Long Live The Keyboard

Have you ever noticed that new technology tends towards a lack of moving parts? I can think of numerous examples. In the computer world alone, the mouse is replaced by a touchpad, keys or buttons by the touchscreen, harddrives by flash memory, fans by heatsinks or more efficient, cooler systems.

I suppose in the long run it's for the best. Fewer moving parts means less wear, so therefore things last longer, products will be more reliable. Less energy is needed as well. However, are we losing something? Buttons and keyboards have an obvious tactile quality that the touchscreen or touchpad cannot duplicate. At least without some major innovation.

I was recently researching the purchase of a new cellphone. While I was attracted to the "wow factor" of touchscreens, when I really considered my options I decided I wasn't quite ready for a full touchscreen phone quite yet. The touchscreen devices I have used the past (remote, GPS, PDA, iphone, etc.) have always been just a little disappointing. Keys on a screen are easy to miss. They are usually a bit smaller than we would prefer (which of course will change as the demand for larger screens continues), but the feel of individual keys goes a long way to ensuring accurate typing I think. I ended up with a blackberry, and while the buttons are very small, I can still type much more accurately on it's tiny little keyboard than I can on my GPS's touchscreen keyboard, which is easily twice the size. It could be my sausage fingers though. Haptic feedback (vibration responses to touch) is something I haven't checked out yet. Perhaps that is the answer. Some sort of feeling is really necessary in order to be able to type without having to watch your fingers.

You know what I really want? In the movie The Island, the doctor has a computer built into his desktop. He controls it through a small pyramid on the desk. It is a separate object, like a mouse, but by moving it in various ways, he had a great deal of control over what was happening on the computer. What a great idea. Here is way to reintroduce an object we can interact with, we can move and manipulate. I think that will always be more satisfying than a touchscreen. Plus think of the options, the variety of ways a computer could be controlled through objects, some smart - imparting information or controlling aspects of the computer directly, and some dumb, like a stylus.

Where am I going with this? I'm not really sure. Touchscreens are cool, but I think I am always going to want some sort of old fashioned keyboard. It just works better.

Ehh, I think I've lost my chain of thought...