With convenience and portabliity becoming extremely important factors in our daily lives as far as computing is concerned, the relatively inversatile design/layout of the conventional keyboard has limited our freedom in many respects, largely due to its size. However, fear not, as a small company called Canesta has recently announced that it has begun development on a 'virtual keyboard', which "could allow other companies to incorporate virtual keyboards into PDAs, smart phones and other portable devices as early as the end of this year.". They also go on to say that "Even though these (handheld) devices are capable of sophisticated applications there's really no way to reasonably use those applications, especially those that require entering data, like e-mail".

The virtual keyboard works by projecting an image of a full sized keyboard on any flat surface, and an infra-red beam detects the position and movement of the user's hand. "Tapping on the image of a key produces the corresponding character on the device.". This is certainly an interesting concept, and you can be sure that we'll keep you up to date on any further developments.

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