March 13, 2003
Soft Texting
It looks and feels like a fabric, but it's more than that. You can fold it, scrunch it or wrap it, according to your need. What could it be ? Does it have anything to do with wearable computing? Is this yet another foray by engineers to enter the fashion industry? Not quite, It's intelligent technology capable of electronic sensing. It's a soft fabric keybord.
It's launch is timely, when reports are starting to trickle in from around the world on repetitive stress injury, caused by too much texting. Maybe a softer keyboard will help. According to Dr. Josephine Bondoc, as reported in a March 1st post, who is a physician at the Philippine General Hospital, almost 40 percent of patients who seek consultation suffer from the disorder. And just recently, the The British Chiropractic Association (BCA), has issued a warning that too much texting could lead to injuries in later life, and has even published a series of recommended txt-stretches for before and after texting.
Developed by Eleksen, a UK-based company which specializes in soft interface technology, this new fabric keyboard is available as an accessory for users of the SPV Smartphone and subscribers to mobile operator Orange, in four European countries: France, Denmark, Switzerland and the UK.
While you are visiting Eleksen's website, stop by and check out their image archives and click on soft cell phone. Amazing.
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