"The fingers you have used to TYPE are too fat. To obtain a special TYPING wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now."

July 26, 2011 5:18 PM

IBM is working on a keyboard design that will adapt to a user’s finger anatomy. Touchscreen keyboard morphs to fit your typing style. [Fig. 2] Via: [Wired] Morphing Touchscreen Keyboard Interface (PDF) [Pat2PDF/IBM]
posted by Fizz (20 comments total)

Contrast this with the Model M, where the user's finger anatomy adapts to the keyboard.
posted by box at 5:22 PM on July 26, 2011 [5 favorites]

A question: Should a user adapt to design or should design adapt to the user?
posted by Fizz at 5:24 PM on July 26, 2011

IBM is working on a keyboard design that will adapt to a user’s finger anatomy.

I so want to find someone with flippers to fry this software.
posted by jonmc at 5:26 PM on July 26, 2011

A software patent that I like!
posted by a robot made out of meat at 5:28 PM on July 26, 2011

I so want to find someone with flippers to fry this software.

I prefer my software hard-boiled.
posted by Skygazer at 5:52 PM on July 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

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posted by Inspector.Gadget at 6:30 PM on July 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Touchscreen keyboard morphs to fit your typing style.

My typing style is to use a keyboard, not a screen. Morph to that.
posted by pmurray63 at 6:42 PM on July 26, 2011 [4 favorites]

Just came to say the same thing pmurray63. Does it produce one, Star Trek replicator style for us?
posted by cmgonzalez at 7:06 PM on July 26, 2011

I'm sad that this isn't a semi-robotic mechanical keyboard that automatically adapts to the typist. Now THAT would be cool.
posted by unknownmosquito at 7:07 PM on July 26, 2011

I so want to find someone with flippers to fry this software.

I heard there were kippers for beta testers.
posted by arcticseal at 7:12 PM on July 26, 2011

So hunt-and-peck typists will have a chicken-shaped layout?

Also, the original IBM PC keyboards that clicked? Nothing has come close to that feel and responsiveness since. To fooey with you young whippersnappers and your self-capacitive flatscreens.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 7:18 PM on July 26, 2011

The article frames this as a solution to the inferior pad typing experience, but the problem isn't the uniformity of the keys. Traditional keyboards have done just fine with a one size fits all layout.


Still cool though, and I guess it will help.
posted by Defenestrator at 7:36 PM on July 26, 2011

There's a reason why people still use knives, rather than laser cutters, to slice bread. Virtual keyboards are a wonderful idea right up to the very second you actually want to type something.
posted by joannemullen at 9:38 PM on July 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

"Ow," says my tendonitis.
posted by jiawen at 1:11 AM on July 27, 2011

The problem isn't the the key layout, but the lack of physical feedback to guide your fingers to the keys.

This is fine until you want use another keyboard.
posted by carter at 2:56 AM on July 27, 2011

Typing on virtual keyboards sucks like driving a car with no suspension.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:23 AM on July 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Virtual keyboards are improving a lot faster than the mechanical kind.
posted by nixt at 11:01 AM on July 27, 2011

This reminds me of when I decided to switch to Dvorak years ago. Yes, it was vastly superior in every way, except when I wanted to use a keyboard that wasn't my own. Then, I became a madman, confidently and incredibly quickly typing paragraphs of gibberish before I realized. People at school who witnessed this without knowing the deal were really disturbed.
posted by cmoj at 11:04 AM on July 27, 2011

Hardcore Poser: Also, the original IBM PC keyboards that clicked? Nothing has come close to that feel and responsiveness since.

GHOD I hated those damn things!! TAKKITY CLIKKA TAK TAK TAKKATAKKACLIKKITY TAK... guh. I much prefer the softer, quieter laptop keyboards nowadays.

But yeah, I agree with comments like joannemullen's. Even the haptic feedback on my smartphone's screen-keyboard doesn't make up for lack of actual physical keys.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:16 AM on July 27, 2011

Every time I have to type something out on, say, a featureless slab of glass with absolutely no feedback beyond vision, a design bias that's swiftly accelerating, thanks to bullshit futurism, I'm reminded of exactly why my hall closet contains a stockpile of meticulously maintained manual typewriters, so I can actually write without frustration well into this magical touch-deprived future of which we're all so enamored.

It's probably ironic that I'm tapping this out on an iPhone while I'm waiting for an MRI, but I'm large and contain multitudes, which may be revealed by said MRI. Until there's a cure for multitudes, I'll contradict myself as much as I want.
posted by sonascope at 12:19 PM on July 27, 2011 [2 favorites]