Innovation Anthology #287:
One of the most germ laden surfaces you can touch is your computer keyboard.
Because this contributes to the spread of infection, keyboards are a major concern for hospitals and dental clinics.
An Edmonton inventor has solved this problem with his innovative design for a new keyboard called Cleankeys.
Cleankeys has a solid flat surface that can be wiped clean and sanitized in seconds.
But as inventor Randy Marsden explains, the real challenge was developing a touch pad that allows you to rest our fingers on the keys.
RANDY MARSDEN: Most people, especially 10 finger typists on a keyboard, they want to be able to rest their fingers on the home row. The innovation we came up with is we noticed that as you are typing, you tap on the keyboard. You do this little thump, thump, thump. Well, we detected that thump with little accelerometers, little vibration sensors. So now we don’t type anything until we see a thump. As soon as we see a thump we go and look at our touch sensors and say which one just changed, and that is the key that we output. So it’s this combination of touch and tap sensors that have allowed us to make the world’s first touch sensitive keyboard you can rest your fingers on.
Cleankeys sells for $399 and is now being marketed around the globe.
Thanks today to Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY,
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Program Date: 2010-02-04