of the day or night) may come, in part, from the
    more or less constant touching of cold, at least
    in Winter, plastic this guy's idea might help.

    Ie, if the dynamic keytops that this inventor is
    set to engineer happen to -warm- the tips of the
    fingers instead of chilling them... I, for one,
    wouldn't be surprised to see a decrease in RSI &
    an increase in comfort resulting from their use.

    Has anyone else noticed different levels of RSI-
    symptoms with different ambient temeratures...?

    PS I'm also looking to engineer a comfortable
    seat, for my computer desk, that enables me to
    peddle &/or otherwise exercise my legs while
    at work with my vast array of systems. Ideally,
    it will do something with the energy produced
    by my moving my legs (eg on bicycle-like ped-
    dles, slightly in front of me), like generate
    electricity from it...

    Hey! With bits from an old exercise bike, an
    old automobile alternator, et al. this may be-
    come the 2003 Killer DIY Project for Geeks! :-)

    Perhaps there should be a contest (annual or
    monthly, you choose) for Best DIY Geek Project.
  • That is, a device located over the keyboard that projects the desired graphic onto the surface from above(the user's/hand/finger side of the keyboard). All the keys are then the same old same old plastic, just NO black images of letters, etc.

    Or better yet, the surface is just that, a surface and you have a camera that watches where users put their fingers!

    It would probably need some optics to focus well over the entire keyboard from a short distance, but it could work.

  • Why label the key caps at all? (Score:3, Funny)

    by rthille ( 8526 ) <web-slashdot@ran g a t .org> on Tuesday November 05, 2002 @08:40PM (#4604104) Homepage Journal

    My main keyboard at home doesn't have any keycaps. It's a prototype NeXT keyboard that I bought from one of their hardware engineers. It doesn't have anything printed on any of the keycaps. It keeps people from messing with my computer! I suppose it would work even better if I used a non-qwerty layout :-)
  • Here's a related article [slashdot.org]. I don't know what it's made of but I thought it might be useful to you.


  • A lot of people have suggested LCD, but here's my take on this:

    take an old LCD display, say, 800x240 or something similar and place it in the cutout for the keys in the keyboard, and cover it with a touch-screen layer. Draw your 'keyboard' on the LCD panel with software (very easy to reconfigure that way), and use the data from the touch-screen layer to determine which areas have been 'touched', mapping them to your 'keyboard'. Naturally, this gives you no keyboard feel, and would be very 'touchy' (pardon the pun).

    Or instead of a touch-screen layer, build your own gloves, for which the only requirement would be an optical sensor under each fingertip, hooked up to the computer, which would tell you what area of the keyboard your fingertips are over based on timing data (analogous to the way arcade games "know" where you're pointing your gun at in Wild West Shootout or something). The only problem is, I don't know if this approach would work with LCD panels (somehow I don't think they're refreshed the same way as CRTs). So, the LCD + touchscreen approach might be more practical (if not simply feasible).

    Either way, it would probably be expensive. But, if you're catering to an eager market (or planning to), you might be able to pull it off.
  • This looks like a great application for the digital ink technology, where small spheres rotate from dark to light sides depending on (I believe it was) electrostatic charges. The result would be a non-luminous keyboard with high-contrast lettering.

  • A simple, soon-to-be inexpensive solution. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cybermace5 ( 446439 ) <g.ryan@macetech.com> on Wednesday November 06, 2002 @03:53PM (#4610628) Homepage Journal
    Here's a tip.

    Go to eInk [eink.com] and check out a few of their products. They'll prototype up some stuff for you at a pretty reasonable cost, in the $20k range.

    It's thin, it's light, it's power-saving, it's going to be pretty cheap once large-scale manufacturing kicks in. You could seal this stuff under a clear keycap. The major engineering problem, that I can see, is getting all the graphics data to the keys. Based on how the tech works, you'd probably be making a segmented character display, rather than dot-matrix. If you want a dot-matrix graphics display, they have to put an active-matrix array behind the eInk layer to control the dots.

    The stuff is also easy to see in bright light...something difficult to achieve with LEDs. Plus, it stays in the state you left it...no blank keyboard when your KeyCapWriter drivers crash on powerup.

    If you really insist on them glowing, put a single LED in the key and front-light the eInk with a plastic light guide.

    You'll align your product with another emerging technology, probably strengthing both companies' chances (or pinning your chances on their success, whatever way you look at it).

    I don't work for eInk; wish I did. They once had an opening for a hardware engineer.
  • You can use small LCD-s in the keys, for example the ones used in small electonic lady watch. The LCD-s can be reflective or inverse. The inverse LCD will need a LED placed underneath to show an image.
    Having in mind that a cheapo electronic watch costs very little, the LCD-s probably will be 1-2 dollars each. The keycaps can be made transparent and the LCD can be placed below the cap to keep it from scratches. I remember one VERY OLD keyboard, that had the quadratic design of a Volvo 740 (when I say quadratic, I mean QUADRATIC :), everything was square with sharp edges), that had transparent keycaps and there were little pieces of paper below the caps with the letters printed on them. Changing the visual keyboard layout was a 1 min work.
    Maybe there exist keyboards with transparent caps, so they can directly be used.

    How many keyboards need a infinite number of monkeys, if every monkey types on two keyboards?
  • Here's a thought: paint each keycap in heat-sensitive dyes, like what they use for those postcard thermometers and the lighters with the picture of women with bras that disappear when you heat them. Have, say, 7 of these little ink strips, and put a small resistor under each - you should probably compartmentalize the inside of the keycap, or mold it so that heat from one resistor doesn't spill over to an adjacent ink line. If you work out some way to interface with the resistors - another poster mentioned a pin/socket system that I bet would work well here - you could controll the resistors, and thus control which ink line changes color from the "default", thus giving the ability to create characters. The problems are that this change would be relatively slow - maybe a minute, and you have to put something over the ink to insulate it from the user's fingers. Probably not really workable, but then again there really aren't any cheap solutions to this that are, probably.
  • I seem to recall a lecturer at my university talking about an idea like this, I think they were intending to use LCDs. Apparently they had to give it up, because somebody had the idea patented.

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