Siemens announced today that it would handle European sales for the soon-to-be-launched “Virtual Keyboard”, which was developed by Israeli company VKB.
The “Virtual Keyboard” projects the image of a keyboard onto any flat surface. An infra red system detects when the user types on the projected keys, and communicates them by wire or radio to a PDA, mobile phone or PC. The technology makes it easier to enter text for those devices, VKB says.
The keyboard is set to be commercially available from the fall of 2002.
VKB CEO Boaz Arnon said, “Now mobile phones or PDAs can at last also have a decent-sized keyboard. In this way, the users can type in e-mails or long texts easily and effectively wherever they happen to be and can leave the laptop at home.”
Arnon also predicts that the keyboard will be used in medical environments where physicians need sterile or mobile computers in operating theaters or at the patient’s bedside.
Siemens’ Procurement & Logistics Services (SPLS) will be the exclusive distributor of the keyboard in Germany.
SPLS product manager Asriel Eisinger said, “The virtual keyboard adds a new innovation to our range of mobile solutions. Together with various Siemens Groups we currently explore applications of this technology within the company.”
VKB was incorporated in Delaware in August 2000. The company’s research and development facilities are located in Jerusalem, Israel.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on 27 May, 2002