Wow, this looks like a really nice keyboard

[Doc]

It wasn't a laser that operated the cursor.

It's a little over my head, but one glove had a little box on the back of the hand. Small, not bulky or in the way.

In the box was some sort of gyroscope thingamajig. When you moved your hand, your finger, the cursor would be plotted based on how the gyroscope moved, there is a sensor that sits off to the side of your monitor on a long arm, and the little sensor on top of your monitor reading your finger gestures. I might be using the wrong term here, but if I remember rightly, it triangulated your cursor position based on those factors. It was designed for precise movement. They use this system in all kinds of immersive virtual reality, long distance robotics assisted surgery, you know, high tech stuff like that that buggers the mind when you think about how complicated it really is. It's a lot more accurate once you are trained to use it than your mouse. It was designed under the old human interface guidelines developed by Apple all those years ago after they picked up where Xerox Parc left off. The glove allows you to emulate reaching in to your computer screen to manipulate objects.

Essential Reality, which no longer seems in business, their old website now leads you to a game retailer site, they developed some of the software used for these gloves. Essential Reality: Live life in 3D. I did some beta testing work for them. It's sad that they went under. I didn't even realise till I went looking for info on those gloves last night.

The way things are going, keyboards will not be with us much longer. Computers as we know them have reached the peak of their evolution. What started with the Macintosh all those years ago has come to it's logical conclusion. For computers to evolve further, the humans are the ones that need to change the most, because our outdated imput practices are holding us back. The mouse and keyboard, while fine and good, have reached the end of the line. The "Desktop" theory, developed all those years ago where you interact with a virtual desktop can't go much further. We need a new Macintosh, or any computer that brings about the next phase. Computers have become like cars back in the 50s. Each new model comes out with a few engine tweaks and some larger tailfins, but not much has really changed. It's still a car, it burns gasoline, and it's stuck in a technological rut because nobody can think of the next big thing to replace the automobile.

Immersive computing. Instead of a desktop metaphor, there will be a virtual desktop. When you want a file, you will be able to grasp it. Manipulate it. Hold it, flip through it, read it in much the same way you read a book. I doubt that the spoken word will ever be a reliable form of input on the computer, but it is one way that we might do it. Chords, like the system I mentioned with the gloves, are another. There is of course direct imput from brain to computer, but that is a couple of evolutions away I think. Using the computer will be intuitive and natural. With things, documents, things like spreadsheets or even big graphic projects like making a poster or a billboard advertisement, entire groups of people will be able to work on said document, all together, all at once, in the same virtual room, interacting with one another, being able to see each other's changes in real time and being able to respond and offer feedback in real time. It will change the way we work, how we work.

I just hope I am still alive to see this happen. Very exciting times to be alive in, yes indeedy.