Keyboards with planar translation effecting mechanisms formed by laminated key guides are disclosed. A key assembly for a keyboard includes a keycap having a touch surface for receiving a press force that moves the keycap from an unpressed position toward a pressed position, the unpressed position and pressed position separated in a press direction and a second direction orthogonal to the press direction. A base is included having a laminated key guide contacting a portion of the keycap to provide a planar translation effecting mechanism to guide the keycap in the press direction and the second direction as the keycap moves from the unpressed position toward the pressed position.

A virtual, touch-sensitive rectangular panel and a method of use for said panel for inputting characters and punctuation, including a lookup table for words of one or two characters, including an algorithm to determine the intended word from a dictionary cross-referencing unique angular sequences for every word in the English language, plus custom words.