Team Wins First Place at UIST 2009 Student Innovation Competition

Julia Schwarz, a first year HCII PhD student, took First Place in the Most Creative category at this year's ACM UIST Student Innovation Contest. She was assisted by Brian Lim, Stephen Oney and Kevin Huang. This year's contest centered around a prototype pressure-sensitive keyboard developed by Microsoft. A description of their entry, the Magnetic Keyboard, is included below:

"Our demo allowed users to control multiple cursors by waving magnets above the keyboard. We did this by placing one small magnet underneath each of the keyboard keys with the north side facing up. We then used a larger magnet (north side facing down) as a cursor. The larger magnet would repel nearby magnets, thus pushing them against the pressure-sensitive pads, allowing our computer to know where the magnet was located above the keyboard. We were able to control multiple cursors with this technique, thus turning the keyboard into a multi-point, in-air interaction device."

Press links:

• CNET: Pressure-sensitive keyboard? Let the fun begin
• Slashdot: Contest Winners Show Potential For Pressure-Sensitive Keyboard
• GadgetVenue: Pressure Sensitive Keyboard Innovation Contest Results
• SlashGear: Microsoft Pressure-Sensitive keyboard contest winners announced
• CrunchGear: Microsoft’s pressure-sensitive keyboard gets some apps