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Comment by guelo | Hacker News Reader

The idea of turning the surface of the keyboard into a trackpad is very cool, you could almost get rid of the mouse. Except for, how do you click the mouse pointer? Accidental clicks of keyboard keys is probably what makes it impractical.

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This actually looks like it's only a few steps removed from a viable human interface device for the 10/GUI concept.

Use one of the keys on the keyboard? Even if you were manipulating the pointer by hovering one hand (instead of gesturing), you could still click a button with the other hand.

Imagine holding down SHIFT+SomeOtherKey (with your pinky and thumb, so maybe SHIFT+ALT), this could indicate you want to use the mouse. Then just use your right hand to control the mouse, any key you tap will be a single click, double-tap is a double click, and tapping any two keys will be a right-click. Feels pretty intuitive.

With the old fingerworks touch-pad keyboards[1] single-finger taps were for pressing keys, two-finger movements moved the mouse cursor and two-finger taps were for clicks. It worked really well. The main annoyance was the lack of feedback when typing, a problem which this Microsoft version solves! If the gesture & tap recognition is sufficiently good. Fingerworks went on to be acquired by Apple and its technology was incorporated into the first iPhone.

[1] https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fingerworks&tbm=isch

Using the tracpad on an Macbook Pro, I don't usually find myself clicking, but mostly using gestures such as tapping. Even two finger tapping is recognized. I don't see why one of the crazy gestures this cool thing can recognize couldn't represent what we currently think of left click and another for right.

well yes, most of us tap instead of clicking. question is, how would it differentiate a "tap" from a "keypress" if trackpad and keyboard are in the same place?

you could do some other gesture, like raising two fingers? We are trained to tap now, but people can figure out different gestures like pinch to zoom so I don't think the clicking has to necessarily be a tapping gesture

you could click the buttons with your thumb behind the space bar. In fact, I guess for typing it would be better if you kept the fingers on the keyboard, so why not make the keyboard keys touch sensitive?

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