Microsoft's Adaptive Keyboard prototype developed in conjunction with the Applied Sciences Group has received some apps, thanks to 19 teams of students challenged to do so from all over the world. The keyboard, which has an underlying LCD display and can change the configuration and assignments of its keys, thus received a number of practical applications from the students. One of them includes WHACK (We Hinder Almost All Criminal Keyloggers), which dynamically remaps keys in an attempt to ensure entered passwords never use the same keys, so that keyloggers cannot make sense of them. It won first place for Most Useful.
Others included a visual clipboard app, which won first place for Best Implementation, and an app that turned the keyboard into a visual interface for editing videos. A Whack-a-Mole game took the top prize for Most Creative. The complete list of awards is available online. Top prizes got $2,000, with runners up receiving $500.
The students were met with the challenge at the User Interface Software and Technology symposium and received prototype hardware of the keyboard.
Microsoft still hasn't revealed plans to mass-produce the Adaptive Keyboard, though it would run into some competition from Art Lebedev's Optimus keyboards if it arrived.
Source: electronista
