Smart Bar
While working on the capacitive Thin Touch keyboard, we explored a lightweight version of capacitive touch on keyboard that exploits the large real estate of the spacebar. We came up with a gesture set and designed and tested the keyboard, driver and gestures. Additionally, we saw potential in the gaming space, and developed programmable button zones on the spacebar that allow players to configure up to five macros. Marketing also asked to spruce up the driver for a gaming demo. This was then packaged with Thermaltake’s Poseidon Z touch keyboard which shipped in 2016.
Why it matters: While seeking a market for Thin Touch, we also explored the potential of capacitive touch on the spacebar resulting in the SmartBar, opening up a new product category. It was also an interesting precursor to Apple’s touch bar.
Contributions: Interaction design, gesture definition, user interface design, key design, user testing, patent application, academic paper (CHI Play ‘16).
Team: Dr. Dan Odell and I led the UX efforts. Justin Mockler and I carried the project on following Dr. Odell’s departure. The demo was made with CPT: Bjorn Hovden, Andrew Hsu, Mark Huie, Kipling Inscore, Jerry Shao.
Concept art describing some of SmartBar’s features. It was shown in Synaptics’ press release for SmartBar: https://www.synaptics.com/company/news/smartbar-technology
Thermaltake Poseidon Z Touch by SmartBar Gaming Keyboard was released in 2016
SmartBar Gaming adapted for the Poseidon Z Touch Keyboard
When we received samples of the Poseidon Z Touch keyboard, we evaluated them and found that the performance was lacking. We noticed that the spacebar key was sloped a bit downward (below left: original). We thought that this prevented the thumb from striking the key surface properly, and thus degraded the performance of the Smart Bar. I designed a set of keys to test our hypothesis and to see if we could improve performance. The key with the -8 degree slope (below middle: preferred) had both the best performance, and was also preferred by the users. We published our results in CHI Play ‘16:
Mockler, J., Faggin, E. (2016) SmartBar: Refining a Capacitive-Enabled Spacebar for Gamers Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts
When we received samples of the Poseidon Z Touch keyboard, we evaluated them and found that the performance was lacking. We noticed that the spacebar key was sloped a bit downward (above left: original). This prevented the thumb from striking the key surface properly, and thus degraded the performance of the Smart Bar. I designed a set of keys to test our hypothesis, and to see if we could improve performance. The key with the -8 degree slope (above middle: preferred) had both the best performance, and was also preferred by the users. We published our results in CHI Play ‘16:
Mockler, J., Faggin, E. (2016) SmartBar: Refining a Capacitive-Enabled Spacebar for Gamers Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts
Original Thin Touch Spacebar demo, a precursor to the Smart Bar.