RE: laptop foot controller vision: the CYBER SPIDER

["Jeff Larson" <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com>]

From: Per Boysen
> Above  the keyboard - but behind the screen/lid from the audience
viewing  
> point - hoovers a mechanical construction looking like a CYBER  
> SPIDER. Each leg of the spider transports the mechanical movement of  
> a certain physical controller pedal

...to the laptop keyboard?  I toyed with something similar to this
prototyping cheap footswitches by hacking computer keyboards.  In
theory,
you could buy any cheap keyboard and put it in a box with "switches" on 
top that push a rod down onto a key.  

The main problem I had is that these rods have to be adjustable so
you can position them over the right keys.  The switches on top have
to have enough space between them so you can operate them with a foot.
If you had a full size keyboard, you could possibly have a row switches
over A F J ; but then you get into an area where the keys are
not standard.  To make full use of all the letter keys, the rods
connecting the switches to the keys could not be straight, they would
have to bend, or attach to a complicated mechanical apparatus.  As the
connection between the switch and a key becomes more complicated, 
it is harder to maintain accuracy.  There can be "latency" added by
the mechanism or an inconsistent "feel" between different switches.

It seemed to me cheaper and more accurate to buy ordinary electronic
switches and figure out a way to connect them to the keyboard 
controller chip.  But this does require soldering and a knowledge of
the electronics inside the keyboard.

Jeff