The video is pretty cool and the technology appears to be downright amazing. CNET’s Sumi Das reports,
One Silicon Valley startup has created a new kind of keyboard that could help reduce typos and other fat-fingered mistakes.
Fremont, Calif.-based, Tactus Technology uses microfluidics to make physical keys bubble up from the surface of a touch screen when you need to type and disappear, when you don’t. Microfluidics may sound foreign, but if you’ve operated an inkjet printer you’ve used the technology.1
In other words, this really innovative keyboard utilizes technology that has been around for quite a while –– technology that isn’t considered new and cutting edge anymore. (And hasn’t been considered new or cutting edge in the recent past.) What is new and innovative is how this old, familiar technology is being utilized outside of its typical, traditional use.
Admittedly, it will be exciting to see if this technology will be as game-changing as it presently sounds when it finally comes to market. At the very least, however, Tactus Tech’s amazing new keyboard serves as a timely reminder that often the amazing and new aren’t all that amazing and new after all. Rather, that which is innovative borrows from and builds upon tech, ideas, etc. that are already commonplace.
