Looper's Delight Archive Top (Search)
Date Index
Thread Index
Author Index
Looper's Delight Home
Mailing List Info

[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Date Index][Thread Index][Author Index]

Re: laptop foot controller vision: the CYBER SPIDER



how about something like...

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/powermate.htm
or
http://www.ymouse.com/xkeys/xkfoot.php

Tony


On 11/13/06, Jeff Larson <jeff.larson@sailpoint.com> wrote:
> 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
>
>


-- 
-==-=-=-
Tony
http://bigtony.blogspot.com/