Portable Gadgets - Mobile Gadget News: Virtual Keyboard

2005-08-19

Did you ever fantasize the future where you can key in the command to your electronic device using a virtual keyboard projected into the air, just like you have seen it in science fiction movies? The good news is, virtual keyboard is already available. The bad news is, no, you can’t have it projected into the air yet. With the current technology, we can only have it projected onto any solid surface.

Hutchison Harbour Ring Limited (Hong Kong) has manufactured one of such keyboard called the Virtual Laser Keyboard (VKB), with the dimension of 90×34x24mm (roughly the size of a disposable lighter). It is for the first time ever, such keyboard is available to the public in any quantity.

How does it work?
The virtual laser keyboard (VKB) works by using both infrared and laser technology to produce an invisible circuit and project a full-size virtual QWERTY keyboard on to any surface. The virtual PC keyboard behaves exactly like a real one: direction technology based on optical recognition enables the user to tap the images of the keys, complete with realistic tapping sounds(!), which feeds into the compatible PDA, Smartphone, laptop or PC. VKB observes the user’s finger movements to interpret and record keystrokes. Since the virtual keyboard is an image projected in light, it completely disappears when not in use. VBK Animation