WEBVTT - How High-End Peripherals Work

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<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

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<v Speaker 1>tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi there,

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<v Speaker 1>welcome to the podcast. My name is Chris Poette. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>an editor here at how Stuff Works, and with me

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<v Speaker 1>I have writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, So today we

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<v Speaker 1>were going to talk about some peripherals for your computer

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<v Speaker 1>add ons, you know, extra things, mice, keyboards, not but

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<v Speaker 1>but not not the kind of you and I use,

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<v Speaker 1>right because we're poor. Yeah, yeah, no, we're talking well,

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<v Speaker 1>in some cases we're talking about extravagantly expensive peripherals, in

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<v Speaker 1>other cases that they're not extravagantly expensive, but they are.

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<v Speaker 1>It's definitely an investment. And if you are not the

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<v Speaker 1>kind of person who would use these sort of things

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<v Speaker 1>on a regular basis, it would definitely be an extravagance. True.

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<v Speaker 1>And you you even mentioned that you have a few

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<v Speaker 1>that aren't even computer related, right, Yes, that's true. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>we'll get into those. I guess okay, I thought, I thought.

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<v Speaker 1>I started off with the Granddaddy, the one that made

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<v Speaker 1>the news um when it was on a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>the electronics and gadgets blogs about a year ago, a

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<v Speaker 1>year and a half. Yeah, you might have heard of it. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>this energy keyboard, Yes, about such the heck you say,

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<v Speaker 1>Oh my gosh, you are right. Um, yes, I did

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<v Speaker 1>write an article on this energy keyboard. Uh. Those guys

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<v Speaker 1>are are pretty cool guys. They did not send me one.

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<v Speaker 1>But well, I mean, when you're talking about a twenty

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<v Speaker 1>eight thousand dollar keyboard, yeah, they aren't really eager on

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<v Speaker 1>sending out test copies even like, oh sure I'll send

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<v Speaker 1>it back. No. Um, but let's let's clear up a

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<v Speaker 1>few things first before we get too involved in this.

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<v Speaker 1>Uh like what exactly? Yeah, with these blogs, when they

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<v Speaker 1>say a twenty dollar keyboard, you know, you just sit

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<v Speaker 1>there and think, who the heck is gonna pay twenty

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<v Speaker 1>eight grand for a keyboard? Well, the the analogy I

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<v Speaker 1>used in the article, which I think is fairly apt,

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<v Speaker 1>is to call you know, if you call this energy

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<v Speaker 1>just a keyboard, it's like calling a Bentley two dollar radio,

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<v Speaker 1>because the Bentley does have a radio in it, right, Um,

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<v Speaker 1>but you're not paying two dollars for the radio. You're

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<v Speaker 1>paying two hut dollars for the Bentley. Um, so you

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<v Speaker 1>can drive the keyboard kind of No, No, not at all. No,

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<v Speaker 1>you're taking the analogy too far. Let's step back a bit.

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<v Speaker 1>The key it's not just a keyboard. It's really a

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<v Speaker 1>media and audio video production center, all in one little

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<v Speaker 1>compact package. And I say little because if you've ever

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<v Speaker 1>been in an audio video studio, like one of the

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<v Speaker 1>really big professional ones, they're huge, and you've you've seen them,

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<v Speaker 1>right of course. Yeah, you're in your career as a

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<v Speaker 1>rock musician. God, you've seen these all the time, right

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<v Speaker 1>of course. Okay, so um, good old Filet and his drums. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>So anyway, and we're not joking, he really and anyway,

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<v Speaker 1>let's move on. So these these studios are rather large.

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<v Speaker 1>They have these big consoles that are all specialized. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>the Synergy keyboard. The one of the purposes for this

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<v Speaker 1>is to kind of replace a lot of that equipment,

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<v Speaker 1>put it all in a very compact package. And the

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<v Speaker 1>way it works is this, every single key on that

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<v Speaker 1>keyboard is really a tiny computer monitor, So the keys

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<v Speaker 1>can display different images based upon what sort of task

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<v Speaker 1>you're doing. If you're just typing regular letter or an

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<v Speaker 1>email or whatever, it could be a quarty keyboard and

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<v Speaker 1>everything just looks the way a normal keyboard would. If

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<v Speaker 1>you go into video editing mode, you'll suddenly have the

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<v Speaker 1>keys will just switch, so keys that you don't need

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<v Speaker 1>they'll disappear, and a new key will appear in its place.

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<v Speaker 1>Because the each key is a little monitor, and so

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<v Speaker 1>you might have things like play and rewind and cut

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<v Speaker 1>and paste and all that kind of stuff, the common

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<v Speaker 1>things you would use. And it has a jog we deal,

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<v Speaker 1>it has its own little LCD screen. So um, it's actually,

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<v Speaker 1>like I said, a full audio visual editing package in

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<v Speaker 1>keyboard format. So let's not you know. That's that's probably

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<v Speaker 1>why most people you know maybe had read that far.

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<v Speaker 1>They're just like, wow, how can a keyboard cost that much? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>when you're talking about replacing an entire studio, which could

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<v Speaker 1>cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's really, comparatively speaking,

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<v Speaker 1>not that expensive. I'm still not gonna be buying one

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<v Speaker 1>anytime soon. I would love to see one in action. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>I keep hoping that I'll I'll run into one at

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<v Speaker 1>a convention or something, just so I can see it

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<v Speaker 1>work in person, But um, yeah, I don't think I'll

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<v Speaker 1>be cracking the bank open to to buy one. When

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<v Speaker 1>I could buy a car, not a Bentley, but a

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<v Speaker 1>car for that same amount. Well, it seems like we've

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<v Speaker 1>come a long way from the video toaster days. You

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<v Speaker 1>have that built into the keyboard itself, right, But we

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<v Speaker 1>are actually going to talk about another uh computer keyboard

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<v Speaker 1>that allows you to display different things keys too. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>the I believe you're referring to the Optimus Maximus, Yes, yes,

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<v Speaker 1>which is a keyboard that dresses and gladiator clothes and

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<v Speaker 1>has a sword and also is more than meets the eye.

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<v Speaker 1>We'll just go ahead across genre that. But it does

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<v Speaker 1>have O. L E. D S or oh lads built

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<v Speaker 1>into this screen and you can actually program the different keys,

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<v Speaker 1>like if you wanted one to be the Firefox key,

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<v Speaker 1>you can make it, you know, put the little Firefox

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<v Speaker 1>logo in there and it will show up on the

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<v Speaker 1>key because it's got a little video screen built into

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<v Speaker 1>it with little led Shi kind of cool. You could

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<v Speaker 1>actually put in animated gifts if you wanted to, so

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<v Speaker 1>you can have a little a little yeah, like Sparkle

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<v Speaker 1>or twirl or whatever. Um. And this was a big

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<v Speaker 1>hit for a while, especially when we kept waiting and

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<v Speaker 1>waiting and yeah, this was one of those that was

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<v Speaker 1>delayed for a really long time. And and there's a

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<v Speaker 1>range of these. That's true, that's true. They a little

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<v Speaker 1>le yeah, and and you can choose how many keys

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<v Speaker 1>actually have this feature. So if you didn't want to

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<v Speaker 1>pay the full one, the the knacked out one, if

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<v Speaker 1>you will, as all of its keys uh in O

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<v Speaker 1>L O L E de form that one's about um.

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<v Speaker 1>But you could get ones the where you're just like, okay,

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<v Speaker 1>well just these four keys have the O L E

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<v Speaker 1>D S or just the just the function keys um,

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<v Speaker 1>and they were less expensive. They're still pretty pretty hefty

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<v Speaker 1>price for a keyboard, but if you wanted to uh

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<v Speaker 1>and and that, you could even have it where you

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<v Speaker 1>could switch out keys eventually. So let's say that you know,

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<v Speaker 1>you bought the keyboard, you got it with the ten

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<v Speaker 1>function keys, and later on you want to upgrade, you

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<v Speaker 1>could do that. UM. Essentially you be paying the balance

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<v Speaker 1>of whatever it was to get to the full keyboard.

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<v Speaker 1>But but it gave you that option. So people who

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<v Speaker 1>just wanted to try it out and see if that's

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<v Speaker 1>what they wanted, and they only wanted to drop, say

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<v Speaker 1>nine hundred dollars, could do that. Again, I don't think

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<v Speaker 1>I'll be buying this keyboard anytime soon. Yeah, and I

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<v Speaker 1>certainly wouldn't want to eat my lunch at my desk

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<v Speaker 1>if I had one of these keyboards. Right, a little expensive.

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<v Speaker 1>And there are other keyboards we could talk about their

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<v Speaker 1>their The gaming community has quite a few because a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of people have the specialized needs, you know, they

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<v Speaker 1>want to be able to fire and have a special control.

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<v Speaker 1>They want to frag you in in a fraction of

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<v Speaker 1>the second that they could with their old keyboards. Right, yeah, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I've met you. You you ten year olds out there

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<v Speaker 1>who can snipe me from a mile away, and one

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<v Speaker 1>day you're going to be old and slow like I am.

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<v Speaker 1>But anyway, the two keyboards I was going to talk about,

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<v Speaker 1>just very briefly, there's the the Microsoft Sidewinder X six

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<v Speaker 1>gaming keyboard and then the Steel Series seven G keyboard. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>these are both gaming keyboards. They both can store macros

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<v Speaker 1>so that you can program a series of commands and

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<v Speaker 1>and assign it to a single key and that way,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, you can display your leaked skills by pressing

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<v Speaker 1>one button or another instead of like a series of them. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>The Sidewinders actually kind of interesting from an aesthetic point

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<v Speaker 1>of view, it's back lit with red light. It's red

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<v Speaker 1>light glues from around your keys and uh, the sidewinders

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<v Speaker 1>eighty bucks. The Steel series is a hundred and fifties.

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<v Speaker 1>So we're talking about a much bigger step down in

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<v Speaker 1>price from our others. But then again, we're talking about

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<v Speaker 1>gaining here or not uh not not some special productions, right,

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<v Speaker 1>not a not a big production kind of keyboard. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>so yeah, that that pretty much covers my my area

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<v Speaker 1>of the keyboards. Did you have anything else on those?

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<v Speaker 1>Not on keyboards? On keyboards? Why do you want to

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<v Speaker 1>move on to next? Well, I was going to talk

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<v Speaker 1>about other kinds of peripherals. You know a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of peripherals that you'll find for your computer

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<v Speaker 1>other than the standard mouse keyboard type stuff. Um, a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of the high end and and pricing stuff is

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<v Speaker 1>going to be for gaming now. Um, it's really funny

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<v Speaker 1>when I mentioned the video toaster a few minutes ago.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm longtime listeners will probably remember that every once in a

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<v Speaker 1>a while, throw in the Amiga because that was my

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<v Speaker 1>first computer, and people used to ridicule the Amiga is

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<v Speaker 1>a gaming machine, used to well, the thing was It

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<v Speaker 1>was way before a lot of the other machines had

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<v Speaker 1>full color and had stereo sound, and a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>people would build games for it, which were at that

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<v Speaker 1>time really high end. UM. But of course those same

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<v Speaker 1>people now are buying the five thousand dollar PCs with

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<v Speaker 1>the tricked out water cooled UH processors and the high

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<v Speaker 1>end graphics cards and the you know steering wheels with

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<v Speaker 1>force uh force feedback, and the driving seats where you

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<v Speaker 1>sit down in there, and the exactly with all the

0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.880
<v Speaker 1>pedals and stuff, and those those you know, can cost

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<v Speaker 1>thousands of dollars, you know, just as as add ons.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, this is not the kind of thing that

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<v Speaker 1>people are buying in in bulk. But you know, oh yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I'll just run down and pick one of those up

0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:11.360
<v Speaker 1>one WARLD. I'm just gonna go grab another one. But

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<v Speaker 1>there are other other peripherals too, I mean gaming consoles there.

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<v Speaker 1>I thought of a couple that, you know, sort of

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<v Speaker 1>off the beaten track, because I figured you were going

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<v Speaker 1>to go for the computer e stuff and I was

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<v Speaker 1>thinking about, well, I mean, gaming consoles are a form

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<v Speaker 1>of computers, UM. And I remember a few years ago

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<v Speaker 1>there was a game for Xbox, the first Xbox called

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<v Speaker 1>Steel Battalion. It was actually highly rated. I went and

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<v Speaker 1>and you know, looked up a little information about how

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<v Speaker 1>it had been received. But the big news before it

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<v Speaker 1>came out, I remember, was that it came out with

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<v Speaker 1>this huge console of tan. It's a tank game. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>I think where a Mecca game. I was on the

0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.480
<v Speaker 1>impression of his tank on me. You can tell I

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<v Speaker 1>don't own an Xbox anyway. Um, but it came out

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<v Speaker 1>with this this uh big board of controls where you

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<v Speaker 1>could use all sorts of different levers and buttons to

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<v Speaker 1>to uh you know, arm your weapons and move the

0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.439
<v Speaker 1>thing around. And it actually had more than forty buttons

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<v Speaker 1>with two joysticks and three foot pedals, which is you know,

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<v Speaker 1>you think about an Xbox game or any console game,

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<v Speaker 1>really they're around fifty bucks, right, fifty Well that pushed

0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:22.319
<v Speaker 1>the price of this game up to two because it

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<v Speaker 1>came with this specialized console, which was one of the

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<v Speaker 1>most expensive games out there. Yeah, and and really it's

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<v Speaker 1>it's expensive for now. Well yeah, but you see them

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<v Speaker 1>a little more often now because you have games like

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<v Speaker 1>rock Band, where you were to buy the full rock

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<v Speaker 1>Band set that's in the that's around that range. It's

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<v Speaker 1>funny you should mention rock band, is it? Yes? And

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<v Speaker 1>uh and also the drummer thing going into this, you

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<v Speaker 1>can see why I'm I'm kind of keen on this thing.

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<v Speaker 1>Um ion Who's booth? I visited at c E S,

0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:55.240
<v Speaker 1>but I didn't see actually this particular peripheral. UM. They've

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<v Speaker 1>come out with a new uh drum set for a

0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.520
<v Speaker 1>rock band called the drum Rocker. And it's they actually

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<v Speaker 1>worked with the electronics manufacturer Elasis. They make keyboards and

0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:10.720
<v Speaker 1>electronic percussion and all kinds of uh, you know, electronic instruments. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>And this has four drum pads with a kick drum

0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:18.200
<v Speaker 1>and two symbols, and it's it's actually made of aluminum

0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:20.199
<v Speaker 1>rather than the plastic that you would find in the

0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.000
<v Speaker 1>typical rock band kits. So I mean it's it's more robust.

0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.840
<v Speaker 1>People are gonna yeah, people are really gonna hey, yeah,

0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:28.760
<v Speaker 1>thank you for doing that. So I didn't have to

0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:33.400
<v Speaker 1>say rock out wait I already did. Um Anyway, Okay,

0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.400
<v Speaker 1>this this is actually a pretty pricey set too. But

0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.480
<v Speaker 1>not only do you work over the additional money for

0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:43.760
<v Speaker 1>for this set, you also can buy an additional symbol

0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:46.640
<v Speaker 1>for fifty dollars, or the drum throne, which is what

0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.880
<v Speaker 1>we uh call the seat the drummer sits on, and

0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:54.120
<v Speaker 1>I still don't know why. Yeah, it's a stool, but

0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.120
<v Speaker 1>we call it the throne. And then you can, if

0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.720
<v Speaker 1>you really want, you can actually buy a drum brain,

0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:02.760
<v Speaker 1>which is essentially the computer that goes along with the

0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:06.080
<v Speaker 1>electronic drum set, the Elasis d M five drum brain. Uh.

0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:08.960
<v Speaker 1>You can add that for an additional three sixty so

0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:10.720
<v Speaker 1>you don't have to be playing rock band with it.

0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.280
<v Speaker 1>You can actually use them for regular electronic drums, so

0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.720
<v Speaker 1>that here, you know, you can just hear the the

0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.800
<v Speaker 1>chitching sound every time you add on something else too, right,

0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:22.080
<v Speaker 1>But you know, if you're really into rock band, yeah,

0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.800
<v Speaker 1>or if you really really are trying to start up

0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.680
<v Speaker 1>that flock of Seagulls cover band, or you need those

0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.880
<v Speaker 1>electronic drum sounds. I told you not to mention the

0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:36.640
<v Speaker 1>new wave roots come out, all right, Okay, I see

0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:38.840
<v Speaker 1>your console stuff, and I'm gonna I'm gonna switch back

0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.400
<v Speaker 1>over to computers. I'm gonna talk about computer mice just

0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:45.000
<v Speaker 1>really briefly. You want to talk talk about a little

0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.360
<v Speaker 1>bit about the Yeah, yeah, so you know your standard

0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.600
<v Speaker 1>computer mouse costs maybe between fifteen twenty bucks something like

0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.480
<v Speaker 1>that if you want to wireless one and maybe thirty plus.

0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:58.040
<v Speaker 1>There's some there's some more expensive ones out there. There's

0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.480
<v Speaker 1>the Space Navigator mouse, which is that really a three

0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:03.480
<v Speaker 1>D mouse um where it looks almost like a paddle

0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.200
<v Speaker 1>like on the old Attori you know what I'm talking about,

0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:09.600
<v Speaker 1>kind of the same thing. You can twist it to

0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:11.839
<v Speaker 1>make it go left or right, and you can tilt

0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:14.600
<v Speaker 1>it to make it zoom in or zoom out. It's

0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.240
<v Speaker 1>useful for things like if you're in a CAD program,

0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:21.840
<v Speaker 1>UM architecture program, or Google Earth, you can use zoom

0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.840
<v Speaker 1>in and out and and reorient yourself. UM. Not necessarily

0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.840
<v Speaker 1>useful for other applications, but it's pretty cool. UM. Then

0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:33.320
<v Speaker 1>there are other things like there's the novent Falcon haptic mouse,

0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.800
<v Speaker 1>which it looks really neat. It's got a base unit

0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.240
<v Speaker 1>that has some articulated arms that reach out and all

0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:45.440
<v Speaker 1>attached to a small UH sphere, and you hold the

0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.000
<v Speaker 1>sphere and you your motions. You you move the sphere

0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.280
<v Speaker 1>in three dimensions, so you can move it in and out.

0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:52.800
<v Speaker 1>You can move up and down, left, right, and you

0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.120
<v Speaker 1>can in any direction you want, and the articulated arms

0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.000
<v Speaker 1>allow you to do that, and your actions are are

0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:03.520
<v Speaker 1>transferred into whatever computer realm you're exploring of that time,

0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.320
<v Speaker 1>and there's even haptic feedback there so we can push

0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:10.200
<v Speaker 1>it back against you for certain games and things. Um,

0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.000
<v Speaker 1>that's pretty cool too. I actually saw one of those

0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:14.320
<v Speaker 1>at c E S. I didn't get a chance to

0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:16.160
<v Speaker 1>play with it. There was actually a pretty big crowd

0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:20.800
<v Speaker 1>around that. But those those look pretty neat too. Uh.

0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.760
<v Speaker 1>But I was really going to go into the grand

0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:29.720
<v Speaker 1>daddy of expensive mouse uh systems here. Um, and it's

0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:34.120
<v Speaker 1>not expensive because of its tech specs. Uh. It is

0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:39.760
<v Speaker 1>the pet says now computer mouse. It is twenty four

0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.800
<v Speaker 1>thousand dollars for a mouse for a grand less than

0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.520
<v Speaker 1>this energy and yet all it does is click And

0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.400
<v Speaker 1>it's just a regular mouse, except that's made out of

0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:56.320
<v Speaker 1>eighteen carrot white gold and has fifty nine diamonds in it,

0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.160
<v Speaker 1>like like on the on the surface of the mouse.

0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.280
<v Speaker 1>And you can have it in either a scattered or

0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:07.480
<v Speaker 1>flower design. I'm hoping that this is a laser not

0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:09.200
<v Speaker 1>at all, so you still have to pull the ball

0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.600
<v Speaker 1>out and clean. Yeah, you know, but it's it's it's

0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:15.680
<v Speaker 1>made from poor people. No, I mean no, it's but

0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:21.600
<v Speaker 1>it's it's alright, you go breaking news. Though, before you

0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.000
<v Speaker 1>can only get in the scatter diamond or the flower

0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.560
<v Speaker 1>diamond pattern. Now you can use your you can choose

0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.920
<v Speaker 1>your own pattern and even use your initials if you like.

0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.040
<v Speaker 1>So if you were holding back because you're like, well

0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:34.840
<v Speaker 1>I don't really like the scatter of the flower, and

0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:36.920
<v Speaker 1>then now you can actually drop that twenty four grand.

0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:41.040
<v Speaker 1>Um it's mainly sold out of the UK. Yeah, I

0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.200
<v Speaker 1>thought that would be a nice little addition. And then

0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:48.440
<v Speaker 1>I was gonna talk also really quickly about monitors. Yeah.

0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.400
<v Speaker 1>When I was looking for monitors to see like what

0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.400
<v Speaker 1>would be a really cool, like big high end peripheral,

0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:57.840
<v Speaker 1>I found the enlightened i T seven to zero two

0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:04.560
<v Speaker 1>seventy two inch touch screen. That's huge obviously. Um, it's

0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.280
<v Speaker 1>got two different models. There's a three thousand dollar model

0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:11.080
<v Speaker 1>which chooses a light pen that has an infrared tip

0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:15.800
<v Speaker 1>to it. There's an infrared camera that's the screen is

0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.280
<v Speaker 1>backlit obviously, so there's an infrared camera on the back

0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:20.560
<v Speaker 1>right next to the light source that can detect where

0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.320
<v Speaker 1>the light pin is. Then there's a four thousand dollar

0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.679
<v Speaker 1>model that uses cameras mounted on the top of the

0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.360
<v Speaker 1>screen to triangulate positions. You can you can use your

0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:32.760
<v Speaker 1>finger on that one, so you would put your finger

0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.000
<v Speaker 1>against the screen and the cameras detect where your finger is.

0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.159
<v Speaker 1>There's no actual touch screen technology on the screen itself.

0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.320
<v Speaker 1>It's all done through visual like optics. So you move

0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.600
<v Speaker 1>your finger around and it follows your finger and that's

0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.119
<v Speaker 1>how you can change the input. So yeah, if you

0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:47.840
<v Speaker 1>have three or four grand to drop, you can get

0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.480
<v Speaker 1>a nice, nice large screen. I don't think our cubicles

0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:52.479
<v Speaker 1>would even allow us seventy two inch screen in them,

0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:59.880
<v Speaker 1>would they? Probably not? Note to self get bigger cubicle. Excellent.

0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.840
<v Speaker 1>I was wondering if this is the kind of thing

0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:04.360
<v Speaker 1>that we would need if we were going to move

0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.399
<v Speaker 1>to the next step of the Minority Report era. You know,

0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:09.800
<v Speaker 1>you start drawing in the air and until you get

0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.600
<v Speaker 1>the holographic displays. Yeah, exactly. Boy, those would be cool,

0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.680
<v Speaker 1>Yeah they would. I bet they're expensive, probably, I guess

0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.280
<v Speaker 1>that would counts a high end peripheral I'm sure, and

0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:24.119
<v Speaker 1>the technology you need to run away from the and

0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.560
<v Speaker 1>I think we're getting off track here, maybe here, maybe

0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:30.240
<v Speaker 1>maybe we can wrap this up. Okay, you think, all right, Well,

0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:32.680
<v Speaker 1>there are plenty of other high end peripherles out there.

0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:36.119
<v Speaker 1>We didn't even cover sound systems or or other input

0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.040
<v Speaker 1>systems like Waycom tablets, which are pretty darn cool too,

0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.280
<v Speaker 1>although most of those are pretty affordable. Yeah. There, I

0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.800
<v Speaker 1>was looking at a two thou one. Wow. Yeah no,

0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.280
<v Speaker 1>but it was really nice. Um. So you can read

0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.800
<v Speaker 1>all about these kinds of systems on how stuff works

0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.720
<v Speaker 1>dot com right now. We cover everything from keyboards to

0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.360
<v Speaker 1>monitors everything in between. So check out the website learn

0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:00.400
<v Speaker 1>a little bit more about this. Figure out. You're gonna

0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.720
<v Speaker 1>drop all that massive cash you got sitting around, and

0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:08.200
<v Speaker 1>we will talk to you again really soon for more

0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:10.520
<v Speaker 1>on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how

0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.640
<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.

0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:20.800
<v Speaker 1>Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.

0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:23.480
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0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:25.000
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