Fairlight: An Iconic Name in Digital Audio

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Matties: It's ingrained.

Mihatov: It's built into the brain. You try to do that with an instruction manual and you just can't. There are so many advantages to creating user interfaces that actually tell you what the functions are as you hold down those operator keys. You memorize them and if there is a function that you haven't used in two or three weeks, you scan for it and say "OK, it's there." There's no looking it up in the manual and then trying to memorize it, just rote memorization. This builds that memory into your brain. You'll notice here that we haven't covered the entire 15-inch display in buttons. We've exposed a section of the screen to use for additional user interfaces. That goes straight across into this panel.

You can see here you have a bit of the screen exposed for the app. If you can imagine a kiosk, a vending machine, or applications where you need a variable user interface—these are very common. For many consumer applications, a touchscreen is perfect. For the others you need a tactile physical key; maybe if it's a repetitive task, an industrial application, or there is safety involved and you're not allowed to take your eyes off the road, for instance, or you're operating heavy machinery. Maybe it's a timing-related thing. You know you have to push that button but you couldn't push it until… now!

You can feel your button. Your finger is still on that key. It hasn't moved but you haven't pushed it yet. If it's a touchscreen, you're hovering. You may have touched it. You don't even know because you're looking elsewhere, so for those applications you really need a physical key and a variable user interface. Picture key technology is perfect for applications dealing with safety, timing, precision, etc.

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