Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Patent For Configurable Input System Emerges

BlueRevolution said:
Not gonna happen. For starters, how do you type in names for your audio tracks when you've got your keyboard swapped for a mixer? :)

Still, neat idea.
Click to expand...

External keyboard [and mouse]? I think this is a wicked idea - might compromise the 'laptop' status a little bit, but I wouldn't think that you'd use a 'music keyboard' or 'mixer' configuration on your lap anyway.

'citing!
 
Just thought - I'm mixing away, twiddling with my knobs and faders (ooer), I look at my watch - Arrrgh, late for meeting! - slam the lid shut in haste - opps - faders straight through the screen!!! :eek:
 
We had an idea like that years ago when we were messing with audio editing and mixing on a laptop. We thought it would be cool if you could swap the keyboard for some mixing controls. Next time remind me to patent random ideas!


A.
 
Actually I've changed my mind - I think it's a crap idea! Mind you Apple will probably turn it into a killer application and they'll turn my mind back again - they usually do!
 
While it's an interesting concept and lot's of people might end up using it, I don't know if it would serve a great purpose for me. How about an OLED keyboard on the portables... that would be something cool.
 
sPAULj said:
The laptop would have wireless in it. Why not make simple wireless connectivity to have a constant connection with the keyboard when detached?
Click to expand...
If you are going to use BT for the keyboard, why don't you just make all these peripherials BT? :rolleyes:

A BT mixer. A BT tactile volume control. It would be impossible to have this and keep a portable semi-rugged laptop that isn't the size of a tank. Yet, its useless. You might as well do the same thing with BT instead of wasting all that money on an interface that is clunky.

Definitely NOT smart.



Think about it a BT espresso machine.
 
richinspace said:
Conceptually, this is much cooler than it appears to be. What Apple has done is much more than listed a few new(?) input devices, because:

1) They have actually identified the lowest common denominator for most super-popular gizmos today – a base unit for computers, cell phones, iPods, remote controls, game controllers, PSP:s etc. , and

2) They have shown that they can produce such base units (of different sizes and shapes), and leave the rest as cheap and customizable add-ons.

This is taking a mathematical mode of procedure and applying it to product development, and it's brilliant. Maybe there won't be any direct gizmo-spawning out of this, but surely there will be lots of indirect advancements in current product lines.

:cool:
Click to expand...

Conceptually from this perspective it is true. Its phenomenal manufacturing innovation if they can set it up like this. It would result in a shift in how people purchase and use electronics. However, mechanically it seems a much more inneficeint way of creating flexibility that people won't use more than once a week.
 
BlueRevolution said:
Not gonna happen. For starters, how do you type in names for your audio tracks when you've got your keyboard swapped for a mixer? :)

Still, neat idea.
Click to expand...

Easy-- you plus in a USB keyboard when you need it.

The point is the mixer board is your primary interface; a keyboard would be the auxiliary that you might use 1% of the time.

Later> NVM, I see someone already addressed this.
 
Look at it this way....if something as interesting as this ever gets implemented...it can only come from Apple. Like 3rd party iPod dock devices now, you can have tons of 3rd party inserts that use the connector the MacBook would provide.

You can have 3rd party keyboard inserts with (Photoshop, Final Cut, Soundtrack, Aperture) shortcuts on the keys, you can get an insert with a graphics pad and a few appropriate keys for again...photoshop. An x-plane fan? How about an insert with flight controls (switches and the like) on it?

Think of all the fun.... and with the patent...it would only come in Apple MacBooks.
 
Although I find this a very cool idea, it doesnt make sense cost wise. IMO all the functions attainable via the strap on controlls can be achieved without them. This would only create more plastic crap to buy, carry around and lose or break.

Thats just me though...

I do like the joy stick idea:D
 
I think this looks great. But I'd rather a second, touch-sensitive screen than a physically altered section. That could be what they use for the video iPod and even the iPhone. the examples of a musical keyboard and faders are great, obviously it wouldn't be as good as using the real things, but they would sure beat using a normal laptop keyboard for such functions IMHO. I like the normal keyboard + changable area look - e.g the trackpad would go, being replaced by one of the various changeable areas.

McGiord said:
COULD YOU EXPLAIN IT PLEASE?
Click to expand...


OLED is Organic Light Emitting Diode.

Have a look at this(artlebedev.com). Very cool.
 
Um... this has been done before.

Not in a laptop, no, but I definitely remember keyboards where you could buy the bottom "shell" and the key "insert" boards separately. There was a regular QWERTY keyboard, and then for gamers, special key layouts suited to whatever game you were playing.

(pauses to do a websearch)

Ideazon's Zboard, that's the one. www.ideazon.com
 
BlueRevolution said:
Not gonna happen. For starters, how do you type in names for your audio tracks when you've got your keyboard swapped for a mixer? :)
Click to expand...

If you're a DJ you don't. There's no need when you're doing a gig. But if you do, use your cell phone.

sPAULj said:
The laptop would have wireless in it. Why not make simple wireless connectivity to have a constant connection with the keyboard when detached?
Click to expand...

To play devil's advocate, why not just have a bluetooth mixer? I know, it lacks Wow factor.

McGiord said:
COULD YOU EXPLAIN IT PLEASE?
Click to expand...

it's faster to search than to post a question
 
Moreover, while the rudimentary mechanical controls typically provide tactile cues (clicks), the more advanced touch sensing devices do not. As such, the user does not know when the device has produced a touch input. In some cases, a simple decal is provided over the touch pad to indicate the location of dedicated touch controls.
Click to expand...

picture-5.png


Look at 610A. It's a mouse pad with two buttons. I'd say, one physical button, but touch sensitive so it knows which side was pressed.

So it's cool, I'm guessing it's really a lot of mumbo-jumbo to hide their new laptop mouse button.

Remember, if they can run XP now, they need two mouse buttons. plus, for people who only like one button, it's still just one button.
 
Many comments

First off, this looks very much like core technology, not a product description.

The concept of overlays is a natural follow-on to any kind of multi-touch technology. It makes sense.

If you're doing audio recording (for instance), a bunch of virtual on-screen sliders that can be manipulated simultaneously using multiple-touches on a trackpad-like surface is an important feature. But if you can't look down and know what sliders your fingers are on, it will be too confusing to work well.

Obviously, this problem can be solved with a simple painted-sheet overlay. Then you can see the sliders. But one solution begs another. Why not have mechanical sliders as well? This will make it the same as what audio people are used to working with now, but (presumably) an overlay will cost less than a standalone USB-based mixing console, since you only need the mechanics, not the electronics.

The rest of the patent clearly looks like the results of a brainstorming session. "Now that we've established the concept of mechanical overlays, what else could you conceivably overlay."

In terms of actual products, I can only think of two items likely to someday make it into products.

The first is the iPod control. Replace the click-wheel part with a pad. This is thinner and possibly cheaper than existing click-wheels. An overlay (hopefully not optional) can provide the tactile feedback necessary to make the whole deal work. Given that Apple is now selling games for iPods, a gaming overlay (say, with two plus-pads and select/start buttongs) would be a logical add-on.

The second would be a way to cut costs for laptops. Instead of a keyboard and a trackpad, make the entire upper surface a single multi-touch pad. Then bundle a keyboard overlay. This may be able to cut costs somewhat, and it has the potential to make the laptop spill-proof (it's easier to seal a touchpad than a keyboard.).

The possibility of alternate overlays to replace the keyboard seems pretty unlikely to me, but we might see stuff to overlay the lower-half of this surface (which would, by default, be configured to work like existing trackpads.) I'd expect any replacement laptop overlays to come from third parties not from Apple.

And no, I can't imagine anyone traveling with a bunch of overlays. More likely that the overlays would remain at the location where the apps are typically run.

For instance, if I work in a recording studio, I'd leave the mixer-board overlay in the studio, to use when I'm there doing recording. I probably wouldn't be doing much mixing on the subway.
 
Clive At Five said:
oh, HELL no. Please don't tell me you're serious. Can you actually imagine someone carrying around a portfolio of these plates to lay on their computer? That's worse than an 8" floppy!!!
Click to expand...

MacinDoc said:
If the bottom half of the device is a touchscreen, you don't have to use physical overlays. You could expand on the concept of the Nintendo DS.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the patent specifically stated "Mechanical overlay" with no mention of a touch screen. I agree, that would be the way to go in order to implement it, but the patent says nothing of the sort.

-Clive
 
Reminds me of the OpenLabs keyboard workstations. They introduced this concept a few years ago. Awesome idea that still hasn't really caught on yet. I'd love it but I can't envision mass market appeal. Still cool to see.

http://www.openlabs.com/
 
IMO if it's a touch screen they they overlays could just be clear overlays with the letters of the keyboard on it, or the symbols of where the slider would be, and you look at the screen to see where the levels are on the slider. (It's not like I don't have to look down and see where my hands are every once in a while when I'm running sound, to make sure I'm adjusting the Acoustic Guitar, not the Electric Guitar or the kick drum.)

Back to the overlays, they could just be about paper thin, with a circuit in one corner that they computer detects and that circuit tells the computer what the overlay is, then the computer responds accordingly. So you wouldn't have to be carrying around a keyboard and a mixer, just a couple of overlays that are about the thickness of a transparency. Now you'd still need a mechanical joystick, but everything else could be done by thin overlays.

Hope this makes sense.

-Corran Horn
 
Touch pad not screen

From the description of a touchpad I'm seeing this as a full size tactile sensitive pad which can be configured by the overlay (using a unique ID) and a driver extension to accept the overlays input in whichever way is best suited to relay that input. Example: a keyboard overlay is just a matrix of buttons that when pressed would then press the pad and relay the key input. A drawing tablet overlay would relay input from it's entire surface like a Wacom. A mixing board would be able to use the sliders position of contact with the pad relative to preprogrammed x/y coords on the pad to relay it's input... even complex motions such as a knob tuner could be relayed via a swivel brush that would stroke the pad underneath in a preset arc that could be interpreted as correct input for a tuner, going through multiple 360 degree rotations.

This interface concept has a lot of possibilities... we'll see some of them, it's just too good of an idea.
 
musicians who travel a lot (like me) would not be happy with this at all. the process of miniaturization has allowed us to fill up the free space with more junk. i love that my powerbook is small and (mostly) all it needs is built inside. i got enough to worry about with my ipod and external drive. and yeah, something feels very 80s about this. keep thinking apple.


csimmons said:
musicians who travel a lot (like me) would appreciate having this functionality for sure.
Click to expand...
 
CrazyWingman said:
Prior Art: MacNTouch

Okay, so it doesn't have the "physical/tactile controls" over the touch-sensitive pad, but it is one giant touch-sensitive pad.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's prior art that now belongs to Apple. A lot of this patent activity seems to be an investigation into ways of exploiting that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back