Will touch screens kill the keyboard?

[SmokinWaffle]

I don't see the keyboard being replaced, if I'm honest. Although I did have an iPad, and it was surprisingly nice to type on, a keyboard is one of the essentials.

[itlnstln]

I think the only thing that will truly replace the keyboard in some useful context is voice recognition (barring some crazy-ass, thought-based system); however, it might not be feasible in an office setting. I agree that on mobile devices, touchscreens are king, but at the desk, I think keyboards are going to be around for awhile.

[webwit]

Too bad. I'd like to see an office full of people wearing mental keyboard hats.

[Shazb0t]

I don't know. I don't think touchscreens will ever be as ergonomic as a keyboard. Also I think there is just something about some type of mechanical action that attracts a lot of people. Kind of like how there is a market for touch screen phones that have a full QWERTY keyboard attached. People like to press buttons. In me experience, especially big red ones that say "Do Not TOUCH".

[v193r]

well obviously keyboards will be replaced by something. however i doubt it will be touch screens were ppl are force to hold their hand vertically for hours just to use it.

[Bern]

It will most likely be some type of hands free device or gestures that kills the keyboard. Touch screens are nice for quick things, but they get old after a while.

[celery]

I do not see the keyboard being replaced any time soon.

Name one viable source of human computer input that's faster and more reliable than a keyboard. I can't.

For inputting text, there is none. When text was the only form of computer I/O, no one could imagine an interface device other than a keyboard.

Not that I think touch screens will replace keyboards, though.

[woody]

well obviously keyboards will be replaced by something.

The steering wheel and the pedals were obviously replaced.

[webwit]

You all haven't been listening to Gerard J. Cerchio in the OP.
It isn't about you. It's about kids who will first play with phones and tablets and learn to type and swipe on them. They have no baggage.

[Koeitje]

I think the only thing that will truly replace the keyboard in some useful context is voice recognition (barring some crazy-ass, thought-based system); however, it might not be feasible in an office setting. I agree that on mobile devices, touchscreens are king, but at the desk, I think keyboards are going to be around for awhile.

I agree on this. People simply don't like to type a lot on touch screens (even though Apple probably wants that to happen ).

[picapica]

touch screen are so imprecise, I don't want to think about keyboard disappearing
I can't imagine typing a whole report on a touch screen inputing a 'y' each time I want a 't' etc...
Event typing a 15 characters message on an iphone is a pain in the a..

[hoggy]

Luckily for me, it's fashionable for shops to upgrade their tills with touchscreens. In that context, the training costs are minimal, pretty much paying for the hardware costs straight away. Years ago I worked for a major retailer that trained staff for an entire day to use the tills. More recently I did a Christmas job where the till training was 10 minutes sitting with Molly.

Stuff touch screens, I want eye tracking! I've been waiting a while, but hopefully the partnership with Lenovo and Tobii http://www.tobii.com/en/analysis-and-re ... ed-laptop/ will help prove that people want this (hell, I want this, other people can stick to their ipads for all I care).

Not ready to ditch the board yet, but I've no problem with upgrading the pointing device.

[Findecanor]

I don't believe in touchscreen keyboards and eye tracking. They are poor user interfaces. Poor in the sense that they are having fewer modalities than the classic keyboard and mouse.

The human brain has evolved for hundreds of thousands of years to use tools. Using tools comes naturally for us. It takes more effort for us to imagine that there are tools there if we don't get the proper feedback in the form of tactility, force feedback, etc. A tool is an extension of a human that allows us to do more.
With eye tracking, you are not using a tool. You are not using a tool as an extension of you. With eye tracking, you are the tool and the tool limits you, not the other way around.

Eye tracking is limited in that it allows you to point only at where you are focusing right now, not anywhere in your peripheral vision.
Using a mouse, joystick/trackpoint or trackball, I don't have to stare directly at the mouse pointer or the target. I can focus somewhere next to them and still see where they are. I can even put a hand over the screen temporarily and my brain still knows where they are. My brain can do the "computations" in the background that tells (the part of my brain that controls) my hand to move the mouse pointer to the target and do the action I want.

[ben]

Touch screens won't ever replace the keyboard. It doesn't make the "keyboard" interaction any better.

More likely we'll see a mind reading keyboard input showing up in our lifetime, but before that we'll definitely have some commercially available "thought/mind" controlled mice.

It's a much simpler input to emulate and if it were accurate there'd be no reason to have a physical mouse.

Eh... apparently, google says we already do:

OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator "Brain Mouse"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6826100006

[sixty]

OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator "Brain Mouse"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6826100006

Something like that seems to be very useful for people who are unable to use their hands. Doesn't Steven Hawking already control his computer with something like that? I guess maybe not.

[NewGuy]

There are definitely some interesting things you can do with a touch-screen that you can't do with a keyboard—at least not at an affordable price.

There was the Optimus Maximus that had an OLED screen for each key, but it's quite an ugly keyboard and costs over $2100. It did allow you to remap the keys however you want, with the keycaps automatically changing which seemed ideal if you need to switch layouts or want something other than the standard ANSI/ISO layout, and you could do some interesting things like change the keys to the tool shortcut icons in something like photoshop for example.

The Razer Switchblade uses a touch-screen with an overlay, turning it into a miniature keyboard that changes depending on what game you are playing allowing them to drastically reduce the number of keys required for the 'keyboard' itself and shrink things down.

There have been similar prototypes shown with larger touchscreens using a clear overlay to add some tactility and replace a full keyboard.


I think it's a neat idea, and I do like the idea of a keyboard having the ability to change what is shown on the keys, but I can't imagine them ever being nice to actually type on.

Who knows what will happen in the end though. I can't imagine them ever being cheaper to produce than a keyboard, so I doubt they will ever replace them, but I can see them rising in popularity in the same way that those awful chiclet laptop style keys have done in recent years thanks to Apple.

[webwit]

That Razer looks incredibly cool.

[ranm]

I just don't see that gamers all over the world will dismiss their keyboards. The gamepads and new alternative tech like the Kinect, Move, not to mention the Wii have not as far as I know replaced the true-to-their keyboards and mice FPS gamers.

The keyboard provides such excellent precision when needed, providing a tactile and mechanic interface. Rather I think touch screens will complement as a tool for new and innovative tech.

[lobotomoy]

Old tech never really disappears. The secretary at my eye doctor's office still uses an electric typewriter. I figure I'll be using a computer keyboard for several more years.

[Moneyless]

Old tech never really disappears. The secretary at my eye doctor's office still uses an electric typewriter. I figure I'll be using a computer keyboard for several more years.

Is she old?

But yeah, like everyone else has said so far pretty much... I think touch screens are find on phones and tablets, otherwise "traditional" keyboards as we know them are here to stay.

[db_Iodine]

This sure is a viable reason to hoard good keyboards while they're still abailable.

[strike015]

i can see it happening since on some smart phones they already give you some sort of tactile feedback by ways of the phone vibrating ever so slight as each key is pressed.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Most people who do a fair amount of texting or e-mails on their phone prefer a "real" keyboard. I don't see keyboards going anywhere any time soon. I know that I wouldn't want fingerprints on my monitor as well.

[rpgman1]

I highly doubt that touchscreens will replace keyboards. There is now way I would type on a smartphone just to see fingerprint smudges on touchscreens. As for office work, keyboards are still necessary anyway. No way I want to use a touchscreen on my monitor and squint my eyes just to see a jumbled mess on my screen.

[Crazy9000]

I think the problem is you guys are assuming you're going to have your andriod phone as a keyboard. That's not what using touchscreens on your desktop will be like at all.

They will be the same size as a normal keyboard, or at least most of the size. The keys will be large and easy to hit, and even be tactile possibly. It will be popular since it's nice and slim on the desk, and would be fully customizable.

[rpgman1]

I don't assume using a smartphone as my keyboard on a desktop. Just that I haven't seen neat concepts on touchscreen keyboards yet. Being fully customizable is a big plus anyway. The Optimus Maximus is pretty close, but absurdly expensive.

[Crazy9000]

Yeah price is the big thing. If they can get it down to a level that the average consumer wouldn't notice tacked on to their Dell PC, they will be all over the place.

Or maybe the original Star Trek is right, everyone will go back to big glowing buttons

[Taietzel]

http://ghostintheshell.wikia.com/wiki/Cyberbrain

Big fan of the series.
Makes you wonder whether such things will be truly available in the (far away) future.

[NewGuy]

I think the problem is you guys are assuming you're going to have your andriod phone as a keyboard. That's not what using touchscreens on your desktop will be like at all.

They will be the same size as a normal keyboard, or at least most of the size. The keys will be large and easy to hit, and even be tactile possibly. It will be popular since it's nice and slim on the desk, and would be fully customizable.

Exactly—I can see them being popular if they get the prices low enough. People would be much more inclined to spend £100 on a touch-screen keyboard than a mechanical keyboard, and they could potentially get even cheaper than that due to a lack of mechanical parts (just the overlay/tactile feedback mechanism) and economies of scale.

I don't assume using a smartphone as my keyboard on a desktop. Just that I haven't seen neat concepts on touchscreen keyboards yet. Being fully customizable is a big plus anyway. The Optimus Maximus is pretty close, but absurdly expensive.

Well that's why there is a shift towards using a single large touchscreen display with an overlay on top of it to create "keys". It offers most of the benefits of one display per key and a fraction of the cost.


And think about it—you could have a laptop that is simply a dual screen device without an overlay on the bottom screen that not only uses the lower screen as a combined trackpad/keyboard, but could also support displaying other information via widgets.


Oh, and this is the prototype I was talking about earlier, that I couldn't find the video of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojusRO38Tdc&hd=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0MEhKk9xg4

[Nikki_Case]

i can see it happening since on some smart phones they already give you some sort of tactile feedback by ways of the phone vibrating ever so slight as each key is pressed.

The feedback still isn't enough to make typing on one of these enjoyable. I'd really want a qwerty keyboard on mobile phones too. It's too bad so few of them actually have them.