How It Works

The keyboard template is projected using a red laser diode focused through a specially designed holographic optical element. The projected keyboard image is strictly a reference for the typist and is not involved in the actual detection process. The laser could be turned off and the template could be printed on the surface or projected on a screen.

An infrared laser diode projects an invisible plane of light a few millimeters above the surface the keyboard is projected onto. When the typist touches the key projected onto the surface, their finger breaks the infrared plane and reflects the infrared light back toward the VKB module.  

The infrared light reflected off the typist’s fingers is picked up by a CMOS image sensor module. Hardware in the module is designed to triangulate the location of the reflected light to determine which key was pressed. The hardware is capable of tracking multiple reflections to translate multiple key combinations.

Plus and Minus
There are a variety of interesting things that set this apart from the average keyboard. 

First, you’re likely to be mobbed every time you use one of these things in public. If you’re looking for a quiet night in the corner booth at Panera Bread, forget it. If you want a sure-fire conversation starter on your next flight to Des Moines, this is it.  

One of the big disadvantages of the VKB is its lack of keys, which will undoubtedly be awkward to type on at first. One of its biggest advantages, however, is its lack of keys. Have you looked at what’s oozed in between those keys of yours lately? In environments like hospitals or labs that need to be kept completely sterile, cleaning the VKB is literally as easy as wiping down a table. Anyone with severe allergies and any of you germophobes out there may have their lives revolutionized by the virtual keyboard. Conversely, if your computer happens to be in a dusty, dirty, smoky, industrial environment, like the pig-sty  which I’ve constructed in my living room, the VKB won’t get fouled up. The VKB is impervious to manufacturing debris, chemicals, and beer spills.

The VKB is also highly portable. Smaller than a deck of playing cards, it can be carried with mobile devices like PDAs and phones. It can also be easily carried from workstation to workstation in industrial environments or used as wireless input device for workstations physically locked up as far as 9m away.  

The majority of reviews agree that the VKB is accurate and capable of keeping up to all but the fastest typers, capable of detecting 400 characters per minute. This is definitely better than texting on your phone’s number pad. Most reviews comment that the keyboard is also comfortably visible in normal room light.  

The keyboard needs to be used on a reasonably flat surface with no surface irregularities larger than 1mm. Also, the key configuration is somewhat non-traditional, particularly since the keyboard sides are sloped and not squared off like a conventional keyboard. There are some oddly shaped keys in some odd positions.

All in all, the VKB is not perfect but it has a definite modern market to fill as a flexible, versatile, portable, and very cool keyboard. It has the ability to function well in certain harsh or sterile environments far, far better than a traditional keyboard. In addition, this technology just plain IS the future. Regardless of how this particular brand of keyboard does in the modern market, this is the future. Eventually, you’ll see more user control of the projected keyboard template. As it stands now, the technology that projects the template is separate from the detection equipment, so you could conceivably turn the laser right off and use a diagram drawn on the surface you’re typing on. As more and more technology is worn or integrated into devices and vehicles, as technology becomes more integrated with its user and with other technology, it will become more and more desirable to detach the means of input from the cumbersome plastic keyboard. With this sort of technology, it becomes possible and practical to project the interfaces for a number of devices onto the same small space and turn each interface on and off as it is needed, placing all the interfaces in a single, desirable location and minimizing the space needed for all of them. It becomes possible for the same small, flat area on a car's dashboard to host virtual controls for the stereo, GPS system, wipers and cruise, and environmental controls. Only the system currently being adjusted needs to be projected. You can really see the potential for this sort of technology once you expand the idea into using a single projector to project a number of custom templates that control the input for a slew of PLCs in an industrial plant or provide custom interfaces for a set of networked workstations. Beyond projecting keyboards onto a flat surface, this sort of scanning technology begins to lay the technical and psychological groundwork for the day when we could interact with all out modern amenities, from entertainment devices, appliances, and computers, with a series of simple hand gestures, like a mechanized sign language.