
Wearable keyboard that turns anything you can touch into a typing surface - spektom
http://www.tapwithus.com/
======
chjohasbrouck
Having to actually put this on your hand makes it much less convenient for
short-burst typing than a touchscreen. You have to take it out, fit it, and be
temporarily disabled by it.

Using this for typing over long durations isn't more convenient than a
keyboard and the friction would probably become uncomfortable over time.

I think this will encounter the same problem most wearables have finding
product-market fit. The bar is already incredibly high in terms of the speed
and ease of use of consumer electronics. If you've added even 1 physical step
that adds even a half-second to an action, people will always eventually
default to the half-second faster way of doing something.

There's also the issue of personal consolidation. People will generally favor
a single device that does 2 things over two devices that each do 1 thing, even
if the more specialized devices perform better at their individual roles. This
is why releasing the iPhone eventually cannibalized iPod sales. I don't see a
wearable keyboard justifying pocket space for most people.

I actually struggle to find a use for this product even when I get very
specific about the use case. If you're rock climbing, you still have to
position the screen of the device you're typing on. This product just added to
the number of hands I have to use. Even if the screen is mounted somewhere for
you, what's the ideal use case? Texting while bicycling?

~~~
lolc
I agree that these are big hurdles for adoption. The device combines two big
advantages though: requires no visual focus and needs only one hand. I want
that badly.

I don't see why I would have to ever take it off, a few hardware generations
in. It will always be there, powered by body heat. We're turning into cyborgs
without the implants.

Obligatory XKCD: [https://xkcd.com/269/](https://xkcd.com/269/)

~~~
2muchcoffeeman
It looks like you have to learn a new system for typing though.

And if you did make it wearable, you'd have to put a bunch of extra smarts
into it to make sure you don't just start typing messages to people.

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utopcell
It seems less productive for longer typing sessions and too slow to "install"
it on your hand for shorter ones. I wonder in which use cases would this
excel. Truthfully, if I am to forego tactile feedback, I'd much rather prefer
a wireless leap motion that I can place on a table.

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kirykl
Reminds me of this that fizzled out
[http://matias.ca/halfkeyboard/](http://matias.ca/halfkeyboard/)

~~~
nerdy
Which brings us to perhaps the best review on Amazon: "Das bard es ver gad!
A've traed et far tree weex ad et werx great! A recabed et ta aw Agazad
watcxers! Fave stars!!!"

~~~
DKnoll
Maybe the reviewer was a Scot.

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dhon_
A wristband seems like a much less obtrusive way to accomplish this goal
(tracking tendons or muscles in the forearm) and would be great integrated
with a smart watch.

This looks promising [http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/writing-in-the-
air-...](http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/writing-in-the-air-closer-
to-reality-20140803-1003k8.html)

~~~
PhasmaFelis
I know that some of the finger muscles run down past the wrist, but I don't
think you could get precise tracking of fingertip locations with the wrist
alone.

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pdq
There's a startup in Austin doing a similar keyboard product:
[https://gest.co/](https://gest.co/)

Personally I'm skeptical on the accuracy and usability of these keyboards.

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Rhapso
I like the premise, but the foley typing sounds and look of the product make
me feel like it is a mock up and the product does not exist.

Anybody have crappy footage of a guy on youtube using one of these things? I
would trust that more.

 __edit: Great video below. THANKS!

~~~
gcoda
[https://youtu.be/Pq3exdcbU7U](https://youtu.be/Pq3exdcbU7U) *interviewer
tries it on 2:24

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MaxLeiter
Any ideas on how it knows where you "are" on the keyboard? I.e. How does it
know you're pressing the "W" key?

~~~
niftich
Based on this 4-minute review video linked earlier [1], it seems it's not
actually a QWERTY keyboard, but rather a custom scheme where specific finger-
movements correspond to specific letters.

They say the five vowels are the basic tap on each corresponding finger, and
other letters are more complicated.

They show and mention an app that trains you how to use it; think Dance Dance
Revolution and other timed 'arrow' games where you have to tap out the correct
response.

I think it'd be better if it assumed homerow placement on a QWERTY and worked
from there -- to be able to calibrate it to your hand, e.g. by typing a little
bit on an actual keyboard to pick up the placement of your fingers for each
letter. There's an app idea.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq3exdcbU7U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq3exdcbU7U)

~~~
anotheryou
looks cool for steno, where you one press of both hands to input a whole word.
But they still have 2 keys per finger...
[https://youtu.be/JXQQzW99cAI](https://youtu.be/JXQQzW99cAI)

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engizeer
Ah their waitlist is hackable(or is it crackable?). They don't distinguish
between "abc@gmail.com" and "a.bc@gmail.com" \- so pretty much you can game
the list and move to the top(I did something very similar when OnePlus 2 came
out). So tapwithus mods - if you're listening - please fix this!

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drewm1980
If I were these guys I'd be pretty focused on the VR market.

Scribblenauts VR will need keyboard input!

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franciscop
This reminds me to the speed typing one hand keyboards that I've read as the
promise to faster writing in some places. However they were "old fashion", as
in they were the future 30-40 years ago. I remember reading a conversation
about how, as they stopped being manufactured now people who are used to them
are crazy searching pieces:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwriter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwriter)

------
personjerry
What an impractical-looking device. I don't use wearables, but I pretend to
type without a keyboard all the time, touching my fingers to my palm. A good
wearable should be shaped comfortably like a glove. Then, it should detect
which finger and how bent the finger is upon touching the palm, which would
indicate which column and which row on the keyboard respectively.

~~~
peeters
If we're using one-handed gestures to indicate X/Y position on a standard
QWERTY layout, we're truly lost.

~~~
personjerry
Ah, well I imagined at some point we'd have to type letters of the alphabet.
Although, now that I think about it, I suppose dictation could help, but it's
not likely to be as accurate, especially for the purposes of, for example,
coding.

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lolc
I was waiting for somebody to do this! Looks like they got it right and
simple. Finally I'll get fine mobile text input :-)

I wonder whether our sensory system would work well enough to use such a
simple strip for the back-channel too. Maybe by contracting the holes by the
same patterns? I guess it would work, given how fast people can read Braille.

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machinelearning
www.gest.co A better designed device that does not require you to learn novel
patterns and can do much more

~~~
jm_l
Looks like they were unable to continue funding and shut down in April 2016.

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asdffilms/gest-work-
wit...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asdffilms/gest-work-with-your-
hands/posts/1546116)

~~~
smt88
I am constantly amazed at how crappy Kickstarter is. Almost everything is
vaporware, and the things that do actually launch usually turn out to be
garbage.

~~~
codinghorror
I don't think that is Kickstarter's fault -- the fact is that building stuff
(particularly real, physical stuff) is hard.

~~~
smt88
I agree and disagree. No, Kickstarter couldn't be a neutral platform and also
do things to ensure that projects panned out.

But Kickstarter could certainly be more transparent. They (and their
crowdfunders) intentionally foster the idea that consumers are just pre-
ordering real products. There isn't any large disclaimer that says, "Hey, your
money might just be going down a toilet! Do your homework and make sure these
people are legit!!" Kickstarter wants to (and does) feel like Amazon of the
future, which is cool until you realize you're buying a future that will never
exist.

In the end, it's really Kickstarter that suffers the most. I'd be willing to
bet that having fewer projects (through vetting, curation, or whatever) with
higher consumer trust would be more profitable in the long run.

~~~
machinelearning
Some companies use a successful Kickstarter campaign as a positive signal to
attract investment.

If they set a low but reasonable goal and achieve it, it is ostensibly a
positive signal that a market exists for whatever niche product they are
building.

While the capital acquired through is almost always not sufficient to fulfil
the orders, investment helps to.

This model fails when investment dries up and the second part of the plan does
not work out.

This is probably what happened to gest. They had most certainly had a working
prototype and were definitely not vaporware in the true sense of the word.

It could be that the only way to create a market for such a product is through
an inferior product and less creative founders who have had successful exits
in the past and can self fund.

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cdevs
If you can get it down to a set of gloves that use qwerty in the office I'm in

