Startup VKB Inc. is now selling a $200 mobile-phone accessory the company believes could significantly improve the way wireless users interact with their phones. About the size of a cigarette lighter, the company’s new BTVKB gadget uses a red laser to project a full-size, two-dimensional keyboard onto any flat surface.
“The next step is to embed it into a mobile phone,” promised Jonathan Curtiss, VKB’s president.
VKB (named for the company’s technology, a Virtual KeyBoard) was founded in 2000. To date the company has raised a total of $11 million in venture funding, $7 million of which it funneled into the creation of the BTVKB (BlueTooth Virtual KeyBoard) accessory. i.Tech Dynamic Ltd., a subsidiary of Chinese electronics company Hutchison Harbour Ring Ltd., manufactured the device, which can connect to mobile phones, personal digital assistants and other devices through Bluetooth. The product is available online and will soon be distributed nationally through RadioShack stores.
The product is more of a proof-of-concept effort, however; VKB’s ultimate goal is to sell components and technology to manufacturers including mobile-phone makers, medical equipment companies, appliance builders and automotive suppliers. Thus, mobile-phone makers could do away with tiny QWERTY keyboards and instead offer a virtual projection of the full-sized thing. Companies that build washing machines and other home appliances are also interested in the technology to replace various gages, dials and knobs that can add to the cost of those machines. Curtiss said automotive companies are interested in the technology for flexible dash input displays and medical equipment companies in offering completely sterile keyboards. Indeed, Curtiss said VKB expects its virtual keyboard technology to be embedded in new medical equipment starting this year.
Wireless users, however, may have to wait a while.
“The cell phone is a very hard place to be,” Curtiss explained.
Although mobile-phone makers are often on the cutting edge of technology, they must also deal with a dizzying array of technology choices, from MP3 players to fingerprint scanners to video calling software. Selling new technology to the world’s phone manufacturers is notoriously difficult. Nonetheless, Curtiss remains upbeat about VKB’s prospects. Indeed, VKB has a variety of options for entering the mobile-phone market-it could score a deal with a handset maker, with a chipmaker or even get its offering included in the technical specifications for a wireless carrier.
Already VKB has a prototype to show off: Siemens developed a version of its SX1 smart phone that can display a virtual keyboard. Curtiss declined to comment on VKB’s dealings with Siemens.
VKB’s technology works through a simple yet high-tech concept. First, a laser projects the shape of the desired interface-a keyboard, keypad or specific icons. Then, an invisible, infrared plane of light is projected just above the interface. When a user interacts with the laser projection, light is reflected back to the sensor module. VKB’s technology then kicks in and correlates the movements with the interface to figure out what a user is typing. The technology is especially suited to the wireless industry since a standard camera-phone module-which is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in the phone market-could be used to read a typist’s movements.
Interestingly, Curtiss said VKB has solved the “shift-2 problem.” On a keyboard, the shift key is directly in line with the number 2 key as seen from a laser projector, making a shift-2 keystroke hard to see. Curtiss said VKB “cheats with the physics and electronics” to make sure a number 2 keystroke doesn’t hide the shift key.
VKB is not the first company to promise a virtual keyboard. Startup Canesta has been discussing the application for years- and has signed teamings with the likes of ARM and Symbian for a mobile-phone virtual keyboard. However, the company has made little noise on the mobile-phone front in recent months. Founded in 1999, Canesta has so far raised $36 million in venture funding.
