David BuchananConcept: wireless keyboard, but each key is an independent unit, powered inductively (same idea as "wireless LEDs")
Terry Ip@retr0id with piezoelectric ceramics?
@terryip I haven't figured out how the response would work exactly yet, but I'm thinking some kind of simple RF transmitter that (if the key is pressed) "reflects" back a signal at a specific frequency, to be detected by a base station.
Andrew Tergis@retr0id @terryip This probably isn't practical for your solution (>$$$!) but if you're not familiar with these energy harvesting switches they're a real neat product concept: https://www.mouser.com/new/zf-electronics/cherry-energy-harvesting-switches/
@retr0id @terryip You're almost describing something similar to RFID/NFC (base-station actively transmitting RF, peripheral modulates the RF field), and I think a keyboard could be low-powered enough to energy harvest off the active field. Some of NXP's more advanced NFC chipsets could do this for you, and you could use it like a communications pipe / simple shared memory buffer.
Ignas Kiela@[email protected] @terryip Hmm, if we had a grid of magnets with coils around them, and each key-unit had a magnet and a coil connected to a key that's normally open, I think the base-unit could detect key presses purely by how power usage of individual coils would spike.