The Eleksen fabric keyboard appeared on the UberTablet blog earlier this week and Hugo seemed quite impressed. Have a gander at his video.

 
I love the way that my watermark appears on that image! Click to enlarge. Please!

Ultranauts were asking "What’s the Speed Coefficient?"

I can tell you. Its 0.545

The Eleksen fabric keyboard is 54% as fast as a normal keyboard.

As you probably guessed, I was testing the Eleksen fabric keyboard yesterday and it was 54% as fast as my typing on a normal keyboard. It sounds pretty bad doesn't it? Actually its not bad at all. It was the second fastest of all the four input methods I tried and I'm really pleasantly surprised. Before I make any more comments though, here are some more images. (even more images in the gallery.)

The keys are raised by about 2mm. 

 
The i7210 UMPC fits as snug as a bug in a rug in this prototype.

Here you see the 'heart' of the device and the zip pocket where the USB cable is stored. 

And there's the USB cable. 

 
 



The concept keyboard I tested weighed only 89grams. The same as my watch.

So it's 54% as fast when typing but when doing normal browsing, its only 25% less efficient than a normal keyboard. Why? because when you're using your notebook or UMPC, you don't just type, you use your mouse too. I estimate that during a typical PC session it doesn't reduce productivity at all. And when used with a UMPC, it will INCREASE productivity. Its so much faster than on-screen keyboard pecking or handwriting.

I'll have some more comments to make on this wonderful keyboard/case combo in the next week. In the meantime I need to convince a few people that they need to manufacture it. I think they're on to something here.

Steve / Chippy.