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Posts Tagged ‘Keyboard’

Phase One and LogicKeyboard launch special Mac keyboard for Capture One Pro 10

14 Feb

Phase One has teamed up with LogicKeyboard to launch a special keyboard designed specifically for its Capture One Pro software (macOS version only). The new offering is an Apple Pro Keyboard with an ultra-thin anodized aluminum enclosure overlaid with a color-coded key mapping layout, giving users quick access Capture One Pro software shortcuts.

According to Phase One, the special keyboard layout included on this Apple Pro keyboard was designed using Phase One Certified Professional (POCP) feedback. As explained in the video below, this color-coded shortcut layout aims to increase user efficiency when editing photographs, therefore reducing the amount of time needed, thus increasing productivity and reducing costs.

Phase One dealers around the world are now offering the Capture One Pro Keyboard from LogicKeyboard for $ 139/€129 with support for three languages: German, American English and British English. Other language support, however, is available via special request.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lenovo Yoga Book features unique ‘on-demand’ keyboard

02 Sep

The Lenovo Yoga book is a thin and light 2-in-1 laptop with a metal body, watchband-style hinge, 10.1″ IPS display, Intel Atom X5 processor, 4GB of memory, 64GB of storage space and Dolby Atmos surround sound. It is available with Windows or running Google’s Android mobile OS.

What’s really unusual about it though, is its Halo ‘on-demand’ keyboard. The Halo keyboard does not have any physical keys but is a touchscreen on which keys appear with a solid white outline when they are activated or needed. Lenovo says the halo keyboard constantly adapts to the typing habits of its user and that the typing experience is comparable with that of a physical keyboard.

When the keyboard is not in use you can use the surface for writing or drawing with the real-pen stylus accessory. The real-pen can use real ink tips to write or draw onto a piece of paper covering the multi-use keyboard panel. It also works as a stylus when used straight on the panel. All writing or drawing is instantly digitized and saved in the note-saving app. The real-pen is powered by Wacom technology and offers 2,048 pressure levels and 100-degree angle detection.

Thanks to its unusual keyboard/graphics tablet combination the Yoga Book could be an interesting new option for image editing on the go. That said, its limited processor power does not make it look like an ideal solution for batch processing and other power-hungry tasks. In Europe the Yoga Book will be available this month. The Android version will cost €499 (approximately $ 560), the Windows version is €100 more. In the US, the Yoga Book will be sold online by the end of October but no pricing information has been released yet.

Press release:

LENOVO REVEALS THE YOGA™ BOOK – THE 2-IN-1 TABLET FOR PRODUCTIVITY AND CREATIVITY

YOGA BOOK RE-EXAMINES HOW A TABLET SHOULD LOOK AND ACT, WITH NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN FEATURES SUCH AS AN INSTANT HALO KEYBOARD AND A DUAL-USE STYLUS THAT WRITES ON PAPER AND SCREEN

  • THE YOGA BOOK HARNESSES THE BEST OF THE TABLET WHILE INTRODUCING NEW PRODUCTIVITY AND CREATIVE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE, WITH HALO KEYBOARD FEATURE, REAL-PEN ACCESSORY AND BOOK UI.
  • THE YOGA BOOK’S HALO KEYBOARD FEATURE WEAVES SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE INTO ONE INTERFACE, ALLOWING FOR A TYPING EXPERIENCE THAT FAR SURPASSES CONVENTIONAL TABLETS AND MATCHES THAT OF PHYSICAL KEYBOARDS.
  • DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM THE ELEGANCE AND SIMPLICITY OF NOTEBOOKS, THE YOGA BOOK’S REAL-PEN ACCESSORY ALLOWS USERS TO WRITE AND DRAW WITH PEN AND PAPER WHILE INSTANTLY DIGITIZING THEIR NOTES AND SKETCHES.
  • THE YOGA BOOK’S THIN AND LIGHT DESIGN, 15-HOUR BATTERY LIFE AND 360-DEGREE WATCHBAND HINGE GIVES ON-THE-GO TABLET USERS THE FREEDOM TO WRITE AND DRAW ANYWHERE, MATCHING THE MOBILITY OF A SMARTPHONE WITHOUT HAVING TO CARRY A LAPTOP OR DETACHABLE.
  • THE YOGA BOOK, AVAILABLE ON BOTH ANDROID AND WINDOWS, IS THE WORLD’S THINNEST AND LIGHTEST 2-IN-1 TABLET, AND A DIRECT RESPONSE TO USER DEMANDS FOR A BETTER EXPERIENCE FOR PRODUCTIVITY ON TABLETS.

BERLIN, Germany – Aug. 31, 2016 – Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today launched the Yoga Book, the world’s thinnest and lightest 2-in-11 tablet, designed for unmatched productivity while on-the-go. Built for mobility and to solve the most common challenge among tablet users – how to achieve productivity and entertainment in one device – the Yoga Book is a tablet that looks and acts like no other. Up until now, we’ve been using tablets in ways we weren’t meant to: for productivity, for example, which becomes painful when typing or applying a stylus onto a touch screen that you’re using on-the-go. The Yoga Book removes that difficulty by taking the fundamental building blocks from the DNA of what makes a great tablet – namely portability, long battery life and a rich app ecosystem – and entwines it into a strand of creativity and productivity through a suite of powerful new hardware and software features, including:

  • The instant halo keyboard
  • The dual-use stylus that writes on paper and screen
  • The productivity-driven Book UI

Quote
“We set out to redefine the tablet category conundrum, namely that consumers no longer separate their activities into productivity and entertainment – it all blends together, and so should the device they use,” said Jeff Meredith, vice president and general manager, Android and Chrome Computing, Lenovo. “The Yoga Book introduces keyboard and handwriting input capability in an elegantly simple, unconventionally slender tablet design. We believe our unique design will offer tablet, 2-in-1 and traditional notebook buyers a first-of-its-kind option for evolving usage trends.”

Ultra-Thin and Light
With two panels that open up like an ultrathin notebook, the Yoga Book is unconventionally slender and light years removed from the tablet that you’re accustomed to using on the go or while sitting in your home. As the world’s thinnest 2-in-1, the Yoga Book is 9.6mm closed, tapering to 4.05mm at its slimmest edge – a thickness of just under three pennies. And because it’s also the lightest 2-in-1 in the world at 690 grams (1.52 pounds), the Yoga Book is made to match the mobility of a smartphone, so you can easily hold and carry, just like a book. Users who take the Yoga Book with them on day trips have the option to work anywhere – on a busy commute, in a packed waiting room or on a crowded countertop – if and when they feel like it, thanks to the thin and light design, 15-hour2 battery life and a watchband hinge that folds 360 degrees. And if users don’t feel like working, they’ll have a top-of-the-line entertainment tablet to keep them company, with a 10.1-inch IPS FHD screen, high-quality sound enhanced with Dolby Atmos® and 64GB of memory.

Instant Halo Keyboard
The Yoga Book’s first productivity feature is also what makes the thin and light design possible: the halo keyboard, a full touch screen backlit keyboard that weaves software and hardware into one fluid interface. The touch screen is made with glass that was meticulously chosen to give a rough, matte feel and finish, along with anti-glare coating to ensure the best possible touch-typing experience. The keyboard lacks any physical keys, showing up as a solid white outline on the Yoga Book’s second panel only when it’s needed. The halo keyboard constantly ‘learns about and adapts to’ the typing habits of its user, with built-in prediction and artificial learning software. This software also allows for continuous optimization. Along with built-in, sensitive haptic technology, which enables touch feedback to guide typing and reduce mistakes, the halo keyboard far surpasses the typing experience and speed of a normal tablet, and is comparable with that of a physical keyboard.

Real-Pen Accessory – Dual Use Stylus
The flush surface of the halo keyboard feature also allows for a few additional uses when paired with the Yoga Book’s standard real-pen accessory, a dual-use stylus. Inspired by the elegance and simplicity of real notebooks, Yoga Book is an acknowledgement that we all still love to write and draw on paper. Users can now write with the real-pen accessory that holds real ink tips onto a piece of paper or notepad covering the multi-use keyboard panel, or as a stylus when applied straight onto the panel. Everything they create, from doodles and drawings to notes, is instantly digitized and saved with the Lenovo note-saving app.3 Roughly the size of a conventional ink pen, the real-pen accessory is powered by Wacom feel™ IT technologies to work with the state-of-the-art electro-magnetic resonance (EMR) film housed within the multi-use keyboard, which enables this real-time digitization.

The multi-use keyboard and real-pen accessory recreate the natural feel of drawing flat on a paper surface instead of directly onto a computer screen, without having to block parts of the art work with the hand or stylus. Or you can draw directly on the screen as well, depending on preference. The real-pen accessory can draw with the precision of a pencil or paintbrush, with 2,048 pressure levels and 100-degree angle detection. In addition, you’ll never have to charge or replace it – the real-pen accessory doesn’t require batteries and its ink can be replaced with standard ink tips, just like that of a conventional pen.

Book UI and Hinge
As a 2-in-1 that weaves together both hardware and software, Yoga Book truly brings work and play into one tablet through the Book UI, the Yoga Book’s specially adapted Android 6.0 operating system that draws from the best UI features of laptops and tablets. The Book UI allows several apps to run at once through multiple windows that can be pinned, maximized or minimized, as well as a taskbar that keeps track of your apps and common Windows keyboard shortcuts and action keys. This additional new workload is easily handled by the Yoga Book’s powerful Intel® Atom™ X5 processor and 4GB of memory. And Windows users also have the option to work on that platform, as the Yoga Book is available on Windows 10.

Constructed from a combination of magnesium and aluminium alloys, the Yoga Book is robust in build and guaranteed to turn heads. As with all Yoga products, it has the distinctive watchband-style hinge. This time, the hinge is engineered to be smaller and features a custom-made three-axis hinge, with 130 different mechanical pieces comprising five different materials. Lab tested more than 25,000 times, the Yoga Book form offers a smooth, seamless transition between the four modes – Browse, Watch, Create and Type. The Yoga Book with Android is available in Gold or Gunmetal, while the Yoga Book with Windows comes in Carbon Black.

Pricing and Availability4
Pricing for the Yoga Book will start at €499 for the Android version and €599 for the Windows version. Pricing and availability may vary from country to country. All will be globally available beginning in September. In the US, the Yoga Book will be sold online by the end of October.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Five Useful Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts

16 Apr

Lightroom shortcuts

Adobe makes life easier for Lightroom users by building in keyboard shortcuts. You probably know some of the more important ones by heart (e.g.: T to reveal or hide the Toolbar, \ to toggle between before and after views, and O to reveal the Adjustment Brush overlay). But I’m also betting there are quite a few shortcuts you didn’t even know existed. Here are some of the more useful, lesser known ones.

1. Reveal all Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are difficult to remember, especially if you don’t use them that often. But if you press Ctrl + / (PC) or Cmd + / (Mac), Lightroom displays a list of the shortcuts available in the current module. When you’re done, click anywhere on the shortcut list to hide it.

Lightroom shortcuts

Library module shortcuts.

Lightroom shortcuts

Develop module shortcuts.

Note: The rest of these keyboard shortcuts are for the Develop module. Not all of them are shown on the shortcuts list.

2. Rotate the Crop Overlay

If you’ve ever tried to make a portrait crop from a landscape image you’ll have experienced the frustration of trying to rotate the Crop Overlay (press R to go straight to that tool).

Lightroom automatically gives the Crop Overlay the same orientation as the photo, with no immediately obvious way of rotating it. To do so, simply press X.

Lightroom shortcuts

By default the Crop Overlay is automatically given the same size and orientation as the original frame.

Lightroom shortcuts

Press X to rotate the Crop Overlay and make an extreme crop.

3. Resample Spot Removal Tool

The good thing about the Spot Removal Tool (which you can activate by pressing Q) is that Lightroom is quite good at guessing which part of the image it should sample, in order to heal the selected area. But it doesn’t get it right all the time. If you don’t like the result, press the / key and Lightroom will choose a different area to sample. Repeat as often as you like.

Lightroom shortcuts

In this example I wanted to get rid of this dark blob in the background because it’s a distraction.

Lightroom shortcuts

Lightroom’s first guess doesn’t really work.

Lightroom shortcuts

But the second one is much better. You can of course fine-tune it by moving the pin indicating the sampled area manually.

4. Automatic White and Black points

If you double-click on the Whites and Blacks sliders in the Basic panel, Lightroom resets them to zero. If you hold the Shift key down while you do it, Lightroom calculates the best settings, working out where to position both sliders so that the histogram stretches all the way from the left side of the graph (shadows) to the right (highlights) without any gaps. This quick fix makes most photos look better right away. The flatter the original photo, the more extreme the settings required.

Lightroom shortcuts

Double-click the Whites and Blacks sliders while holding the Shift key down. Make sure you double-click the words and not the slider itself.

5. Flip a Graduated Filter

Press the apostrophe key to flip (invert) a Graduated Filter. One practical use for this is as follows:

  • Create a Graduated Filter over the sky of a landscape image (hold the Shift key down while you do so to keep the Graduated Filter straight) and move the Exposure slider left to darken that area.
  • Right-click on the Graduated Filter’s pin and select Duplicate. This creates a new Graduated Filter with exactly the same settings as the first.
  • Press the apostrophe key to flip the Graduated Filter. Now the minus Exposure setting is applied to the foreground. We don’t want to make the foreground darker, so double-click the Exposure slider to return it to zero. Now we are ready to use this new Graduated Filter to enhance the foreground.
  • Move the Clarity slider right to emphasise the texture in the foreground. You may also need to move the Exposure slider left if this brightens the foreground too much.

The net result is that you have applied two Graduated Filters, one to the sky, and the other to the foreground.

***By the way, the apostrophe shortcut also works with the Radial Filter.

Lightroom shortcuts

(A) Original photo. (B) Graduated Filter with minus Exposure applied to sky. (C) Duplicated and flipped Graduated Filter applied to foreground, with plus Clarity and minus Exposure. (D) Final result.

Your turn

What keyboard shortcuts do you use in Lightroom and why? Please let us know in the comments.


The Mastering Lightroom Collection

Mastering Lightroom ebooksMy Mastering Lightroom ebooks will help you get the most out of Lightroom 4 and Lightroom 5. They cover every aspect of the software from the Library module through to creating beautiful images in the Develop module. Click the link to learn more or buy.

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The post Five Useful Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts by Andrew S. Gibson appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Workout Computer: Get Fit with a Punching Bag Keyboard

06 Nov

[ By Steph in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

workout computer 1

Combine two seemingly disparate activities – working at a computer, and working out – with a keyboard that consists of a series of punching bags representing each character. ‘Workout Computer’ by design studio BLESS makes typing up a document a full-body, muscle-engaging effort for an experience that’s the polar opposite of most sedentary, seated working environments.

workout computer 2

workout computer 3

Punch, kick or step on each component to write out a paragraph, and then hit the ‘print’ bag to preserve what you’ve composed. Intending to blur the boundaries between work and leisure activities, making the act of typing on a computer far more physical, the computer encourages increased activity to keep office workers from going soft.

workout computer 5

workout computer 6

The installation was presented at the second Istanbul Design Biennial, inviting passersby to experience it themselves. The users watch their chosen letters pop up on the computer screen, and then wait for it to be printed at the end of their impromptu boxing session. “Personally we would love to be, at the end of the working day, physically as exhausted as mentally,” the designers told Dezeen.

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Future Typing: 15 Creative Keyboard Designs & Concepts

30 Sep

[ By Steph in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

Keyboards Wearable Sensors 1

If your hand has ever molded into a claw from typing on a conventional keyboard for too long, or you’re in the habit of hovering over your workspace with a bowl of noodles, pay attention. These 15 unusual keyboard designs include built-in bowls, flip-out panels for the fat-fingered, virtual displays and one-handed grips.

Keyboard-Plate Combo

Keyboard Plate Combo

Keyboard Plate Combo 2

Our computer keyboards are known to be among the most germ-ridden places known to man, but that doesn’t stop most of us from hovering over them as we eat our meals (thus, making the problem even worse.) This keyboard/plate combo by Dutch designer Hella Jongerius aims to solve that problem by adding a bowl to the center. Unfortunately, as much as gamers, students and over-achievers would probably love this to be a real product, it’s just a tongue-in-cheek concept.

Virtual Laser Keyboard
Keyboards virtual laser

Keyboards virtual laser 2

The future of keyboards is almost certainly virtual, with lasers projected onto a flat surface and optics that track the movement of your fingers. Keyboards like this still seem futuristic to many people, but they’re already available. This model goes for $ 119.99 at Brookstone.

Inside-Out Keyboard
Keyboards Inside Out

Keyboards Inside OUt 2

The Inside-Out keyboard by designer Min Koo Yeo might just be a peek at what gesture-based keyboards will look like just a few years from now. While the front side is a standard keyboard with its own mini track pad, the back side is one big “smart” track pad for a greater range of gesture-based commands.

Wearable Sensors as Keyboards
Keyboards Wearable Sensors 1

Keyboards Wearable SEnsors 2

The tiny keyboards on mobile devices can be frustrating for anyone with larger fingers. What if you could just cuff a couple devices onto your hands and ‘type’ on a flat surface instead? AirType detects the movement of your fingers and translates them into alphanumerical input. According to the creators, the device will learn from you, adapting to your personal typing style and habits.

Paper Keyboard
Keyboards paper

The Verbatim Virtual Keyboard by designer Florian Kraeutli turns a simple piece of paper printed with letters into a fully functioning keyboard. It puts the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer to work measuring and identifying the location of letters on the paper. At 80% accuracy, the concept still needs work, but it’s an intriguing start.

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Future Typing 15 Creative Keyboard Designs Concepts

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Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts

01 Oct

By Lori Peterson

Recently I was helping a photographer who had just switched from Elements to Photoshop 6. She was looking to streamline her editing and asked about keyboard shortcuts. At that moment it dawned on me that not everyone knew about keyboard shortcuts, what the most commonly used ones are, and even why you should teach yourself to use them.

Once you learn the keyboard shortcuts that you use most, you will be able to do them without really thinking. It will speed up what you are doing in Photoshop and enable you to move effortlessly through your editing processes. There are shortcuts for virtually everything you could want to do in Photoshop.

The most used shortcut I use is one of the simplest. When you click X on your keyboard it switches your foreground and background colors. When you are working with masks this shortcut is invaluable. If you are using a mask and want to make sure that you aren’t going outside the area you want to be or want to clean it up more you can click on the mouse and hit your ALT button and that will show you where you are working and how it looks. Just click it again to go back.

Another common shortcut is for duplicating your layer and that is CTRL +J. This simply duplicates the layer you are working on. There is not a shortcut for adding a layer mask but you can easily create your own by going to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Layer Mask > Reveal All and then assigning a shortcut for your layer masks to be added.

layer mask.jpg

If you hit the B on your keyboard it will take you to your brushes and then you can use your number pad to pick the opacity of the brush. If you hit the number 1 it makes your opacity 10%, if you hit 2 it makes it 20%, and so on.

When using brushes you sometimes need to fine tune them and make them larger and smaller and that’s when you use your brackets. The brackets are located just above your enter key. [ makes your brush smaller and ] makes your brush larger. You can toggle back and forth between them to keep changing the size of your brush. If you need to zoom in or out to look at what you are doing then you simply hit CTRL + to zoom in or CTRL – to zoom out.

brackets.jpg

If you make a mistake while editing you can use CTRL + Z to undo what you just did. If you need to go back multiple times then using CRTL +ALT + Z will help you undo multiple changes that you have done.

I use my history folder and take snapshots of my work as I am doing things so that if I need to go back to a point before I did a certain part of an edit that it’s easier. Using your history folder and taking a snapshot is simple and an easy way to make sure that you can get back to the point where you were happy with your image. There is a default number of history states that you can revert back to. If you want to increase those numbers just go to Edit > Preferences > Performance and then change the number of history states to fit what you want. (This is not a shortcut, but oh so helpful!)

image states.jpg

You can easily just go to your history and take a snapshot by clicking the little camera icon. But if you hold down ALT and then click the camera icon you can name the snapshot of the image that you just took. That makes it easier than going back and having to click around to figure out which image was the one you liked. It’s like learning to change the names of your Layers as you are working. It sometimes seems pointless, but when you need to know which one to go to, it’s very important!

alt and new snapshot.jpg

Photoshop is not something you can learn in one sitting. There are so many pieces and components to it that it requires a lot more than that. Finding the pieces that you need and the ones that work for you are what counts. If you don’t do any 3D animation then the tools for that particular part of Photoshop are not going to be of any interest to you. Learn your basic shortcuts and take it from there. Don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to learn everything at once. You can find links to shortcuts from Adobe and from many other places. You can even post the ones you think you will use at your desk and practice using them. Once you add a few to your editing, then learn a few more. Keeping everything short and simple and easy is sometimes what works best.

Lori Peterson is an award winning photographer based out of the St. Louis Metro Area. Her dynamic work ranges from creative portraits to very unique fine art photography. Lori’s work can be seen at www.loripetersonphotography.com and also on her blog at www.loripetersonphotographyblog.com. You can follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LoriPetersonPhotography.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts


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E-Ink Keyboard: Letter Keys Morph into Custom Symbols

19 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

e ink custom keyboard

Electronic ink is energy efficient and easy on the eyes, so why not adapt it to the keyboard? It is, after all, one of the few components of everyday technology that still has printed type in a screen-dominated world.

e_inky

electronic ink keyboard concept

Designed by Maxim Mezentsev & Aleksander Suhih the E-inkey keyboard for Pixel Studio (p1x.ru), the concept is simple: e-ink key displays that can shift to gaming keys, shortcuts or program-specific icons smoothly on demand, just like turning the digital page in your favorite e-book reader.

electronic oled color keyboard

There is already a working precursor to this, and it is more than a prototype – the Optimus Maximus keyboard has configuration software for full customization (letters, images, icons, colors), but uses power-sapping and heavy-touch OLED technology (making it harder to go wireless or even push buttons).

eink customizable multitasking keyboard

While this is not yet in production, the specs give some hope that it might make its way to Kickstarter or an equivalent soon – it definitely falls under the “please take my money!” category for tech geeks and design professionals alike.

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E-Ink Keyboard: Letter Keys Morph into Custom Symbols

07 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

e ink custom keyboard

Electronic ink is energy efficient and easy on the eyes, so why not adapt it to the keyboard? It is, after all, one of the few components of everyday technology that still has printed type in a screen-dominated world.

e_inky

electronic ink keyboard concept

Designed by Maxim Mezentsev & Aleksander Suhih the E-inkey keyboard for Pixel Studio (p1x.ru), the concept is simple: e-ink key displays that can shift to gaming keys, shortcuts or program-specific icons smoothly on demand, just like turning the digital page in your favorite e-book reader.

electronic oled color keyboard

There is already a working precursor to this, and it is more than a prototype – the Optimus Maximus keyboard has configuration software for full customization (letters, images, icons, colors), but uses power-sapping and heavy-touch OLED technology (making it harder to go wireless or even push buttons).

eink customizable multitasking keyboard

While this is not yet in production, the specs give some hope that it might make its way to Kickstarter or an equivalent soon – it definitely falls under the “please take my money!” category for tech geeks and design professionals alike.

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Tap That: 10 Terrifically Techy Keyboard Concepts

22 Nov

[ By Delana in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

With the exception of a few spectacularly ill-advised ergonomic keyboard redesigns, the collection of keys that we use to input data to our computers has been relatively unchanged for quite some time. These ten new takes on the keyboard might change the way we type forever…or at least the way we look at our keyboards.

Portable Keystick Concept

(image via: Yanko Design)

Touching a shared keyboard – particularly one on a public computer – is a frightening concept for germaphobes and anyone who doesn’t want to contract the latest annoying virus. The Keystick concept from designers Yoonsang Kim and Eunsang Park eliminates the yuck factor from keyboards by putting a keyboard in every pocket. The portable device resembles a folding fan, but when it folds out it reveals its full set of keys. Users would take their own keyboards with them so fear of contamination and germs would be eliminated – at least as far as computer keyboards are concerned.

Typewriter USB Keyboard

(image via: Instructables)

If you miss the constant clack-clack-clack of typewriters, the USB Typewriter mod will take you back. A clever DIY kit helps users turn their old, neglected typewriters into cool new USB accessories that work with Macs, PCs or tablet computers. The mod is surprisingly easy to implement and results in one of the coolest custom keyboards any typer could ask for.

Flexible Entertainment Keyboard

(image via: Victor Johansson)

The Microsoft Keyflex is a flexible keyboard meant for playing and entertainment – not for work. The bendy ‘board removes the negative work-related connotations from its design, focusing instead on being the perfect living room companion. Rather than relying solely on key taps, the Keyflex uses physical manipulation to get the user’s point across online. Squeezing, bending, and twisting the keyboard itself all activate different functions such as changing the volume, “liking” something on Facebook or exiting whatever program is being used at the moment.

One-Handed Jellyfish Keyboard

(image via: Erik Campbell)

The chorded keyset was invented in 1968 by the inventor of the computer mouse, but unlike the ubiquitous mouse the five-key input device never quite caught on. The keyset requires users to press the five keys in certain combinations to create each character rather than pressing one key at a time. In this way, the keyset is able to take up much less room than a QWERTY keyboard and, with a lot of practice, users can type faster on it than on a standard keyboard. This version is a conceptual redesign of the classic concept, its shape inspired by the rounded body of a jellyfish.

Folding Laptop Keyboard

(image via: Yanko Design)

Using computers with tiny screens usually means also using computers with impossibly tiny keyboards. This concept from designer Yang Yongchang puts a folding keyboard onto a small laptop, providing space for fingers but not forcing the screen to increase in size just to accommodate the expanded keyboard.

Mossy Keyboard

(image via: Robbie Tilton)

Being in an office all day can really dampen one’s connection to nature. Designer Robbie Tilton decided to bring the outdoors in with his Natural Keyboard concept. Although the prototype uses fake moss, the designer intends the keyboard to be seeded with natural grass, allowing for an unprecedented amount of comfort and connection to nature in the office.

Apple’s Mouse-Killing Keyboard

(image via: US Patent & Trademark Office)

No, this little keyboard won’t actually kill literal mice. But it may just make your computer’s mouse obsolete. The concept was patented by Apple and features four tiny cameras that track hand movements. As the user’s hand moves around, the on-screen cursor follows, doing just what a mouse would do but without the need for another cumbersome piece of equipment on the desk.

Motorized Ergonomic Keyboard

(image via: Dvice)

Ergonomic keyboards are (let’s be honest here) usually ugly and kind of a pain to use. This one seems like it wouldn’t be much of an exception in those areas, but it does something other ergo keyboards don’t: massages your hands and wrists. The twin halves of the keyboard move around slightly and vibrate about twice an hour to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and a variety of other repetition-based injuries.

Paper Keyboard for iPhone

(image via: Telegraph)

The touch screens on iPhones are a huge pain when trying to compose a message quickly or with any length. A student project would make it possible to use a tabletop as a keyboard instead. The Vibrative system designed by Florian Kraeutli analyzes the vibrations caused by typing on a regular piece of paper placed on a table. Once the system is calibrated, experienced touch typers don’t even need the paper – they can simply tap away on the table as though they were using any QWERTY keyboard.

Puzzle Keyboard

(image via: RedDot)

If you’ve ever wondered why the standard keyboard is set up the way it is, or if you’ve ever come up with a better solution, the Puzzle Keyboard would let you rearrange the keys to your heart’s content. The design was created by Wan Fu Chun and won a Red Dot design award. While the concept of a puzzle-like keyboard is delightful, it isn’t all for fun – the concept could also be helpful for making keyboards easier to use for people with injuries or handicaps that prevent them from comfortably using a standard keyboard’s setup.


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Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 – Don’t Use Keyboard Shortcuts? Remove Them From ScreenTips

16 Oct

If you prefer not to use keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint 2010, stop showing them in the pop-up ScreenTip help.

As you move your mouse pointer over various on-screen icons and other elements in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and see popup ScreenTips appear, you may have noticed keyboard shortcuts shown occasionally. If you’re used to pressing CTRL + S to save a document or CTRL + P to print one, you may find these reminders useful.

However, some people rarely venture far from the mouse, preferring to click buttons, navigate menus, and never worry about memorizing combinations of letters and modifier keys. If you fall in this latter category, you may wish to ditch these shortcut reminders….

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