Microsoft Research has this week unveiled a new prototype keyboard in the form of the experimental Microsoft Type-Hover-Swipe keyboard, that is equipped with gesture-based motion sensing technology,
The new prototype mechanical Type-Hover-Swipe keyboard allows you to control on-screen scrolling of your applications and web pages with simply hand gestures as well as allowing you to hover type. Watch the video after the jump to learn more about the Microsoft’s gesture control keyboard project and see it in action.
Microsoft Research explains a little more about its very unique and innovative Type-Hover-Swipe keyboard : ” We present a new type of augmented mechanical keyboard, sensing rich and expressive motion gestures performed both on and directly above the device. A low-resolution matrix of infrared (IR) proximity sensors is interspersed with the keys of a regular mechanical keyboard. This results in coarse but high frame-rate motion data.
We extend a machine learning algorithm, traditionally used for static classification only, to robustly support dynamic, temporal gestures. We propose the use of motion signatures a technique that utilizes pairs of motion history images and a random forest classifier to robustly recognize a large set of motion gestures.
Our technique achieves a mean per-frame classification accuracy of 75:6% in leave–one–subject–out and 89:9% in half-test/half-training cross-validation. We detail hardware and gesture recognition algorithm, provide accuracy results, and demonstrate a large set of gestures designed to be performed with the device. We conclude with qualitative feedback from users, discussion of limitations and areas for future work.”
Unfortunately no information on pricing or worldwide availability has been announced as yet by Microsoft as the keyboard is still in its developmental and prototype stages and might even make the jump to production, but as soon as any new information is announced we will keep you updated as always.