Tag Archives: computer peripheral

Book-like foldable device concept replaces five computer and mobile accessories

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Although our computing devices are getting more powerful and sophisticated, it is almost ironic that they are also causing us to buy more accessories and peripherals to use them more conveniently. Power banks and stands are almost standard companions for smartphones these days, while even those that use a laptop may bring along a mouse or a portable trackpad with them. If you’re the type that travels open, you can have as many as four or five such gadgets in your bag all the time. It would definitely be nice if you could just have one or even two to cover all the bases. That’s the kind of future that this unconventional accessory tries to offer, combining your peripherals into a single foldable gadget.

Designer: Anupria Singh

Office work has changed drastically in the past three or so years. Work From Home or WFH, as well as Hybrid Work, have been added to our vocabulary, and that meant being ready to do work almost anywhere. Such a person’s bag would probably include accessories such as a mouse, a power bank, or device stands, at the very least. Some bolder people might even bring a portable keyboard for their phones, allowing them to even leave the laptop at home or in the office for a short break outdoors. All these mean your bag will be filled with accessories that you might forget or lose, significantly affecting your productivity and mental state.

Move is a rather intriguing idea that combines not just two or three functions but five or even six into a single device that admittedly doesn’t look like it can do any of those at all. When unfolded, it looks almost like a miniature book with a tube for a spine, definitely not something you’d associate with those computer and phone accessories. The secret, however, is that each part and surface of this device hides a specific function that, again, isn’t immediately obvious from their form.

In its unfolded state, for example, the side panels become touch-sensitive areas for use as a trackpad, with the groove in the middle serving as the scroll wheel. The detachable tube in the spine works as a Bluetooth remote control for phones, but it has another rather unusual feature as well. There is a laser projector that can display a keyboard on a flat surface, turning it into a fancy but arguably unreliable Bluetooth keyboard.

When folded, the device can magnetically attach to the back of a phone and act as a stand for both horizontal and vertical positions. It can even be a power bank, though it’s not clear how much battery would be able to fit inside its rather slim body. When partially folded like a tent, it can also be used as a mouse, though it’s not exactly clear how well it will move on a surface. At the very least, you can decide how high or how low that mouse will be for your personal comfort.

While intriguing, the concept design leaves a few questions unanswered, like how usable it would be as a mouse. It’s also difficult to imagine how all the electronics plus batteries will be able to fit inside. Move does provoke the mind into thinking about the possibility of reducing one’s baggage into a single device, especially one that can look as curious and attractive as this.

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NinDoio is a fun-looking device for leveling up your productivity game

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Every year, more people have to sit in front of computers for work or sometimes even for leisure. While some jobs might be simple enough to get by with the basics of word processing or spreadsheets, a lot require more complex processes and multiple steps, not to mention the use of a variety of software to get the job. That’s even more true for those involved in digital content creation, whether they be designers, programmers, writers, or even streamers. The number of actions they need to take can be overwhelming, especially when you have to navigate around the computer screen to get to those. It would definitely be a great deal if you could press just one or a few keys to get things done, which is what this device tries to do in a way that almost makes it feel like you’re playing a game.

Designer: Megalodon

There are about a hundred keys on a computer keyboard, more or less depending on the layout and the device. That gives you a variety of ways and nearly endless possible combinations to trigger actions like launching an application, undoing an edit, or rendering an animation. That flexibility, however, also comes at the cost of complexity, especially when it comes to remembering which key combinations do which actions on which applications. There are a variety of tools today that try to simplify that task, but Megalodon’s NinDoio adds an element of fun to what is really serious business.

What makes the NinDoio different from many “macro pads,” as they are called, is that it looks more like a toy rather than a productivity tool. In fact, it looks very much like a Nintendo Game Boy Advance, which is definitely the inspiration for its design as well as its moniker. Regardless of the name and shape, it still delivers the same power as any macro pad does, which is to map a single button or key to an action. For example, you won’t have to memorize the combination for “undo” when you can just press a single button that you’ve committed to muscle memory.

Unlike a simple grid of keys, the NinDoio adds a few controls you’d associate with gaming devices and controllers. Four of the buttons, for example, are arranged in a cross like a D-pad, while two are labeled Start and Select, even if they can be assigned to unrelated actions. The two knobs on the right can be mapped to actions like scrolling a page or changing the size of a brush. They can also be pushed like regular buttons, though, which adds another layer of functionality to them.

The very appearance of the macro pad is playful, with a translucent acrylic base that lets you take a peek at the electronics inside. Different color options for the aluminum top are available to add a bit of life to an already quirky device. Overall, the NinDoio’s appearance makes it a bit more approachable and a little less clinical, even if it performs the same functions as any of Megalodon’s other macro pads, which might just be what the doctor prescribed to make tedious work feel a bit more enjoyable like a game.

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A touch panel gives this ingenious keyboard with a surprising Apple Touch Bar-inspired user interface

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The idea of a full-size keyboard with a touchscreen panel on the top that can be customized to launch the application(s) of choice in one easy click, will surely find appreciators.

Apple has ditched the infamous Touch Bar in the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro for 2021, which was announced at the company’s October product event. Despite the many flaws ardent fans may have noted, the idea of a touchscreen bar on the keyboard has been an inspiration for many designers. We figured this out when we came across first portable Touch Bar. Now, the Touch Keyboard envisions a different approach to the same idea. This keyboard is designed to work with a PC or Mac if by virtue of a full-size keyboard that features a narrow touch bar display along the top of the keyboard – as an extension but in the same design!

The Touch Keyboard as it is called (owning to the introduction of a touchscreen bar to it), is a brainchild of designer Wenhua Xu, who believes people should have direct controls to certain apps on their keyboard. The touch panel is certainly a surprising new user interface option, which will make interaction with the apps more convenient as opposed to the physical buttons. The downside is, not many people appreciate the idea of a touch interface on the keyboard, as we have learnt from the introduction of the feature on the MacBook Pro about five years back.

The interesting thing here is that the touchscreen on the keyboard is made to look, act and work in ways more than that we have seen on Apple laptops. Presumably, this new take will find some takers, since the design will make actions more convenient. For instance, the users will be able to select a few applications they require and operate them from the touchscreen. This will include receiving and making zoom calls or a facility to place some widgets on it to interact with them without having to search them up on the computer. From how the Touch Keyboard images appear, this will be more interesting to type on than the traditional keyboards. The majority of the keys are circular in shape, while some utility keys like the Tab, Caps, Shift and Space Bar are all oval. The touchscreen is slightly higher than the keys, which means the keyboard is thicker at the top and it also features a power button on the left side, which could probably enable or disable the touchscreen or the keyboard in its entirety.

I’m personally not a big fan of the touchscreen panel on the keyboard, but considering you can have features of choice here, customized to need, this could have some potential utility for people who like to toggle between apps more quickly – for example, music controls to taking calls, and from widgets to controlling the brightness of the system. My major dislike for the feature is because of the energy consumed to run the touch panel can drain the keyboard battery faster and that it will add to the already considerable cost of the peripheral.

Designer: Wenhua Xu

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Metaverse keyboard transforms boring computer workspace into a cool 3D space for freedom of productivity!

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The Metaverse Keyboard traverses our plain old workspace into a mixed reality workspace – perfectly in cohesion with the core idea of the metaverse and its applications!

Author Nel Stephenson came up with the term “metaverse” in his science fiction novel “Snow Crash” and fast-forward to the present day, it looks more likely we’ll be living in a hyper-realistic world within a digital universe in the near future. Reminds me of the movie Ready Player One, and the rendered 3D virtual worlds will one day be our life. Sounds exciting as well as scary, don’t you think so?

Visionaries are eying the metaverse-dominated future, take for example Mark Zuckerberg with his Meta (formerly Facebook) or Bill Gates with the mixed reality and augmented reality projects such as Hololens 2 headset. Of course, NFTs are slowly becoming popular with the masses, and having a unified ecosystem of the metaverse for applications input methods is most important. So why shouldn’t we go beyond the 2D space for our screen real estate and dive into the 3D realms actuated by a Metaverse keyboard? Something beyond the game and experience themes for daily tasks such as working on the PC?

Product designer Heewon Jung and Designer Dot feed the metaverse dream with the right kind of fuel with their cool Metaverse Keyboard that syncs with the virtual reality and augmented reality technology to go beyond the plane of information for the future work environment. It’s like a 3D world right in front of your eyes while working – with the 3D space actuated joysticks that accompany the keyboard. Yes, the logical progression to your PC mouse which operates in a 2D space. So the idea is simple – when you want to experience the 3D world for better understanding, just take out the cool trackpad dubbed Wormhole on one side of the keyboard, and you jump straight into a mixed reality workspace which is more engaging. The uni-directional touchpad lets you navigate in the 3D workspace, something we never saw in the last couple of decades, ever since we all started exploring our computers.

The peripheral works just like any other keyboard when you’re not delving deep into the metaverse productivity workspace with the Wormhole. This is a concept design of the cool and weird world we are looking upon in the near future for sure!

Designer: Heewon Jung and Designer Dot

 

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The 3-Key Copy-Paste Keyboard Is a Real Product You Can Buy

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What originally started as an April Fools joke by programmer community help forum Stack Overflow, the Key Macropad (aka copy-paste keyboard) is now a real product you can buy from Drop for $29. I can already feel my programming workload getting infinitely lighter.

According to Stack Overflow’s director of content Ben Popper, “Good artists copy, great artists steal, but [the] greatest artists copy, then paste.” Truer words have never been spoken. The Key Macropad features three QMK programmable keys atop Kailh Black Box switches in a CNC-machined aluminum case with an anodized black finish. And not only will it make copy-pasting second nature, a portion of the proceeds “will go to Digitalundivided, a nonprofit set up to help Black and Latinx women succeed as technology entrepreneurs.” It’s a win/win.

Don’t like the plain keycaps? No worries, you can customize them with any XDA profile keycaps to truly make The Key Macropad your own. Now if only I could create a keyboard shortcut that made it look like I was actually working…

[via BoingBoing]

MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer Prints Just About Anything

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In the realm of awesome computer peripherals, I think the new MakerBot Replicator 2 desktop 3D printer is probably the most epic of all. After all, it’s a peripheral for your computer that you can actually use to make 3D objects you can hold in your hands. It’s like an action figure creation station.

makerbot replicator 2

The MakerBot Replicator 2 features a 100-micron layer resolution – about as thin as a sheet of paper. That means it’s able to produce true-to-life replicas, without those ridges you’re accustomed to seeing on cheap desktop 3D printers. Plus, you can build large objects of up to 410 cubic inches in volume, so you can print something measuring 11.2-inches by 6.0-inches by 6.1-inches.

makerbot 2 example model

The 3D printer is optimized to use MakerBot PLA Element, which is a renewable bio plastic, available in numerous colors. That material is popular for 3-D printing thanks to its strength and its ability to make large objects without cracking or warping.

The device also comes with new and updated software to make printing easier and faster, and it works with Windows, Linux or Mac OS X. The biggest downside to the Replicator 2 is the cost, at $2199(USD) it’s not exactly something we can all have at home.