Chicago (IL) - After countless prototype demonstrations, the virtual keyboard finally has made it into production. Several companies worked on the development of the technology, but only one firm appears to have cleared all hurdles to be able to offer a stable commercial product.

A full-size keyboard for your cell phone or PDA everywhere you go, integrated in every device - too good to be true ? For about four years, Canesta has been promoting its electronic perception technology, consisting of 3D camera with light source as well as sensors being able to recognize and interpret movements within the camera’s sight. The flagship application was a keyboard that was projected to the space in front of a PDA offering users an alternative to folding keyboards or handwriting on a PDA.

Similar projects have been underway at a number of other companies, including Nokia. The foundation of most virtual keyboards was developed by VKB, a company based in Israel that licensed the technology base to interested organizations. Firms such as Canesta have been quiet about their technology in recent months and even removed content relating to their research from their web sites. Instead, Canesta regiustered a range of patents and now sells its 3D sensor technology as development kit to developers.

Just when we started to believe a virtual keyboard would remain science-fiction, Hutchison Harbour Ring (HHR) has begun manufacturing a commercial version of the keyboard. HHR is a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, Hong Kong-based company with the hands of its 170,000 employees in telecom technologies, real estate, retail and manufacturing and energy supply.

The product is not quite what we expected : Instead of being integrated into a PDA, HHR produces an external device that connects to a PDA, smartphone or notebook. With dimensions of 65mm by 33mm by 24mm, the "Virtual Laser Keyboard" is about half the size of a typical cellphone.

The device uses a red diode laser to illuminate the space, but infrared technology is used to track finger movements of the user and interpret which virtual key was intended to be activated. According to 2P, the company that markets and distributes the Virtual Laser Keyboard in the US, the device works on any surface "absolutely reliable" and as efficient as a regular keyboard. "There is no difference compared to a desktop keyboard," a representative of 2P said. The size of the virtual keyboard is 215mm by 90mm and is designed to "fit on a tray in an airplane," he added.

The virtual keyboard currently supports 17 different PDAs and cell phones in addition to any notebook. Supported operating systems are Pocket PC 2002 and 2003, Smartphone 2003, Palm OS versions 4.x and 5.x as well as Windows 98/NT/2000/XP. The projector connects to PDAs cellphones via Bluetooth or cables. Notebooks can be connected via serial cable or Bluetooth.

The Virtual Laser Keyboard can be purchased for $200 from 2P’s website .