Wearable keyboard: The future of typing or a step backward?
What's the story
Consumer tech does take bizarre turns at times, and that seems to be the case with a novel, wearable keyboard, simply called 'Tap'.
A contraption of loosely connected rings that one wears over the fingers of one of their hands, Tap can serve as a keyboard, mouse, and even a game controller.
Tap is currently shipping, but is it a step forward or back?
Wearable keyboard?
How exactly does a 'wearable keyboard' work?
First things first - what's a wearable keyboard?
Well, Tap isn't literally a keyboard, but has sensors for each of your five fingers on the rings mentioned earlier.
When you tap your fingers on a relatively solid surface in particular patterns (which can be customized), Tap can tell which fingers are tapping in what pattern, and converts those motions into text input.
Information
Here's how you can order a Tap wearable keyboard
The Tap wearable keyboard is currently available for $179.99 on Tap's official website and on Amazon.com/Tap-Bluetooth-Wearable-Controller-Smartphone/dp/B07BVVFZYY">Amazon.com.
Using Tap
Tap has an official app to help users learn
The company claims that it takes about an hour to learn the basics of tapping, and Tap comes with games to help users learn.
Notably, there's an official app called TapGenius available on both iOS and Android operating systems.
While the app has received largely positive reviews, it's worth noting that using Tap requires full hand motion and considerable finger dexterity.
Functionality
The functionalities offered by Tap
In principle, Tap works just like any other Bluetooth keyboard that you might connect to a device - you can use Tap for any text input-based work on a connected device.
Owing to all its sensors, Tap also functions as a mouse and a game controller, but for the latter, the functionality has to be built-in by game developers. Currently, only Tap-developed games work.
Potential
Tap seems to have quite a lot of potential
Recently, Tap also announced its TapMapper tool that lets users create custom layouts (or tapping patterns) that can be loaded on to a Tap device and shared with other users.
The feature supports mapping for different languages, custom key-bindings for games, shortcuts for coders, etc., thereby offering a tonne of potential functionalities.
Additionally, the gesture-based text-input method is a boon for people with low-vision/blindness.
Verdict
Tap is a quirky device, but lacks practicality
It might be too soon to prophesize, but despite its upsides, Tap doesn't seem like a practical alternative to physical keyboards, mouse or controllers.
To start with, no matter how good you get with Tap, it's unlikely that you'll ever achieve the typing speeds achievable on physical keyboards.
Additionally, Tap is unlikely to replace mouse or controllers either, which are purpose-specific, specialized products.