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"He resumes typing. Only this time he is typing on…nothing. Just the flat tabletop. Yet the result is the same: The words he taps out appear on the monitor. The

"He resumes typing. Only this time he is typing on…nothing. Just the flat tabletop. Yet the result is the same: The words he taps out appear on the monitor. The text on the screen is being generated not by his fingertips, but rather by the signals his brain is sending to his fingers. The armband is intercepting those signals, interpreting them correctly, and relaying the output to the computer" This is a pretty neat idea, but I feel not being able to see the keyboard is kind of going to ruin this one. Even with touch typing you need some feedback as to where the 'F' and 'J' are, and even then you can't reach the whole keyboard. I suspect you can work around that with some sort of 'finger swipe' language though. But what about the mouse? Being able to put your hand on something is lot more comfortable than, for example, using a touchpad on a laptop. The problem with these sort of devices (reminds me of the wii remote) is all the stress is moved to the fingers and wrists, which doesn't pay off well in the long run.

lukeschlather 9y ago
Your first concern seems like a non-issue. Assuming your fingers are always making the same movements, it's effectively like the F and J are magically wherever your index fingers happen to be. "Can't reach the whole keyboard" is a bit of a problem, but the obvious way it would work is that the signal which the computer interprets as "position my hand over the numpad" becomes a input mode shift. There's probably more there. Without knowing anything about how the sensor tech works, I suspect that there's a difference between the signals when my hands are on home row and when my right hand is on the numpad. The mouse seems like it might be even easier in the long run. I'm assuming the training is harder, but waving hands in the air sounds way better than resting hands on a padded surface. RSI in general sounds like the X factor. Input via odd muscle twitching sounds like it could raise all sorts of weird muscle issues long-term.
- jalk 9y ago
  I believe that "Resting" is actually key here - the Minority Report UI will most likely tire your arms pretty quickly.

lukeschlather 9y ago

Your first concern seems like a non-issue. Assuming your fingers are always making the same movements, it's effectively like the F and J are magically wherever your index fingers happen to be. "Can't reach the whole keyboard" is a bit of a problem, but the obvious way it would work is that the signal which the computer interprets as "position my hand over the numpad" becomes a input mode shift. There's probably more there. Without knowing anything about how the sensor tech works, I suspect that there's a difference between the signals when my hands are on home row and when my right hand is on the numpad. The mouse seems like it might be even easier in the long run. I'm assuming the training is harder, but waving hands in the air sounds way better than resting hands on a padded surface. RSI in general sounds like the X factor. Input via odd muscle twitching sounds like it could raise all sorts of weird muscle issues long-term.

jalk 9y ago
I believe that "Resting" is actually key here - the Minority Report UI will most likely tire your arms pretty quickly.