The Magic Cube
The Magic Cube Laser Bluetooth Projection Virtual Keyboard turns any table or surface into a virtual keyboard or multi-touch mouse with its amazing laser projection and motion detection technology. The Magic Cube is smaller than a pack of cards - easy to use, and a great travel companion projection keyboard for mobile, tablet, and laptop devices.
Compatibility
Keyboard function compatible with any operating system supporting the USB HID class or Bluetooth HID profile. Multi-touch mouse mode for Windows 7+ only. Specific compatible systems include Win XP SP2+, Vista, Win7, Mac 10.4+, iOS 4.3.5+ (iPhone 3GS and later, iPod Touch 2nd generation and later, all versions of iPad), Linux and others supporting standard Bluetooth HID keyboards. Android 2.0+ compatibility limited to phones and devices that include Bluetooth keyboard support - please verify with your device maker before purchase.
Features
The Magic Cube appears to your computer or mobile as a standard keyboard, communicating via USB wired use or Bluetooth for wireless use. Power off/on the Magic Cube to switch between wired use with USB connected and wireless when not. No drivers are needed. Runs for up to 2 hours of continuous typing when wireless. Charges when connected via wired USB.
History
An optical virtual keyboard was invented and patented by IBM engineers in 1992. It optically detects and analyses human hand and finger motions and interprets them as operations on a physically non-existent input device like a surface with painted or projected keys. In that way it can emulate unlimited types of manually operated input devices (such as a mouse, keyboard, and other devices). Mechanical input units can be replaced by such virtual devices, potentially optimized for a specific application and for the user's physiology, maintaining speed, simplicity and unambiguity of manual data input.
In 2002, start-up company Canesta developed a projection keyboard using their proprietary "electronic perception technology". The company subsequently licensed the technology to Celluon of Korea.
A proposed system called the P-ISM combines the technology with a small video projector to create a portable computer the size of a fountain pen.
Design
A laser projection keyboard used with a tablet.
A laser or beamer projects visible virtual keyboard onto level surface. A sensor or camera in the projector picks up finger movements[1] Software converts the coordinates to identify actions or characters.
Some devices project a second (invisible infrared) beam above the virtual keyboard. The user's finger makes a keystroke on the virtual keyboard. This breaks the infrared beam and reflects light back to the projector. The reflected beam passes through an infrared filter to the camera. The camera photographs the angle of incoming infrared light. The sensor chip determines where infrared beam was broken. Software determines the action or character to be generated.
The projection is realized in four main steps and via three modules: projection module, sensor module and illumination module. The main devices and technologies used to project the hologram are a diffractive optical element, red laser diode, CMOS sensor chip and an infrared (IR) laser diode.
Connectivity
Projection keyboards connect to the computer either through Bluetooth or USB.
The Bluetooth projection keyboard is a pocket-size device that projects a full-size keyboard on any flat surface.
Bluetooth dongle technology enables the projection keyboard for point to multi-point connectivity with other Bluetooth devices, such as PCs, PDAs and mobile phone
How the Bluetooth projection keyboard connects to devices depends on the specific tablet, phone or computer.
The connection between the USB keyboard and the device is made through a USB port, which is available on every computer and (via an adapter) other devices.
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-NSM-
