Finger cramps from typing into mobile phones or PDAs could be a thing of the past following the launch of a full-sized keyboard made out of light.
San Jose-based Canesta last week said it had developed the world"s first fully integrated
projection keyboard for mobile and wireless devices. The technology enables a keyboard to be projected onto a flat surface using a beam of light, which can then be typed on.
The Integrated Canesta Keyboard T works thanks to the company"s three-chip chipset. According to Canesta, the set consists of an invisible light source, a pattern projector for the keyboard, and a sensor chip. The latter chip enables the machine to "see" by tracking nearby objects in three dimensions in real time.
This sensor, which is not much larger than a pea, tracks a user"s finger movements as he or she types on the projected image of a keyboard, and translates them into "keystrokes" on specific projected keys, and processes the movements into a stream of serial keystroke data similar to that output by a physical keyboard.
The pattern projector uses an internal laser to project the image of a full-sized keyboard on a nearby flat surface. The keyboard is the familiar QWERTY English keyboard, but can also be customised to any non-English or even non-Roman character set. Canesta said that users will need an uncluttered, stable table-top on which to project the keyboard, but that it won"t yet work on an airplane tray if the flight is turbulent.