Regardless of whether you spend a lot of time typing on a keyboard or not, tactile response should always be a major selling point when it comes to keyboards. A number of mechanical keyboards offer an extremely satisfying tactile feel, but designer Michael Roopenian had something a little more unique in mind.
While designing his Engrain keyboard, he had two major goals in mind. He wanted to make full use of the users' sense of touch in order to maximize key recognition, and he wanted to attune the keyboard to innate human sensitivities. After lots of research and prototypes, Roopenian came up with the final design, a wood grained keyboard with natural textures and ridges that matched patterns of use.
In addition to being visually stimulating, the Engrain prototype offers a tactile connection that is unparalleled to any keyboard currently on the market. It's just a prototype project at the moment, but we definitely wouldn't be opposed to seeing something like this land on Kickstarter. Until then, head on over to Roopenian's webpage to ogle some more and check out other designs.
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drwho1 ReplyRoopenian came up with the final design, a wood grained keyboard with natural textures and ridges that matched patterns of use.
ridges would be very uncomfortable to type on. -
Ragnar-Kon So apparently... he website doesn't render correctly in Chrome. But anyway...Reply
I guess the plan is to make the severity of the ridges inversely proportional to the usage of the key, because that somehow helps the user system input relationship.
If so, I can't help but notice that there are ridges on the WSAD keys... guess the keyboard was not made for me. -
Ragnar-Kon Awesome double-post brought to you in part by Android phone. Android. The proven provider when you want to boast about your double-post. ®Reply -
drwho1 ReplyRoopenian came up with the final design, a wood grained keyboard with natural textures and ridges that matched patterns of use.
ridges would be very uncomfortable -
RickTacular Dude just glued wood to an apple keyboard. Can you imagine how quickly that would get old? Never mind if you get a splinter...Reply