In our long term projections we see a Bluetooth EkaPad. However, we have no immediate plans to move away from the USB version as it works well with all USB equipped computers, large and small. Our 4 meter cable allows the user many position options while still being in viewing range of the computer's display screen.
The EkaPad is a standard PC USB keyboard which uses the HID keyboard protocols built into computers. We are not currently aware of cell phones that currently support external PC keyboards.
Most PDA / cellphones which work with keyboards have proprietary type systems and do not support the USB HID protocols. When a PDA keyboard uses a serial connector or Bluetooth transmitter to connect with its PDA, it does not use the HID protocol but uses a proprietary keyboard protocol on the PDA. The prototype EkaPads we used for ergonomic testing and to test the general user experience were connected to Palm OS PDAs. But in this case we used a serial connector and had to create a driver for the PDA.
Even if the cell phone has a USB connector (designed to connect to a computer for syncing data) it only means the cell phone is setup to be a USB slave to the computer, just like the EkaPad. Unfortunately, USB slaves can't talk to each other.
Yes. We supply three different lengths: 1 m, 1.5 m, 4 meters. Because we use USB, the EkaPad can be kept light in weight, only 1.9 oz, so without the weight of battery and transmitter, using it held on the thumb is practically effortless.
The EkaPad has a small USB connector; technically it is called a USB Mini connector 5 pin. And there are cables that will go from any kind of host USB plug to any kind of slave USB plug.
However, the problem is not simply a cable to connect the two, but also that the Blackberry is a slave USB device (designed to connect to a computer for syncing data) and the Ekapad is also a slave USB device. As the bulk of the USB protocol is all done on a master USB device (aka the PC), these two devices won't be talking to each other any time soon.
This is the key. Many cellphones support USB, but only as a slave. The cellphone would need to support USB HID protocol for keyboards. We are not aware of any cellphones that support this USB HID protocol for keyboards yet.
The technology is constantly changing and advancing, so we are keen to keep in touch on these issues via the Ekatetra Web site, www.ekatetra.com . One of the EkaTetra team is trying to hook a Palm PDA to the EkaPad but is basically facing the same USB / keyboard driver problem as for cellphones!
Revised 28 November 2006
