Pressure sensing keyboards?

[Fireprufe15]

I got this idea from watching a TotalBiscuit video. Why aren't there keyboards that measure how hard you press the arrows or WASD? That way it can work like analogue sticks work, the softer you press the button, the slower the character moves. What I want to know is, does this exist? And if not, why?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It doesn't, but there are some controllers for the left hand that have a Wii nunchuck-like analog stick for people who insist on it. It really doesn't matter, though; eight directions, combined with turning with the mouse, is every bit as flexible as the theoretically infinite amount you get with a joystick. As for movement speed, show me a game that has more than two or three movement speeds available through the analog stick. It's probably Mario 64. First person shooters basically never have more movement speeds than you can get by using the shift and caps lock keys on a keyboard.

Edit: Here's an example of one of the more useful looking models. Some of them have kind of odd analog stick placement, but this one looks awesome.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

It doesn't, but there are some controllers for the left hand that have a Wii nunchuck-like analog stick for people who insist on it. It really doesn't matter, though; eight directions, combined with turning with the mouse, is every bit as flexible as the theoretically infinite amount you get with a joystick. As for movement speed, show me a game that has more than two or three movement speeds available through the analog stick. It's probably Mario 64. First person shooters basically never have more movement speeds than you can get by using the shift and caps lock keys on a keyboard.

Edit: Here's an example of one of the more useful looking models. Some of them have kind of odd analog stick placement, but this one looks awesome.

It looks lie, so,embody fused the keyboard mouse and joystick in the telepod from the fly.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It doesn't, but there are some controllers for the left hand that have a Wii nunchuck-like analog stick for people who insist on it. It really doesn't matter, though; eight directions, combined with turning with the mouse, is every bit as flexible as the theoretically infinite amount you get with a joystick. As for movement speed, show me a game that has more than two or three movement speeds available through the analog stick. It's probably Mario 64. First person shooters basically never have more movement speeds than you can get by using the shift and caps lock keys on a keyboard.

Edit: Here's an example of one of the more useful looking models. Some of them have kind of odd analog stick placement, but this one looks awesome.

It looks lie, so,embody fused the keyboard mouse and joystick in the telepod from the fly.

That's pretty much the idea. There's also some that are literally a mouse with a Wiimote nunchuck knockoff for the left hand, but I think those are for the PS3, not the PC. I don't see it having enough buttons for much beside CoD, anyway.

Edit: By the way, if it's not obvious from what I've said so far, the controller in the picture is for your left hand. Theoretically you still have a mouse in your right. So you aim and shoot with the mouse, move with the thumbstick, and re-load, switch weapons and so on with the buttons attached to the thumbstick.

 

[Judgement101]

...so you want a keyboard with analog movement pretty much? Doesn't they make something like that already?

 

[DoPo]

I got this idea from watching a TotalBiscuit video. Why aren't there keyboards that measure how hard you press the arrows or WASD? That way it can work like analogue sticks work, the softer you press the button, the slower the character moves. What I want to know is, does this exist? And if not, why?

I imagine it's because they won't get much use outside of gaming. But also, you don't have any games that support these keyboards, because there aren't any of them. So to make these keyboards useful, you'd need to have a game that was built with them in mind. It's a vicious circle.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Oh there were attempts at this and billions of other ideas that never took off.
I even played with one at a tech expo and I really wouldn't pick it up, sure it works fine for the analog stuff but using it for digital input is then far worse, plus you already trained your muscle memory for thousands of hours using regular keyboards then constraining yourself to only gently press keys feels like a real strain.

It's one of those things where established routines are just balls hard to break away from.

 

[ElPatron]

I got this idea from watching a TotalBiscuit video. Why aren't there keyboards that measure how hard you press the arrows or WASD? That way it can work like analogue sticks work, the softer you press the button, the slower the character moves. What I want to know is, does this exist? And if not, why?

No, but Hideo Kojima thinks you have pressure sensitivity and rumble on your keyboard.

Spoiler: the reference for those who didn't get it

Metal Gear Solid 2. One of the worst PC ports in terms of controls, ever.

 

[Megacherv]

The Dualshock 3's buttons have analogue input, but it's so rarely used because you just use them as buttons.

It's like the argument for trigger-control over button-control for driving games. It doesn't matter that you can vary your acceleration or whatever, because you just drive flat-out anyway.

 

[oplinger]

The problem is how keyboards are made. The key part is a key, over a hole, with a rubber plunger under it. The plunger takes a certain amount of pressure, it pops down, makes contact.

You would need to change that entirely to get pressure sensitivity. And it has very little use outside of gaming, and it would need special drivers. Probably need to be recorgnized as a gamepad as well.

And really, why not just...buy a gamepad then?

 

[EnlightendDead]

The problem is how keyboards are made. The key part is a key, over a hole, with a rubber plunger under it. The plunger takes a certain amount of pressure, it pops down, makes contact.

You would need to change that entirely to get pressure sensitivity. And it has very little use outside of gaming, and it would need special drivers. Probably need to be recorgnized as a gamepad as well.

And really, why not just...buy a gamepad then?

Pc gaming is meant for Mouse/Keyboard cause we are elite and much better than consoles!
/sarcasm
Yeah, I use gamepads for a lot of games, much easier than buying a expensive custom keyboard.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The Dualshock 3's buttons have analogue input, but it's so rarely used because you just use them as buttons.

It's like the argument for trigger-control over button-control for driving games. It doesn't matter that you can vary your acceleration or whatever, because you just drive flat-out anyway.

Although it does matter on the Dual Shock 2 and 3, /because/ of the pressure sensitive buttons. XD

The face buttons are a pain to get to register full pressure, in my experience.

 

[Baldr]

I got this idea from watching a TotalBiscuit video. Why aren't there keyboards that measure how hard you press the arrows or WASD? That way it can work like analogue sticks work, the softer you press the button, the slower the character moves. What I want to know is, does this exist? And if not, why?

Not necessarily hardware, it could be done semi-easily. Getting game developers to use this technology, not so much. Unless it was backed by a major player, most developers wouldn't spend the time to make games take advantage of it because it would benefit such a small minority of players.

 

[Eddie the head]

It doesn't, but there are some controllers for the left hand that have a Wii nunchuck-like analog stick for people who insist on it. It really doesn't matter, though; eight directions, combined with turning with the mouse, is every bit as flexible as the theoretically infinite amount you get with a joystick. As for movement speed, show me a game that has more than two or three movement speeds available through the analog stick. It's probably Mario 64. First person shooters basically never have more movement speeds than you can get by using the shift and caps lock keys on a keyboard.

I don't know if you where asking for this but the game Katamari Damacy would be severely hindered if you used a keyboard and mouse interface. Also most racing games tend to be better with a joystick, although that could be put down as personal preference but you really do have more control. If that's not what you meant then just ignore me but yeah there are a few games that do better with a joystick then a mouse.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It doesn't, but there are some controllers for the left hand that have a Wii nunchuck-like analog stick for people who insist on it. It really doesn't matter, though; eight directions, combined with turning with the mouse, is every bit as flexible as the theoretically infinite amount you get with a joystick. As for movement speed, show me a game that has more than two or three movement speeds available through the analog stick. It's probably Mario 64. First person shooters basically never have more movement speeds than you can get by using the shift and caps lock keys on a keyboard.

I don't know if you where asking for this but the game Katamari Damacy would be severely hindered if you used a keyboard and mouse interface. Also most racing games tend to be better with a joystick, although that could be put down as personal preference but you really do have more control. If that's not what you meant then just ignore me but yeah there are a few games that do better with a joystick then a mouse.

That's actually a good point, but I was mainly thinking about first and third person shooters, as well as other games that work well with mouse and keyboard to begin with. For games like Katamari Damacy and racing games, I'd skip the mouse entirely and just hook up a controller, which makes the idea of a pressure sensitive keyboard even weirder.

 

[WoW Killer]

I imagine it's because they won't get much use outside of gaming. But also, you don't have any games that support these keyboards, because there aren't any of them. So to make these keyboards useful, you'd need to have a game that was built with them in mind. It's a vicious circle.

Yep that's what I was going to say. PCs aren't exclusive gaming machines, and a peripheral isn't going to become standard issue unless it's of major use to a wide range of applications. Anything that's not standard issue becomes a significant additional cost to anything that uses it. That's not to say that new peripherals can't be introduced. The mouse wasn't designed with gaming in mind, it just happened to be useful enough for navigating operating systems and became the norm, and then games made use of it because it was widely available. Touch screens are becoming much more common, and now are starting to become a viable avenue for gaming.