Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!mimsy!brillig.umd.edu!don
From: don@brillig.umd.edu (Don Hopkins)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Human Factors: Paper-Like Interface
Summary: soft keytops
Message-ID: <15058@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 18 Dec 88 22:44:07 GMT
References: <2690003@hpdsla.HP.COM> <2442@ficc.uu.net> <2883@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU>
Sender: nobody@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: don@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Don Hopkins)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction Lab
Lines: 26

Membrane keyboards just don't cut it. What I've always wanted was real
mechanical keyboard with a little dynamically programmable lcd (or
whatever) display on *each* keytop. I think it'll be a while till such
a keyboard could be manufactured, let alone a mass produced reliably
and cheaply. (I could be wrong, I hope!)  Mechanical keyboards receive
a *lot* of abuse. (I just cleaned out an old keyboard that practically
had fur mats (maybe the cat's been sleeping on it...)) 

When you press the caps lock key, all the letters should shift to
upper case. When you're typing into a numeric field, everything but
the numbers and editing keys should be dimmed. Context sensative
function keys with dynamic labels. You should be able to look at the
keyboard to see what font you're typing in. It would be great for
typing in funny symbols and big fonts like Kanji. 

I think Bell Labs did some neat stuff using a half-silvered mirror
above a keyboard, to overlay dynamically changing graphics and text on
the keys. The keyboard and your hands were beneath the mirror, which
reflected an inverted video image at you, so the graphics appeared to
float above your hands. That way your fingers didn't get in the way of
seeing the key labels. I could dig up a reference if anybody's
interested.

But I still want something I can put in my lap.

	-Don