Andrew M. Seybold, founder and principal of Outlook 4 Mobility sees an impact that goes far beyond OEMs. "The ability to finally do PC-like work on a mobile device will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the wireless market," said Seybold. "We would expect in the long term to see not only an across-the-board increase in revenue traffic, but the appearance of new, value-added carrier offerings that take advantage of the capabilities of a full-sized keyboard on a mobile device."

The Integrated Canesta Keyboard is implemented by means of a new type of 3-dimensional sensor technology that can track moving objects in the vicinity of the sensor chip in real time. The packaged sensor, a module not much larger than a pea, resolves a user's finger movements as he or she types on the projected image of a keyboard, resolves those movements into "keystrokes" on specific projected keys, and processes the movements into a stream of serial keystroke data similar to that output by a physical keyboard. This enables an OEM wishing to integrate the sensor module into a mobile or wireless device to do so with great ease, as both the software and hardware interfaces to conventional keyboards are well understood, and well represented with existing code and circuit designs.

Included with the sensor module are two other miniature components: a pattern projector, and a small infrared light source. The pattern projector, hardly bigger than the sensor module, uses an internal laser to project the image of a full-sized keyboard on a nearby flat surface. The keyboard may be the familiar QWERTY English keyboard, which is offered as a standard option by Canesta, or any non-English or even non-Roman character set, or unique keypads, provided to OEMs on a custom basis. The light source invisibly illuminates the user's fingers, as they type on the projected surface, such as a desk, tray table, or briefcase.

The three components, collectively called the Canesta Keyboard Perception Chipset, are intended to be mounted directly into the face of the smartphone, PDA, cellphone or other wireless or mobile device, and when in use, consume small amounts of battery power. No separate accessories are required. Users of emerging mobile applications such as wireless email would simply place the mobile device conveniently in front of themselves, and begin typing on the projected keyboard.