Pressure-sensitive keyboard lets you express fury, tenderness
By Nilay Patel 
posted August 6th 2009 12:51PM
posted August 6th 2009 12:51PM
posted August 6th 2009 12:51PM
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STUPID IDEA
Nope.
I personally can't wait for some type of "emotion text". When im angry i type differently than when im depressed. This invention just might make the interwebs that much more humane.
so was multi-touch, so was a mouse, so was a trackpad (or nubby-mouse), so was just about everything.
Remember when artists had a big pad that didn't have pressure-sensitivity? Then they got the "stupid" idea of 16 then 256 levels? Now they have 2048 and up? Stupid idea, right?
Even if this may not be practical for a normal keyboard (and I would LOVE to see this in a keyboard, especially with "accidental surround correction) this would be awesome for game controllers (like a Nostromo, for instance) . . .
@Ray: "This invention just might make the interwebs that much more humane."
Humanity? On my internet? I won't stand for it. But I will type about it and pound my fingers very, very hard on the keyboard while doing so.
YOU'RE a stupid idea!
YOUR MOM is a stupid idea!
More seriously, I suspect this would cause as much grief as it cures on text entry. But as others have mentioned, it should be a boon for gaming, cursor movement, or generally any keystroke used to control a continuous action.
And am I the only one who read the title as "lets you express furry tenderness"?
Are you kidding? Do you know how an invention like this would simply revolutionize PC gaming? Now when driving a tank in Battlefield 2, you can actually use a little or a lot of steering based on how much pressure you apply to the keyboard. Personally, I've been waiting a long time for something like this to come around; it's very long over due.
I ONLY NEED CAPS LOCK TO EXPRESS MY EMOTIONS
I TOTALLY GET YOU, MAN. LOWERCASE IS A LIE.
FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Holy keyboard flex!
I like it. They should change font size/format based on the pressure. Then people will be able to tell when I'm being sarcastic, angry, or really really really really angry.
THIS WOULD MAKE BILLY MAYS PROUD ON MANY LEVELS
Booooo.....
Too soon
>> Booooo.....
>>Too soon
Guess you won't like this then
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuGvrBV1vSQ
Finally, a keyboard that can detect how angry I am at windows.
Maybe it'll be apologetic if I beat the SHIT out of Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
Hmm... Press a little big harder to capitalise?
BRILLIANT!
I would love to see this type of keyboard in gaming. Having pressure sensitive keys would make it a more immersive experience, especially in action-oriented games. Hell, you might not even need a sprint key anymore!
Exactly what I was thinking, gaming. It would also be great to have this sensitivity on a mouse. Imagine clicking the mouse in a FPS to simulate squeezing a trigger.
Force feedback mice?
@mega
Then imagine your mouse recoiling and hitting you in the face. That would be WTFPWNZAWESOME. Right?
Reminds me of a quote I read on an internet forum: "To make bold text, type really hard. To make italic text, type while leaning to the side." Now that's finally coming true.
Mash keyboard once for caps lock. Tenderly press space to turn off.
you know, it might be nice if only a few keys had this sensitivty (wasd and the direction keys). It could have uses for things like racing games. On the other hand, it might also be a pain to use.
Nah - should still be pretty easy - software would just have something toggling its modes. Typing mode? It goes into a correction mode where it senses if you slip and hit the wrong key. . . Gaming mode? Full on interpretive sensitivity mode.
Software can do neat things with something like this.
Perfect for arguing on the internet with Apple fanboys.
you win
The perfect tool for the angry guy writing his novel in public at every coffee shop with wifi ever...
The gaming applications for this would be f'ing brilliant. And even the little still like the two level Backspace/Delete keys seem like great ideas. Cursor movement too--scroll faster with more pressure rather than having to switch to the pageup/pagedn keys. I can imagine a million uses for this and would upgrade to a keyboard that had this almost immediately.
Think for two seconds and you can come up with an idea--press Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot the computer, but wait for certain things to complete like disk buffer flushes. Press it HARD to make it reboot RIGHT NOW.
Like others have said, I want this on my left click mouse button too. You could even imagine a mouse that could tell how hard you were grasping it and went into a different mode when you did--aiming vs. movement for example.
This could be cool.
Hear hear, you are spot on, so many uses and the thought that it can be made for cheap is just too sweet too :)
I'm really concerned about patents prevent its uptake though, pesky patents did it before :/
But at least MS makes keyboards and mice themselves now so there's hope.
BILLY MAYS HERE
I don't think it'd work very well for games. It'd just be a pain in the ass to have to keep pressing down really hard to run (or to have to try and press perfectly lightly to walk). A modifier key is just more robust and less effort.
And..."we're super intrigued by the typing corrector, which uses the pressure difference between keys you mean to type and keys you accidentally graze to fix your mistakes"
Just use a proper fricking keyboard with decent key throw, then you won't have that problem. If I accidentally graze a key then it _doesn't get pressed_. I don't know what Microsoft's obsession with wafer-thin keys and 2mm throw is all about.
The video says it has 8-bit resolution, which means it supports 256 levels of pressure.
Give this to the Angry German Kid.
Perfect gaming keyboard!
Even the Playstation ONE had pressure sensitive buttons.
on a serious note, i'd love this for my music production environment. i could use my keyboard as a touch-sensitive midi controller. would be fun.
there's more than just CAPSLOCKING AROUND :)
My compliments to the developers, its not only something that I've always thought was missing but they thought about how to make it cheap, now if only their patents don't lock up the chinese (andsoforth) from actually producing it for an affordable price.
I'd buy one, but not for $200 bucks like logitech would ask for it for instance.
I SEt it tO CaPITaliZe whEN I pREss hARDer. MayBE I NeeD toWoRK On the CaliBRATion a BIt.
The possible applications for this in promoting good posture and preventing repetitive stress injury are also worth investigating. Typing too hard for a long time is a problem, and differences in typing force in different regions of the keyboard could be an indication of poor posture.
Oh man, now I'm boring...
Also, some joke about "button mashing" goes right here.
i thought of that ! this is seriously my idea from a long time ago. when i was young someone told me it was stupid so i was like oh what ever. but yeah someones getting rich off it now, i would have never done anything with it anyways. i thought of it when i was playing ps2 and the controllers were pressure sensitive. ugh
Wow, Typing Maniac will become so easy with this.
It resembles the velocity-sensitive of MIDI devices.
Would be fun if the software provided would translate the pressure interrupts to MIDI.
Ableton Live users will rejoice!
Tender Rondo
Why don't you come to your senses?
Climb donw from your fences and look me in the eye...
Tender Rondo
I think the keyboard will suck for just typing, Das Keyboard all the way :)