4 ms·

The only way that I see keyboards being replaced is if we figure out a direct brain interface that lets us bypass mechanical input at all, and simply "think" t

• snippyhollow 16y ago
  Having a direct brain interface working implies both understanding of the speech-related part of the brain as well as a big advance in artificial intelligence to deal with the noisy signal. (Perfectly dealing with the brain signals is at least as hard as perfect NLP / prefect machine translation.)
  • ori_b 16y ago
    Agreed. I don't think it's going to be happening in the next 20 years, at least not well enough to replace the keyboard. However, it's the only alternative I can imagine that would be a real improvement over keyboard input. Edit: Note, I can imagine the need for direct text input being reduced over the next 20 years thanks to UI changes ("Select your house on this map" replacing "Type your address in this box", for example), but I don't think that the keyboard will go away as the main tool for doing it when it is needed.
  • showerst 16y ago
    I'll (attempt to) draw a counter to that: A machine need not understand out brains 'native' language processing, just a trained 'output' version. There is already a crude toy out there that will 'read your mind' and raise or lower a ball based on a signal you send it, you just train it to a binary state. I've heard it described as mellowing out vs concentrating hard. There's no reason in principle that a reader with fine enough discrimination couldn't be trained to recognize a few hundred states, and you couldn't be trained to 'think' a few hundred things, where the reader would recognize and translate the pattern into a number, letter, or symbol. I'm no neurologist so I have no idea how these things actually work, but it seems easier in theory than understanding the whole of brain and language.
• bryanlarsen 16y ago
  Yes, but as been amply demonstrated by the demise of the IBM buckling spring keyboard, we don't need the "best" method, just a "good enough" method. The other question is: how common will generation of long form text be? Is Twitter the future? I hope not, but many appear to think it is. Many keyboard alternatives are good enough, even today, for Twitter.
  • jokermatt999 16y ago
    Kids might only use the internet for FaceTwitterTube, but I'll bet they'll still probably have to type essays and reports.
    • bryanlarsen 16y ago
      And kids will be the first to abandon keyboards if there are viable alternatives. There's a learning curve to QWERTY, too. There are people that are faster using T9 than using a keyboard, just due to the practice effect. And remember, 500 words is a common essay length in school. That isn't short form text, but it's not particularly long form, either.
      • wladimir 16y ago
        There are people that are faster using T9 than using a keyboard. But I'm pretty sure that the world's fastest keyboard typist is much faster than the world's fastest T9 typer. (because you can 'pre-plan' more keys with a keyboard, using 10 fingers) (I haven't done research on this though, so feel free to prove me wrong)
  • jseliger 16y ago
    Yes, but as been amply demonstrated by the demise of the IBM buckling spring keyboard, we don't need the "best" method, just a "good enough" method. One interesting thing to me is that, even though most people don't use Model Ms anymore, there's still a robust niche that does, or that seeks out weird and alternate keyboards. I write a blog that's chiefly about books, but by far the most visited post of all time is this review: http://jseliger.com/2008/05/07/product-review-unicomp-customizer-keyboard http://jseliger.com/2008/05/07/product-review-unicomp-custom... of the Unicomp Customizer / Space Saver, which are modern Model Ms. The other question is: how common will generation of long form text be? Probably common enough, especially in school settings. I tend to agree with the OP: unless we see some kind of neural interface (which doesn't appear especially likely to me, although I'd love to be wrong), I don't see keyboards disappearing.
• skeltoac 16y ago
  The last thing anybody should want is a direct brain interface that prints whatever you happen to think. Also, it's nice to be able to slap the backspace key really hard. Say no to psychodongles.
  • wladimir 16y ago
    At least the first direct-brain interfaces won't work that way. They cannot recognize what you're thinking and transcribe it, that's way too hard. It'd be more analogous to having an extra limb (which you'll have to train extensively to be able to use it effectively) you can type/move the mouse with. I'm fine with such direct brain interfaces, as long as they don't have to cut a hole in my head, or shave my hair off and put sticky stuff on my head :P
• natnat 16y ago
  If something like this does come to exist, the easiest way to do it would probably be with electrodes attached to the skin around your vocal muscles. When we think in words, we make many of the muscle movements that that we make when speaking the same words. In fact, NASA has already implemented subvocal recognition and it's used for astronauts and fighter pilots. Unfortunately, placing the electrodes in the same exact place is difficult, and like regular speech recognition, error rates are still pretty high. It still has a lot of potential as a technology, though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocal_recognition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocal_recognition