iTech Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard

Projected keys? That's virtual insanity.

As gadgets go, this one is pretty outrageous. You stand it on a flat desk, turn it on and watch in awe as it projects a full qwerty keyboard in front of you. You can then type directly on these virtual keys to enter text into your PDA, smart phone or PC.

This is actually the second generation of the product. The first had to be connected to the host device via a serial cable, whereas this version now communicates over Bluetooth. Unfortunately it won't just talk to any Bluetooth device; instead you have to load a special driver on the handheld. This means it's only compatible with products that iTech decides to support.

We tried it out with an O2 Xda IIi and found it was relatively easy to set up. However, it all went downhill from there. The unit certainly recognises keystrokes when you type letter by letter, but if you try to bash out words at any kind of sensible speed, the results are about as accurate as Mr Magoo with a shotgun. We also found it could be oversensitive to ambient light to the extent that you have to shield some of the keys with your hand to get the letters to be recognised properly.

This will certainly impress any sci-fi fanatics, but only up to the point where they try typing. It's a neat idea in theory, but the reality is that you'd be better off with a normal fold-up keyboard for your PDA or smart phone.