Update, 5/26/16, 8:55am PT: Well, that was fast. After a few brief delays, Wooting launched its Kickstarter campaign (on May 24), and it was fully funded within seven hours. Dollars continue to flow, though; at press time, the campaign is more than than $30k past its initial goal of $33,695, at over $65k. There are still twenty-seven days left on the campaign. The group said in a blog post that it will have some stretch goals, but they were caught off guard--they figured they had time to come up with some.
Most of the time, a keyboard labeled as a “gaming keyboard” simply means it has flashy lighting, light linear switches, and a stylized housing. Wooting, a new Dutch keyboard company, is pushing the limits of what a keyboard can do, adding features that could change how keyboards can be utilized for gaming by using optical switches with an analog feature that allows you to apply gradations of pressure to each key.
At the heart of the Wooting One is the Flaretech optical switches. These analog switches use an optical sensor and light to read the position of a keypress. Unlike a traditional keyboard with digital inputs that are capable only of sending on/off signals, the analog Flaretech switches can send multiple input values to the computer.
A game controller is a good example of a device that utilizes and showcases the capabilities of both analog and digital inputs. On a modern game pad, such as the XBox One controller, the ABXY button cluster is sending a digital signal, whereas the joysticks and triggers are sending analog signals. The analog signals allow you to make adjustments at tiny increments, a feature that is essential to most modern games. The Wooting One will be capable of sending out analog signals, allowing users to make precise movement and throttle adjustments right from the keyboard.
In other words, instead of pressing W to move forward at a set speed, the Wooting One lets you move at various speeds depending on how far down you’re pressing the W key.
Thanks to the Wooting software, the Wooting One will be recognized by the computer as a keyboard and gamepad simultaneously. Users will have to switch between gaming and typing modes in order to get the most out of the keyboard.
The size and shape of the Flaretech switches are comparable to Cherry MX switches, with Flaretech even using the same MX cross stems, although the switches will not be interchangeable due to PCB differences. Flaretech switches are hot-swappable, allowing users to easily swap out switches on the Wooting One with other Flaretech switches without any soldering. Wooting has also made the top plate easily changeable, giving consumers an easy way to change the aesthetics of the keyboard.
Although the Wooting One seems impressive on paper, the keyboard is still in development, and not all of the details have been ironed out yet. As it stands, only 16 keys are analog on the current prototype: QWER, ASDF, Ctrl, Alt, Caps Lock, spacebar, and arrow keys. Wooting is currently still experimenting with the the maximum number of keys that games will support (and also trying to make sure the keyboard remains affordable), so the retail version could be different.
Wooting has actively been seeking input from the keyboard community throughout the development of the Wooting One and has made numerous changes accordingly. Wooting hopes to launch a Kickstarter to fund the keyboard in May.
I believe the dust would have to actually get inside of the switch itself. Though dust on the slider could work its way into the switch over time. If that will be enough to actually affect performance, who knows? These switches, while promising, have yet to really be field tested so it is really hard to make assumptions ahead of time with them.
Though, it all depends on how good these keys really are. :D
Yep, exactly--that's the idea. Depending on how well Wooting carries it off, and how it works in games (it should "just work"), this type of design holds tons of promise for the future.
Things like throttle, smooth turning in racing games, or really any vehicle movement come to mind. You could also play digital instruments potentially and actually capture dynamics potentially. There is definitely potential here, though until it becomes more popular (if it does) I don't think that potential will be fully realized!
Unless I'm mistaken, that's the whole point of the analog switches--the game reads the input like it was a joystick or w/e, not as a simple on/off function.
I haven't seen many PC games that take analog input for movement (except sometimes the console-port games like Darksiders, et al). For example, how would this work in World of Warcraft? It isn't developed with analog movement in mind, but with the "driver workaround" I suggest, it would.