Laser Keyboards! Why Did This Company Die? - Krazy Ken’s Tech Talk

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Krazy Ken tries a laser projection keyboard named Magic Cube, and he made some discoveries about why the company has been silent for 5 years.

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Additional Sound Effects / Music:
"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Distributed by Sony Pictures Television
"The Lazer Collection" by Dominic Fear

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[steven_porter]

I owned one of these around 2015. I was so proud to bring it around to my college classes and various meetings to impress people with my futuristic technology. I believe I used it 3 times before relegating it to my prop bin, where I keep a stockpile of weird tech products in case I ever shoot a sci-fi.

[cardsfanbj]

If you were to ask me "Have you heard of the Magic Cube?" I'd probably say no the name doesn't sound familiar, but I do remember hearing about a wireless, laser keyboard that looked kinda interesting.
I do remember it being featured in some crime procedural show, like on some secretary's desk at a techy company they were investigating or something and thinking "that's stupid, why isn't she just using a normal keyboard?"

[HeadsetGuy]

So it turns out I actually _had_ heard of this product, but not by name. ThinkGeek used to sell a "laser projection keyboard" back in the day, but they never referred to it by its brand name.

[brandonbee]

I actually had one of these. And it was super cool... well... except.

There was definitely a steep learning curve. I actually got better at typing the right thing.

When I first got mine, it was before tablet computers were really a thing. So, at the time it was primarily a smartphone accessory. So it made a lot of sense that you would want something smaller than a tablet keyboard.

My problem was the "solution" you talked about for not getting feedback when you typed a key.

Having some kind of type animation on the key would have been great. Perhaps a brightness increase when you type a key would have been great.

The tap sound that they used instead was a deal-breaker. The whole purpose for using this keyboard was that it was super portable to use in meetings. But the tap sound was unbearably loud and distracting in meetings. Everyone would ooh and aah when I turned it on at the beginning of the meeting, but it would quickly turn to "what is that tapping sound!?" and "please turn that off".

[EvocativeKitsune]

Fricking laser beams on their fricking desks.

[saberpv]

I remember these being sold on thinkgeek. They seemed to be more of a novelty than anything.

I miss Swype 😢

[nomakewan]

I worked at an Office Depot back when this product came out. It was given its own special display right by the front door. I had a chance to test it and it worked exactly as well as you found. There’s only so much you can do with projection tech like this. Your own hands interrupt the ability to see what’s going on behind them, which is why the keyboard is so horrible using a normal posture.

[MrJollyU]

We were looking into this product in the late 2000's for our clean labs to reduce dust etc from keyboards. However, the keyboard was "locked" to us/en layout and was missing numpad as well. But we would have for sure purchased one or two devices for testing if it hadn't been for those limitations.

[CoolerQ]

Oh my God, I wrote a Linux driver for this keyboard when it first came out! I thought I'd never see one again!

[Dsjk]

There was a similar laser keyboard prototype on this late-80’s cable show called ‘Beyond 2000’.

There was actually a lot of really advanced stuff in that show; internet-connected smart homes, self-driving cars, even 3D printing or rapid prototyping.

[thegreyfuzz]

First time seeing this was on an episode of the original CSI, something like a secretary used it to secretly blog while on the clock. I have one branded differently and it actually worked pretty well (perhaps my technique was better). It was best as a talking piece. Either way it's been in the junk bin for quite some time.

[kevinforth]

About 8 years ago, I retrieved one of these Celluon laser keyboards from the trash at work. I still have it, and my experience was similar to yours. Aside from the initial "hey, this kinda works" reaction, it doesn't function very well, and I really never found a use for it.

[twjonckheere]

I bought one because it was a cool and interesting technology. I didn't think it would be too practical and replace my standard keyboard though. I just wanted to promote cool and new ideas. That being said I used it for a few weeks and went back to a normal keyboard. :)

[kyos]

I totally remember this. I always wanted one but felt like the lack of tactical feedback would make it difficult to use.

[noname-zpyh]

This laser keyboard could be cool if it was modded to work as adjustable keyboard shortcuts sort of like the buttons on the side of drawing tablets. You could also probably use it to make coding faster too. It would be cool to have one massive group of customizable labeled shortcuts.
I just feel like there's alot more you could do with this idea than just keyboard but laser.

[emperorfaiz]

I still remember seeing a showcase video of that gadget on Facebook about 10 years ago. I was a bit interested to buy it and forget about it afterwards becasue the iPad's on-screen keyboard is good enough for me.

[Rhoran]

In a 2011 computer class in college, we had to find the latest innovations to discuss in class and this was one of them. I thought it was neat, but quickly forgot about it. It's cool to see the history of what happened after!

[EDreyer]

If I remember correctly, I saw it popular mechanics when it was still only a "magic" idea and then it was featured in CSI Miami or CSI New York.

I then saw it in some niche stores, but it was probably $100 at the time, which is cheaper than the $160 you mentioned, but was far to expensive for me as I was only a teenager.

It later just disappeared from the market completely.

[xxyyxx]

The incompetent cutscene, I AM DECEASED. 💀🤣

[Boxer]

The best portable keyboard I've ever had was the Stowaway for my Handspring Visor. Folded it was close to the same size as the visor. Unfolded it was the size of a larger laptop. Portable keyboards were welcome on the Palm OS devices because all other input options were pretty cumbersome. I wish I'd kept that setup simply for the nostalgia