14 DAY TRIAL // It's happened to most of us, spilling coffee or juice all over the keyboard isn't exactly the best way to start your day, but that's the way it is. Sticky keys and smelly cords are a thing of the past for those willing to spend 200$ for the virtual keyboard, which is finally making its way into production after countless prototype demonstrations.
Maybe such a device could mean the end of repetitive strain injuries caused by old, non-ergonomic keyboards or for small, crammed phone/PDA keys. Canesta has finally made it and the technology consists of a 3D camera with light source as well as sensors being able to recognize and interpret movements within the camera's sight.
Handwriting recognition or T9 are great technologies, but sometimes a good old-fashioned keyboard could ease things up so much when dealing with a PDA, cell phone and the like.
But the real deal comes from Hutchison Harbour Ring, which is the first to start manufacturing the virtual keyboard. This is an external device, contrary to the belief that it will be PDA integrated, which connects to the desired device and measures 65 x 33 x 24mm, that's about half the size of a regular cellphone. The device uses a red diode laser to illuminate the space, but infrared technology is used to track finger movements of the user and interpret which virtual key was intended to be activated.
The virtual keyboard currently supports 17 different PDAs and cell phones in addition to any notebook. Supported operating systems are Pocket PC 2002 and 2003, Smart phone 2003, Palm OS versions 4.x and 5.x as well as Windows 98/NT/2000/XP. The projector connects to PDAs and cellphones via Bluetooth or cables.