08-10-2020, 11:41 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-10-2020, 09:32 PM by ideograph.
Edit Reason: refresh rate of eink keyboard is not very important, cheape panels could possibly be used
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(07-30-2020, 12:59 AM)Gelectric Wrote: My plan is to use transparent keys on top of either an e-ink screen or a LCD, this would allow for customization of layouts and other cool things like kb adapting to applications.
I know that this goes beyond the scope of the published draft, but I have also worked on a concept based on this premise.
I think the most impressive aspect of this design will be to create the most subtle/clear way in which the "keys" are substantiated on the surface of the eink screen, so that when the keyboard is not in use, the screen can still be used to display other text etc. The clear, subtle bumps allow fingertip typing and then do not interfere with reading text or playing videos on the same screen. The more invisible the key "bumps" the better, the should be practically impossible to see (visual feedback provided by the screen below entirely) but the tactile feedback would come from the slight modification to screen surface.
Equally if not even more important than this versatility is the ability to use sliding "swipe" text on a screen-based haptic keyboard. Tactile keyboards are missed by many of us, but gliding is, in my opinion, one of the greatest ui innovation of all time. Blackberry Android keyboards have to some extent managed to combine sliding and hardware keys, but in my opinion they don't go far enough.
I'd love to be able to touch type and know which letter my finger is on without looking, but having to press their keys all the way down is a primarily an aesthetic, nostalgic thing, and not truly even in the top five benefits of a hardware keyboard. This non-clicky, tactile, touch screen keyboard would not break, feels comfortable and stable, and if you want to double the screen area, your keyboard is not useless but contributes to the display area. I would like to add also that a cheap eink screen, even with low refresh rate, would suffice for this type of keyboard, so long as it had a detailed enough touch sensor. There would be little/no animation during typing, so something like waveshare would be good enough. When reading books low refresh is also okay, though I am extremely optimistic about refresh on eink devices after seeing the hisense a5, which allow surprisingly comfortable video viewing.
Have you done any other work, or do you have other examples? It may not be the simplest design to start with, but I think it's one of the most minimalist in the long run and not too expensive to make, considering how functional it is. It could be worthwhile to develop independently and I would be happy to be contacted.