If it works well, the demand is there, but we all know that, don't we?<p>The question is whether it works well in real use, and no landing page can show that. I can likewise put up an email subscription page for a $20k flying car.<p>Making this product work 50% of the time takes some serious work, but making it work the 99.5% of the time which would make it qualify as a keyboard replacement is something else entirely.<p>I wouldn't waste potential customers time with a landing page like that, and their video is downright insulting. Spend your time and resources making something that works instead.<p>Anyway, with all the buzz around hardware startups, I would expect more landing pages like this to crop up. People simply don't realize how difficult making good tangibles is, but they will find out soon enough.
Hmm, Dave Rosenthal suggested such a keyboard when the first accelerometers came out, basically put one on each finger tip and 'train' it by your typing on your regular keyboard, 'use' it by making some gesture and then typing. His concept though counted on 8 3DOF accelerometers per hand (5 on the fingers, one on either side of the palm and one on the wrist. The sketch showed something like fingerless biking gloves that had blobs and wires attached to your fingernails.<p>I'm not sure if it goes past the proposal stage however, the folks who were researching those sorts of issues were at UC Berkeley in the late 80's so that would be a good place for a literature search.<p>If this can be built and be as reliable as a keyboard (and I make mistakes/miss keys on my keyboard too) it could be really really useful. At some point, something like this and something like Glass will be a 'terminal' to the internet. The Myo folks have some interesting ideas in this space too, not clear if they get the fidelity they need through the upper arm though.
I think this is going in the wrong direction. Tactile feedback is so crucial for keyboards and this just completely removes it. In my opinion, technologies like the morphing touchscreen keyboard[1] are the future.<p>[1] <a href="http://tactustechnology.com/" rel="nofollow">http://tactustechnology.com/</a>
I really want a portable keyboard that I can type on quickly while walking around, but I don't think these guys have anything like a product. This looks like an empty web page to measure interest.
Using it with Google Glass: <a href="http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/20000/3000/800/23889/23889.strip.gif" rel="nofollow">http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/...</a>
Alas, this is a fool's errand.<p>The keyboard is a broken interface, but this isn't an improvement.<p>Suppose I am the user identified in the video. I have a tablet—maybe not a Microsoft Surface, but a tablet nonetheless—and I currently use a slimline keyboard to type.<p>You hand me these. First thoughts: what are they? What do I do with them? Great products are those that someone can be presented with for the first time, and in a matter of seconds figure out what it does, how to use it, etc. Think kids reacting to technology [1]<p>So for argument's sake I read the manual, or you give me a walkthrough. Great, how do I start using them? Oh, they have to 'learn' my writing style? Is my first impression going to be a string of largely inaccurate input?<p>How am I going to 'teach' this system? Through some proprietary software, which I may have problems downloading, and which may not even work on my device? How are people going to demonstrate these in stores; how am I going to proselytize to my coworkers? "Just try these out; wait, no. Yeah, don't worry about that, they have to learn your typing style. Yep, they'll do that for a while... no, but they're really great. Honestly... honestly."<p>This is already sounding like a lot of effort, but you've assured me there's gold at the end of this rainbow. Surely the cost-benefit analysis will check out.<p>So I've got them working. Are they accurate enough? Let's assume they are. This isn't too bad actually. I'm going to hop on Twitter and tell people all about this. Hashtag AirTypeRocks! Hashtag... hashtag... where's my hash key again? I can't seem to find it on this wooden bench.<p>Okay, that's a downstream problem. For now, I'm going to pack these up and head home. But where do I put them? They're an awkward shape. They look pretty easy to break.<p>What happens when I lose one of them? Is the entire system rendered useless? They look expensive to replace.<p>Are these yet more devices I'm going to have to charge? I'm already fed up of charging my laptop, phone, tablet, etc.<p>Are they going to protect the screen of my tablet device in transit? Looks like the opposite. I think I'll hang on to the keyboard-cum-screen protector for now...<p>[1] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7EpEnglgk" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF7EpEnglgk</a>
So it's a SenseBoard from 2001?<p><a href="http://www.keyglove.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/senseboard.png" rel="nofollow">http://www.keyglove.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/senseboar...</a>
I doubt the ability to get a functional product to market.<p>The "Team" section lists only 2 actual doers and multiple product people. Never a good sign in a startup.
If I'm following their logic correctly: Touchscreen keyboards are inferior to real keyboards, so some tablet users buy add-on keyboards for their tablets. These are also inferior to real keyboards. Therefore, AirType is better, because it's different.<p>Seriously though, I don't see this catching on. Keyboard enthusiasts obsess over the tactical feel of their mechanical keyboards for a reason.
So it appears that you have to keep your fingers elevated off of the surface, and then strike down similar to a touch screen?<p>The best part about a mechanical keyboard is that you can rest your hand on the keys. I've actually never tried a MS Surface touch cover, but something like that without actual segmented keys might be best. Sort of like a touch cover and Fleksy hybrid.
I wonder how accurate it will be.. For general typing, there is probably some built-in autocorrect, but, if you wanted to code, I wonder how that would work.. Exciting anyway.
Accuracy aside. What do you you if you need to look at your keyboard to find an unfamiliar symbol. I can touch-type fairly fast but my error rate goes up dramatically when typing non-alphabet keys.<p>What would be neat is if you could bring up the tablet keyboard through a gesture, like clapping your palms together, select the unfamiliar symbol, gesture to remove the keyboard then continue.<p>Although I like the idea of something like this, I can't imagine myself using it for a long period of time.
Could this work as a piano keyboard? That would be way more useful for me since I usually have a physical keyboard (laptop) but I can't really carry around a midi one.
So the solution is to invent something worse than detachables and on-screen keyboards?<p>Not saying AirType is bad...yet. But I didn't see it working either.
There's nothing I can say about this that Bret Victor hasn't already said better:<p><a href="http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/" rel="nofollow">http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesi...</a><p>TL;DR: Give me some tangibility in my interfaces! (You really should read that rant though)
And then I go to shake somebodies hand/ wave to somebody / hold a sandwich and I have this thing stuck to my hand.<p>Edit: Might be different if it wasn't so hard, big (across my whole hand), and plasticy. Gloves and rings don't seem to cause much trouble during day to day activities.
Is it just me or the intro video wasn't really clear how it works. Am I going to just move my hands on nothing and expect this thing to write? Can someone clarify how this works?
I've always wanted to try a laser keyboard like this one <a href="http://www.celluon.com/shop_epic.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.celluon.com/shop_epic.php</a> but not to the point of buying one...<p>Seems to me like it is a more user friendly approach no physical feedback and no visual sounds like AirType is a power user tool. And my Das keyboard lover friends who have blank layout would hate the lack of physical feedback.
I don't see myself ever replacing a real keyboard for this, at least not for long typing sessions (being tactile is the most appreciated aspect of a keyboard for me).<p>But there is absolutely a huge demand out there for this. Not to mention that other applications for it may appear (other than just replacing traditional QWERTY keyboards).<p>But in the end the question is the same: how good it is?<p>Anyone got a video showing it working (other than just the concept)?
The biggest problem for the average user, he can't see the keys. So while techies on this forum can pretty much type without looking at the keyboard, your average user still types with only two fingers, looking at the keyboard.<p>Also it has the same drawback as tablet keyboards, i.e. no positive tactile feedback when pressing a key.<p>But let's see, maybe this does replace keyboards altogether.
I don't know... This won't be as accurate as we want it. No matter what they use. I tried making a similar prototype using motion sensors, muscle sensors, neural network. But the thing is, a keyboard is just alot of possibilities for anything like that to predict. Plus, no feedback means our motion will be whole lot different than on normal keyboard.
I really hope they can handle chorded keystrokes if they want folks like programmers to use it.<p>Also, while tablets are an obvious starting position, perhaps consoles would be another good arena - having to lean over to type on that wireless keyboard in order to chat or enter detailed text seems more intrusive than just typing it out using AT.
I think there are some keys that I couldn't reliably hit without a quick glance at what I'm aiming for. It's a reliable phenomenon that expert typists can't tell you where many keys are, so I'm curious how I'd fare when I need to hit the ^ or & symbols and can't look down.
Cool and I would like to try it. But doubt I would sit down at a coffee shop and put my bionic hands on in front of everyone.<p>I would have to be better than typing on a keyboard.<p>Video was weak. Right when they show the product it cuts out.<p>Would be good if you were able to touch your finger to the surface and it becomes a trackpad as well.
This keyboard will have the same problem that iPad/tablet keyboards have - lack of a mechanical response, and without that, you'd find it just as painful to use AirType as you would a tablet. IMO, sure, but you wait for it ;)
Isn't this basically like the Magic Cube laser keyboard? <a href="http://www.celluon.com/products.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.celluon.com/products.php</a>
meta: its interesting that all of the team members are described with a short informal first name and a tagline while all the mentors are described with full names only.<p>it certainly shows the disparity between the generations and their different expectations in the business world.
I personally like the tactile feeling so much that I bought a relatively expensive mechanical cherry-switch keyboard. There is no way replacing that feeling on your fingers.
The terrific song in the video is Boe Zaah by Mac Demarco.<p>It's unfortunate to see it in a product video unattributed (or at all — though I know his music is licensed elsewhere).
Wow, really exciting!<p>And I know I am (<i></i>not<i></i>) being paranoid, but imagine how excited NSAs of the world all will be! A new kind of keyboard, that has capabilities to understand and predict what the user will write? This just looks like something Facebook could also be interested into (if you think at their "I keep what you wrote and deleted before even publishing" attitude).<p>This kind of tool <i></i>really<i></i> needs to be open source and open hardware. Otherwise they better stay far away from me.