Future Technology:Air TypeProject:"keyboardless"

What if you can type on any surface to get rid of the pain of mobile phone typing? With the AirType project, this is a near possibility.

A Texas-based hardware and machine learning startup, AirType is developing a “keyboardless keyboard” accessory that allows you to type on any surface for your phone.
Unlike projection keyboards, the AirType project has no visual component.

It uses a pair of cuff-like sensor units that go around your hands and over the knuckles.
The units track your finger moments to detect which keys you are striking, or would strike, on your ‘invisible’ mobile tablet keyboard.

According to the developers, the small AirType cuffs clip onto your tablet like a pair of friendly barnacles.
The accessories would also come with an app that incorporates dynamic text correction and prediction, developers added.

According to the Air Type website:

“AirType is a hardware and machine learning startup based in Austin, Texas.We are currently developing a keyboardless keyboard, because the typing experience on mobile devices is terrible. We are in an early prototype stage.”

The project is still in the prototype stage and if you want to get their updates you can subscribe by email at Airtype.io .

Wireless keyboard

A wireless keyboard is a computer keyboard that allows the user to communicate with computers, tablets, or laptops with the help of radio frequency (RF), infrared(IR) or Bluetooth technology. It is common for wireless keyboards available these days to be accompanied by a wireless mouse.

Wireless keyboards based on infrared technology use light waves to transmit signals to other infrared-enabled devices. But, in case of radio frequency technology, a wireless keyboard communicates using signals which range from 27 MHz to up to 2.4 GHz. Most wireless keyboards today work on 2.4 GHz radio frequency. Bluetooth is another technology that is being widely used by wireless keyboards. These devices connect and communicate to their parent device via the bluetooth protocol.

A wireless keyboard can be connected using RF technology with the help of two parts, a transmitter and a receiver. The radio transmitter is inside the wireless keyboard. The radio receiver plugs into a keyboard port or USB port. Once the receiver and transmitter are plugged in, the computer recognizes the keyboard and mouse as if they were connected via a cable.

Types

• Standard size wireless keyboard: These keyboards are standard size wireless keyboard.
• Portable keyboard with touchpad: Keyboard Comes with integrated touch pad.^[1]
• Roll-up wireless keyboard: wireless keyboard that can be rolled up when not in use.^[2]
• Mini Wireless Keyboard: Palm sized keyboard with an integrated touch pad.
  

Rollover (key)

Rollover is the ability of a computer keyboard to correctly handle several simultaneous keystrokes.

Normal typing

During normal typing on a conventional computer keyboard, only one key is typically being pressed by the user at any given time; each key is released before the next key is struck. However, this is not always the case. When using modifier keyssuch as Shift or Control, the user will intentionally hold down the modifier key(s) while striking and releasing another key. Rapid typists may sometimes inadvertently press a key before releasing the previous one. Certain unusual forms of keyboarding require multiple keys to be struck or held down simultaneously. For example, Braille2000 keying requires that as many as six keys be struck at once. Some computer games have interfaces requiring holding down keys (other than the usual modifier keys) while pressing and releasing other key of a computer keyboard to correctly handle several simultaneous keystrokes.

n-key rollover

Certain high-end keyboards have "n-key rollover". This means that each key is scanned completely independently by the keyboard hardware, so that each keypress is correctly detected regardless of how many other keys are being pressed or held down at the time.

Most music keyboards use isolation diodes in their keyboard matrix to implement full n-key rollover (sometimes abbreviated NKRO), making them immune to both key ghosting and key jamming.

However, to reduce cost and design complexity, most computer keyboards do not isolate all keys in this way. Instead, they use a matrix of key switches, without any isolation diodes, that assumes that only a limited number of keys will be held down at any given time. With these keyboards, pressing as few as three keys can cause ghosting effects, although care is taken when laying out the matrix arrangement that this does not happen for common modifier key combinations

Multi-key rollover

A keyboard with "two-key rollover" can reliably detect only any two keys used simultaneously; in other words, a user can hold down any key on the keyboard and press a second key, and be sure that the keypress is correctly detected by the computer. However, if the user has two keys depressed and attempts to strike a third key, the third keypress may create a "phantom key" by shorting out the switch matrix. This is not acceptable for quality keyboards because there are many cases when more than two keys need to be depressed at the same time, such as Ctrl-Alt-Delete, or when more than two keys are depressed because of fast typing ("rolling over" more than two keys).

"Multi-key rollover" is considered essential for quality keyboards and for English touch typing. This is where the most common key sequences have been studied, and keys in the same common sequence are placed in the electrical switch matrix such that three keys down cannot produce a fourth "phantom" key by shorting out the matrix. The simplest way to accomplish this is to put all keys in the same common sequence on the same X or Y line of the switch matrix. As long as the electronics does not see more than two keys on different X and Y lines, which would create a phantom key, it will continue to process the next key depressed. This typically produces four- to five-key rollover for the most common key sequences.

Overlay Keyboard

An overlay keyboard is a specialized keyboard with no pre-set keys. Each key can be programmed with a wide range of different functions. Overlay keyboards are often used as a quick and easy way to input items with just two buttons.

Overlay keyboards generally consist of a flat grid of unmarked buttons. After the keyboard is programmed, a sheet, called an overlay, is placed overtop to identify each key. The overlay can consist of any combination of words, symbols, or even pictures.

Advantages

Overlay keyboards have several advantages over conventional keyboards or mice. They do not require memorization of shortcut keys (i.e. F5, Alt+S, etc.) nor do they require a great deal of fine motor control, making them ideal for people who have difficulty using a conventional keyboard. Overlay keyboards are easy to clean, and are much more resistant to spills or dust. The ability to change overlay sheets also makes it easy for a single overlay keyboard to have several different uses.

Disadvantages

Limited to what is on the board.

Usage

Overlay keyboards are probably most often found in fast food restaurants, where they reduce the amount of time required to enter items. Overlay keyboards are also used in education, especially at the primary level. They can also be used by disabled people who have sensory or motor control difficulties.

Bluetooth Keyboard

A Bluetooth keyboard is a keyboard that connects and communicates to its parent device via the bluetooth protocol. These devices are widely used with other portable devices such as tablets and smart phones though they are also used with laptops and ultrabooks. Bluetooth keyboards have become popular only since 2011 with the popularity of portable devices.^[1] Most bluetooth keyboards have standard qwerty layouts though some mini bluetooth keyboards may have a different layout.

Compatibility

Bluetooth keyboards are compatible with all the leading operating systems such asAndroid, iOS, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Since they are used primarily for portable devices bluetooth keyboards have special function keys for Android and iOS operating systems. Most bluetooth keyboards except a few, are not compatible across operating systems and therefore compatibility of the keyboard needs to be checked before purchasing one. This is because of the special function keys which differ between Android and iOS.

Form Factor

Bluetooth keyboards are available in a variety of form factors. Some of them are:

• Standard - full size qwerty keyboard for regular typing

• Portable with Stand - comes with tablet/smartphone stand 

• Mini - small size with thumb typing 

• Foldable - hinges allow for folding of keyboard

• With touch pad - combined keyboard and touchpad 

Issues regarding Keyboards

Keystroke logging

Keystroke logging (often called keylogging) is a method of capturing and recording user keystrokes. While it is used legally to measure employee productivity on certain clerical tasks, or by law enforcement agencies to find out about illegal activities, it is also used by hackers for various illegal or malicious acts. Hackers use keyloggers as a means to obtain passwords or encryption keys and thus bypass other security measures.

Keystroke logging can be achieved by both hardware and software means. Hardware key loggers are attached to the keyboard cable or installed inside standard keyboards. Software keyloggers work on the target computer's operating system and gain unauthorized access to the hardware, hook into the keyboard with functions provided by the OS, or use remote access software to transmit recorded data out of the target computer to a remote location. Some hackers also use wireless keylogger sniffers to collect packets of data being transferred from a wireless keyboard and its receiver, and then they crack the encryption key being used to secure wireless communications between the two devices.

Anti-spyware applications are able to detect many keyloggers and cleanse them. Responsible vendors of monitoring software support detection by anti-spyware programs, thus preventing abuse of the software. Enabling a firewall does not stop keyloggers per se, but can possibly prevent transmission of the logged material over the net if properly configured.Network monitors (also known as reverse-firewalls) can be used to alert the user whenever an application attempts to make a network connection. This gives the user the chance to prevent the keylogger from "phoning home" with his or her typed information. Automatic form-filling programs can prevent keylogging entirely by not using the keyboard at all. Most keyloggers can be fooled by alternating between typing the login credentials and typing characters somewhere else in the focus window.^[14]

Keyboard are also known to emit electromagnetic signatures that can be detected using special spying equipment to reconstruct the keys pressed on the keyboard. Neal O'Farrell, executive director of the Identity Theft Council, revealed to InformationWeek that "More than 25 years ago, a couple of former spooks showed me how they could capture a user's ATM PIN, from a van parked across the street, simply by capturing and decoding the electromagnetic signals generated by every keystroke," O'Farrell said. "They could even capture keystrokes from computers in nearby offices, but the technology wasn't sophisticated enough to focus in on any specific computer."

Physical injury

The use of any keyboard may cause serious injury (that is, carpal tunnel syndromeor other repetitive strain injury) to hands, wrists, arms, neck or back.^{[citation needed]}The risks of injuries can be reduced by taking frequent short breaks to get up and walk around a couple of times every hour. As well, users should vary tasks throughout the day, to avoid overuse of the hands and wrists. When inputting at the keyboard, a person should keep the shoulders relaxed with the elbows at the side, with the keyboard and mouse positioned so that reaching is not necessary. The chair height and keyboard tray should be adjusted so that the wrists are straight, and the wrists should not be rested on sharp table edges. Wrist or palm rests should not be used while typing.

Some adaptive technology ranging from special keyboards, mouse replacements and pen tablet interfaces to speech recognition software can reduce the risk of injury. Pause software reminds the user to pause frequently. Switching to a much more ergonomic mouse, such as a vertical mouse or joystick mouse may provide relief. Switching from using a mouse to using a stylus pen with graphic tablet or atrackpad can lessen the repetitive strain on the arms and hands.

Bacteria

Some keyboards were found to contain five times more germs than a toilet seat.

Alternative text entering methods

Optical character recognition (OCR) is preferable to rekeying for converting existing text that is already written down but not in machine-readable format (for example, aLinotype-composed book from the 1940s). In other words, to convert the text from an image to editable text (that is, a string of character codes), a person could re-type it, or a computer could look at the image and deduce what each character is. OCR technology has already reached an impressive state (for example, Google Book Search) and promises more for the future.

Speech recognition converts speech into machine-readable text (that is, a string of character codes). This technology has also reached an advanced state and is implemented in various software products. For certain uses (e.g., transcription of medical or legal dictation; journalism; writing essays or novels) speech recognition is starting to replace the keyboard. However, the lack of privacy when issuing voice commands and dictation makes this kind of input unsuitable for many environments.

Pointing devices can be used to enter text or characters in contexts where using a physical keyboard would be inappropriate or impossible. These accessories typically present characters on a display, in a layout that provides fast access to the more frequently used characters or character combinations. Popular examples of this kind of input areGraffiti, Dasher and on-screen virtual keyboards.