Saw something cool the other day at a conference I was attending. The keynote speaker demonstrated his Virtual Laser Keyboard. While I’d seen pics of this device, I’d never actually seen one in action. Pretty slick. It uses a laser to project a standard keyboard interface onto a flat surface like a hotel desktop or airplane tray table along with an invisible infrared plane of light that actually detects the keys and characters you’re typing. An explanation is here.
It works with a wide variety of PDA’s, Smart Phones, Blackberrys, PCs and laptop computers. The speaker who demonstrated his used it as an input device for his Blackberry to create and send emails. It’s a heckuva lot faster and more accurate than trying to type with your thumbs on the miniscule keyboards that come with these devices. At $200 it’s not cheap but it’s not outrageously expensive either considering the convenience and time savings a ‘VLK’ could provide.
