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I had severe tendinitis for years, treated with wrist braces, ice, and ibuprofen, but then a couple years ago a friend encouraged me to get one of these keyboards. Problem solved -- brilliant.

If you don't use Qwerty much you *will* forget it if you don't use it for 4 months or so. This happened in my case. However, like not using a second language after learning it, it's easier to pick up again which I had to do after starting a new job. I'd equate typing both Qwerty and Dvorak a lot like knowing two languages. Since I have to use Querty from time to time to admin other systems, I've still retained it, but I'm much better at (and prefer) Dvorak.

Since I make a living from being able to type well, CTS scares the hell out of me so I've not bothered trying to going back to Qwerty. Plus like other people said, your fingers move a lot less when you type Dvorak. It also has the nice added bonus of people less frequently trying to "borrow" my computer when I'm not using it.

1. Over in Ars Technica's forum someone named Figa made an excellent point:

Ars Technica shouldn't be recommending medical devices to its readership, even if they're over-the-counter. I hate to think how many people will go out and buy the things instead of seeking medical advice, hoping that their pain will go away.

My doctor warned me to avoid splints specifically because they can weaken your wrists, especially if they're worn 24-7 as the author recommends. Think about what happens to muscles when you wear a cast. They atrophy!

There was a lot of lousy advice in the forum as well, which I can attest to firsthand...

Figa (quoted above) then proceeded to explain why other people's advice was bad and then gave a 15 point treatment plan :)

That said, if you're going to self-medicate with gadgetry, my vote would be to check out Kinesis's Contoured Keyboards

The keys are arranged in lines in pits in the shell of the key board. Your fingers naturally droop into the pits and then move forward and backward (rarely to the sides) to depress the appropriate key.

Claimed to make the activity of typing simulate CTS reducing exercises. I have a co-worker who has one and loves it.

1. Over in Ars Technica's forum someone named Figa made an excellent point:

Ars Technica shouldn't be recommending medical devices to its readership, even if they're over-the-counter. I hate to think how many people will go out and buy the things instead of seeking medical advice, hoping that their pain will go away.

My doctor warned me to avoid splints specifically because they can weaken your wrists, especially if they're worn 24-7 as the author recommends. Think about what happens to muscles when you wear a cast. They atrophy!

There was a lot of lousy advice in the forum as well, which I can attest to firsthand...

Figa (quoted above) then proceeded to explain why other people's advice was bad and then gave a 15 point treatment plan :)

That said, if you're going to self-medicate with gadgetry, my vote would be to check out Kinesis's Contoured Keyboards

The keys are arranged in lines in pits in the shell of the key board. Your fingers naturally droop into the pits and then move forward and backward (rarely to the sides) to depress the appropriate key.

Claimed to make the activity of typing simulate CTS reducing exercises. I have a co-worker who has one and loves it.

Note that the link does not have any affiliation attached to it...mouse over it and see. I just grabbed the first link to this pointing device I saw on Google. Yeah these buggers cost more than the Fry's $5 Special but I'm cool with that. Worth every penny.

Spending money on computer ergonomics is a wise investment -- way better than the fastest cpu.

The Kinesis keyboard has done nothing less than save my career. While starting a company in 1995 the long work days took a toll on my hands. After seeing doctor after doctor and specialist after specialist the best advice they could offer was "type less." Thank you very much, but I had deadlines to meet.

Everything changed when I splurged $300 for the Kinesis Contour keyboard. There are four major differences between this keyboard and the others out there, and together they make typing feel to me like I'm running down hill.

1. Separated "key wells" (you have to see the picture to understand) which allow a much more natural hand position.

2. Keys are lined up directly above each other (i.e. the T key is directly north of the G key, not up-to-the-left). This makes your fingers extend out and back, not out and back and side to side.

3. The key wells are curved, which brings the keys on the upper and lower parts of the keybard closer to your fingertips. This is probably the single largest factor contributing to the "running down hill" feeling.

4. Thumbs. Your thumbs are the two strongest digits on your hands. I don't know about you, but the way I used to type I would only use one of my thumbs, and only for one key (the space bar). My left thumb sat dormant. What a waste! Additionally, two of my most actively used fingers were my pinkeys due to the RET, Backspace and Control keys. Guess which fingers are your weakest? On the Kinesis, the thumbs get the most commonly used keys. I've got a couple of buttons re-mapped (due mostly to Emacs usage patterns) so the four major thumb buttons are Control, Alt, Return and Space. I couldn't live any other way.

Give it a try. You won't regret it.

Kinesis home page

-Pez

The Kinesis keyboard has done nothing less than save my career. While starting a company in 1995 the long work days took a toll on my hands. After seeing doctor after doctor and specialist after specialist the best advice they could offer was "type less." Thank you very much, but I had deadlines to meet.

Everything changed when I splurged $300 for the Kinesis Contour keyboard. There are four major differences between this keyboard and the others out there, and together they make typing feel to me like I'm running down hill.

1. Separated "key wells" (you have to see the picture to understand) which allow a much more natural hand position.

2. Keys are lined up directly above each other (i.e. the T key is directly north of the G key, not up-to-the-left). This makes your fingers extend out and back, not out and back and side to side.

3. The key wells are curved, which brings the keys on the upper and lower parts of the keybard closer to your fingertips. This is probably the single largest factor contributing to the "running down hill" feeling.

4. Thumbs. Your thumbs are the two strongest digits on your hands. I don't know about you, but the way I used to type I would only use one of my thumbs, and only for one key (the space bar). My left thumb sat dormant. What a waste! Additionally, two of my most actively used fingers were my pinkeys due to the RET, Backspace and Control keys. Guess which fingers are your weakest? On the Kinesis, the thumbs get the most commonly used keys. I've got a couple of buttons re-mapped (due mostly to Emacs usage patterns) so the four major thumb buttons are Control, Alt, Return and Space. I couldn't live any other way.

Give it a try. You won't regret it.

Kinesis home page

-Pez

The point of the proximity sensing, zero-force capability is that you don't HAVE to tap hard on the surface. You just let gravity drop your fingers on the surface. Imagine drumming your fingers on a tabletop VERY LIGHTLY, so they barely touch. That's all it takes.

Maybe. I used the DataHand and the Kinesis, and both claimed all kind of benefits due to lower force requirements, but the actual movements they required were more difficult to make.

It's difficult to just hold one's fingers without motion.. having to make very delicate motions, or having to hold one's fingers above the sensitive zone rather than resting on keys, would both require significant effort.

Funny this article should appear today, last night I couldn't get to sleep because of a really sharp, throbbing pain in my wrist.

Does anybody use ergonomic keyboards at home or work? Which ones are the most recommended? I had a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard at work and thought it worked fairly well. In particular, I was hoping to get some feedback on the Kinesis Contour keyboard. It's way more expensive ($239 to start) than the Microsoft keyboards so I wanted to see if anybody had success with it (or even liked typing with it since it is so different) before I purchased one.

Oh, and does anybody use the Dvorak layout?

On your comment about wanting four extra keys - I have a Kinesis ergonomic keyboard at home, and the layout gives you about 19 extra keys to use - eight in an extra row below the convention bottom row, and a full, useful keypad for each thumb with six each.

This keyboard is sweet-looking, comfortable, and great for any game with key remapping and heavy mouse use, since you can actually get more commands under one hand than you can on a standard keyboard.

You could probably find most of the same features in another keyboard called the Maltron, but I wasn't exactly inspired by either its industrial british look, or the $350 price - I can get another Kinesis for about $180.

It definitely has a nice look deployed in a geek environment. My roommate has had one for years as well, and he's also quite pleased with it.

On your comment about wanting four extra keys - I have a Kinesis ergonomic keyboard at home, and the layout gives you about 19 extra keys to use - eight in an extra row below the convention bottom row, and a full, useful keypad for each thumb with six each.

This keyboard is sweet-looking, comfortable, and great for any game with key remapping and heavy mouse use, since you can actually get more commands under one hand than you can on a standard keyboard.

You could probably find most of the same features in another keyboard called the Maltron, but I wasn't exactly inspired by either its industrial british look, or the $350 price - I can get another Kinesis for about $180.

It definitely has a nice look deployed in a geek environment. My roommate has had one for years as well, and he's also quite pleased with it.

I bought a kinesis after I got low-grade carpal-tunnel syndrome from too much programming, and decided that since it was going to take me a while to get used to I might as well switch to Dvorak too. After about a week I realized Dvorak had some serious problems:

• It didn't take finger strength into account
• Commonly used programming symbols (brackets, semi's, >'s, <'s) are a pain to get to
• Your fingers rest differently on a kinesis
• Some other things I can't remember anymore

The first one was my biggest concern because my main goal was to be comfortable while typing. Under Dvorak your little fingers rest on the extremely common "a" and "s", the uncommon "u" is right under the index finger and is thus easier to type than it needs to be, etc. etc.

I found some letter usage charts online but didn't trust them so I made up my own with a simple perl script, the Linux HOWTO files and a bunch of and coding (in java and perl mostly) that I'd done. The raw results are here. I found my letter usage to be slightly but importantly different, so I spent a few hours designing the above mentioned keyboard layout with comfort as the goal. I targeted it towards programming java and perl in Emacs on a kinesis by putting the most common letters within easy reach of the strongest fingers, making common two letter combos easy to get to, and making common programming chars and emacs commands easy to type.

Let me know if you try it, I'd be interested to hear if it helps.

About 10 years ago until about 7 years ago their keyboards were made in the U.S.A. or Ireland. I bought two Natural Keyboards in 2000, both made in Taiwan. The crappy keyswitches butchered my hands and the key switches started wearing out within two months so that when you pressed shift or any broad key it would just jam in the "up" position and not go down. That was also a major cause of pain, eventually.

Now, my hands are 26cm (~11in?) thumb-tip to pinky-finger-tip, so the average keyboard and things like my Logitech "ergonomic" mouse were far too small.

So I dropped by an ergonomic equipment specialist in Holland and after trying out a bunch of keyboards I spent the dosh, and got a Kinesis Ergo Elan keyboard. For my huge hands it was a good size, and the ultra-light keyswitches and 6 keys under each thumb, all arranged in two bowls, have meant hours of typing without pain. Combine that with a Anir Vertical Mouse and I'm a happy hacker. I made sure work bought be one as well. At home I've got a huge Countour Perfit mouse to fit my hand

As for my fave keyboard. The Union Bank of Switzerland (now UBS AG) used to be the biggest IT shop in the country. They were even developing their own Unix workstation at one point. They manufactured a keyboard for traders with 4 or 5 extra rows of keys over the normal QWERTY layout plus a number pad, with a 4 line LCD display built in. Talk about lots of short-cut buttons... :-)

not this again -- it's been a year or so but a 'this funky keyboard will cure carpal tunnel' article always come up eventually.

Basically, ONE keyboard will never solve your carpal tunnel problems. carpal tunnel is a result of continous stress on specific parts of the wrist. and it is still not completely understood how to prevent it. i found that my moderate to severe wrist pain ceased when i started alternating keyboards. i use two: a regular keyboard and a Kinesis classic. by using these very different keyboards i work different muscles and distribute the stress throughout my hands which (in theory) prevents most harm from occuring.

Kinesis keyboards are sort of expensive but it is by far my favorite keyboard. took about a week to get used to (hint: be lazy, don't reach so far for keys). i got my boss to buy it ($275) for me after some mild whining.

If you watch their little video, they talk about some positions that normal keyboards force your hands to be in. It's those positions that cause all of the problems that are associated with typing. Their keyboard purports to remove the problems by putting your hands in a more natural and neutral position.

A little over a year ago, slashdot posted an article about the Evolution Keyboard, now by Kinesis. I have had one of those for several years, and would recommend that anyone interested in the SafeType keyboard also check out the Evolution keyboard. (You can the review I posted to slashdot here.)

The SafeType keyboard is fixed in position, and they consider that to be one of its major features. While I can see that preventing users from futzing with the keyboard keeps them from moving it to a position where it can hurt them, I happen to really like the ability of the Evolution keyboard to move to whatever position I like. In fact, I can make it go completely vertical if I want, gaining all the advantages of the SafeType keyboard. I can even drop it to the sides of my chair, removing even one more "unnatural" position of my arms.

To me, having lots of choices in how I configure my work space is a good thing. And having a keyboard that fits this mindset is one of the most important parts.

If you watch their little video, they talk about some positions that normal keyboards force your hands to be in. It's those positions that cause all of the problems that are associated with typing. Their keyboard purports to remove the problems by putting your hands in a more natural and neutral position.

A little over a year ago, slashdot posted an article about the Evolution Keyboard, now by Kinesis. I have had one of those for several years, and would recommend that anyone interested in the SafeType keyboard also check out the Evolution keyboard. (You can the review I posted to slashdot here.)

The SafeType keyboard is fixed in position, and they consider that to be one of its major features. While I can see that preventing users from futzing with the keyboard keeps them from moving it to a position where it can hurt them, I happen to really like the ability of the Evolution keyboard to move to whatever position I like. In fact, I can make it go completely vertical if I want, gaining all the advantages of the SafeType keyboard. I can even drop it to the sides of my chair, removing even one more "unnatural" position of my arms.

To me, having lots of choices in how I configure my work space is a good thing. And having a keyboard that fits this mindset is one of the most important parts.

I use the kinesis chair mount keyboard. I love it! I've got it mounted on my aeron. Arms are nicely supported and am able to type with hands in perfect position.
Plus it looks like you should be piloting th enterprise.
Kinesis Desk Mount Keyboard

I screwed up my hands early on from typing incorrectly way too much.. like to the point that for a month or two I couldn't really use my left hand for opening bottles / driving. I now have a Kinesis Essential, and while it took a month or so to get to where I could go at any reasonable speed, it's helped and I can now go at about the same speed as on a regular keyboard. What's helped more though has been making sure to take breaks and use better posture - take the keyboard OUT of your lap while typing...
I also use funky arm rests , which help considerably with mouse use and shoulder/back pain, and I got a fairly normal office chair, but spent some time finding one that actually fit my back right.
These days I do pretty well w/o pain, and that's 70+ work hours/week on the computer + any time I might spend doing my own stuff after work.

I had a bout with tendonitis/carpel tunnel (depending on which doctor I asked) a number of years ago and immediately switched from a normal keyboard to an ergonomic one, eventually finding one from Kinesis (Specifically the Classic) that actually helped. I have found this keyboard to be a great help, and after a bit of research it's actually pretty clear why.

The whole deal with ergonomic keyboards is that to be effective they need to eliminate wrist possitions which cause your tendons to drag along the edges of your wrist, which causes inflamation. The key to this seems to be maintaining a natural "relaxed" wrist position which allows the tendons to do their work right in the middle of the wrist.

Of course people vary quite a bit, so it seems that what works for some doesn't work for everyone. I've found that I'm particularly sensitive to this kind of injury (don't ask me why, I just am...) so the Kinesis is the only thing that works for me. I've met plenty of folks who don't need something this extreme because the more "normal" ergo keyboards change their possition enough that they stop having problems - generally the Kinesis will also work for them, but is over kill. Those more "normal" ergo keyboards don't do crap for me.

I've also met plenty of people who just don't seem to have a problem with this stuff. I don't know what it is, but some people seem susceptible and others can spend fifty years typing on a standard keyboard and never have a problem. Go figure.

I'm tempted to say that the "normal" ergo keyboards are a scam, because they don't work for me, but they seem to help enough borderline folks that I just keep my mouth shut instead. If you're having real wrist issues though don't write off all ergo keyboards until you check out the Kinesis ones. They provide a much more robust solution to bad positioning than any of the others, many of which focus on how "turned in" your hands are while ignoring the degree of flex in your wrists.

And of course, the position of the rest of your body matters too.

I'm unwilling to say that ergo keyboards are a waste or a scam for the simple reason that without them I couldn't code anymore. I did that for a while before I found the Kinesis, and it was bad. My life as a waiter is not a pretty thing ;)

I had a bout with tendonitis/carpel tunnel (depending on which doctor I asked) a number of years ago and immediately switched from a normal keyboard to an ergonomic one, eventually finding one from Kinesis (Specifically the Classic) that actually helped. I have found this keyboard to be a great help, and after a bit of research it's actually pretty clear why.

The whole deal with ergonomic keyboards is that to be effective they need to eliminate wrist possitions which cause your tendons to drag along the edges of your wrist, which causes inflamation. The key to this seems to be maintaining a natural "relaxed" wrist position which allows the tendons to do their work right in the middle of the wrist.

Of course people vary quite a bit, so it seems that what works for some doesn't work for everyone. I've found that I'm particularly sensitive to this kind of injury (don't ask me why, I just am...) so the Kinesis is the only thing that works for me. I've met plenty of folks who don't need something this extreme because the more "normal" ergo keyboards change their possition enough that they stop having problems - generally the Kinesis will also work for them, but is over kill. Those more "normal" ergo keyboards don't do crap for me.

I've also met plenty of people who just don't seem to have a problem with this stuff. I don't know what it is, but some people seem susceptible and others can spend fifty years typing on a standard keyboard and never have a problem. Go figure.

I'm tempted to say that the "normal" ergo keyboards are a scam, because they don't work for me, but they seem to help enough borderline folks that I just keep my mouth shut instead. If you're having real wrist issues though don't write off all ergo keyboards until you check out the Kinesis ones. They provide a much more robust solution to bad positioning than any of the others, many of which focus on how "turned in" your hands are while ignoring the degree of flex in your wrists.

And of course, the position of the rest of your body matters too.

I'm unwilling to say that ergo keyboards are a waste or a scam for the simple reason that without them I couldn't code anymore. I did that for a while before I found the Kinesis, and it was bad. My life as a waiter is not a pretty thing ;)

Yeah, I just bought a Kinesis Ergonomic keyboard....it takes some getting used to.

Can anyone compare/contrast the Kinesis ergo keyboards with the Maltron Ergonomic Keyboard? The Maltron is quite a bit more expensive (nearly double the price) -- is there anything in particular that makes it worth it? I notice it has the numeric keypad in the center, something the Kinesis keyboards lack & something I tend to like to miss whenever I don't have one (i.e., working on a friend's laptop). Also, I know the Kinesis keyboards use a PS/2 connector, but I find no info on the Maltron site about what type of connector it uses, other than the fact that it is both Mac & PC compatable.

I'd just like some feedback before I go shelling out two weeks of my pay instead of paying for food -- ahh, the joys of being a college student ;-)

Nothing else I've tried comes close to matching the comfort and usability of these keyboards. The Classic model can be found for under $200 at online resellers.

See www.kinesis-ergo.com for more information and a list of online resellers.

Miller

There's no one singular answer for this, you really need to try these things out for yourself until you find something that works. For me, the Kinesis-Ergo has been amazing. Not only can I type like a demon and avoid wrist pain, but the thumb-located Ctrl and Alt keys make (X)Emacs that much easier to work with, not to mention easier on my pinkies :-)

For what it's worth, you can still buy those old IBM clicky-keyboards (but I'll take my Kinesis instead any day).

Done. Kinesis offers several of their optimized keyboards with foot pedals, or you can purchase the pedals separately. They're fantastic.

You can buy a footswitch from Kinesis. Their programmable 3-pedal switch works with any PS/2-style keyboard (or AT-style with an appropriate adaptor). You can program each of the switches to almost any macro (within some memory limit). The default is Shift (center), Control (left), and Alt (right).

You might want to check out the SmartBoard by Data Desk. It's a nicely laid-out split keyboard with low-force mechanical keys. It's a little loud, but boy does it feel beautiful. The layout might look odd to begin with, but I found it very easy to adapt and I'm a fucking fast typist. Plus it's only $70, which in these days of cheap Microsoft Natural knock-offs and $300 UberErgo boards is a pretty good deal.

Well, this keyboard gives you half of what you asked for.

I've got a Kinesis Contoured 'board at work now, but I'm going to return it.

First, the good: Learning the new key positions wasn't very difficult. They're pretty natural, and the hand position is very nice. Less stress than a standard 'board. The keys themselves are mechanical, not membrane, and low-pressure. Very nice feel, very positive contact, although not much of a click. There's an audible click that you can toggle.

On the bad side, the 'board is almost useless except for typing characters. The control (shift, alt, etc) keys are in difficult positions. A design goal of the 'board, they tell me, was to make key combos like 'CTRL-SHIFT-S' easier to hit with two hands. This may be better for your hands, but at high speed it's very very hard to coordinate two hands to nail a combo like this (and I play guitar, so I know a little about coordinating hand movements).

There's no numeric keypad, but there is another 'layer' that can be toggled with a function key or foot switch. Kind of a pain. The 'board's programmable, if you spring $50 for the extra chip (with that and the footswitch, you're easily over $300), and this helps a little, but not enough.

Bottom line for me: the keys feel beautiful and typing characters is very easy, but the 'board's nearly useless for anything else. It's hard to hit function keys and key combos, hard to use with one hand while keeping a hand on the mouse - in other words, nearly half of what I do. Too bad.

BUT if you do nothing but type all day, buy this board and never let it out of your sight. Your life will improve dramatically. If I could afford to have 2 'boards, this would be one of them.

I've got a Kinesis Contoured 'board at work now, but I'm going to return it.

First, the good: Learning the new key positions wasn't very difficult. They're pretty natural, and the hand position is very nice. Less stress than a standard 'board. The keys themselves are mechanical, not membrane, and low-pressure. Very nice feel, very positive contact, although not much of a click. There's an audible click that you can toggle.

On the bad side, the 'board is almost useless except for typing characters. The control (shift, alt, etc) keys are in difficult positions. A design goal of the 'board, they tell me, was to make key combos like 'CTRL-SHIFT-S' easier to hit with two hands. This may be better for your hands, but at high speed it's very very hard to coordinate two hands to nail a combo like this (and I play guitar, so I know a little about coordinating hand movements).

There's no numeric keypad, but there is another 'layer' that can be toggled with a function key or foot switch. Kind of a pain. The 'board's programmable, if you spring $50 for the extra chip (with that and the footswitch, you're easily over $300), and this helps a little, but not enough.

Bottom line for me: the keys feel beautiful and typing characters is very easy, but the 'board's nearly useless for anything else. It's hard to hit function keys and key combos, hard to use with one hand while keeping a hand on the mouse - in other words, nearly half of what I do. Too bad.

BUT if you do nothing but type all day, buy this board and never let it out of your sight. Your life will improve dramatically. If I could afford to have 2 'boards, this would be one of them.

Regarding your keyboard question, http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/contoured.htm
has some great (though expensive) keyboards. They take some getting used to, but they're great once you do.

DMB Ergonomics carries Kinesis, Fox Bay and Contour ergonomics keyboards, keyboard arms, trays, supports and contour mise.

They carry QWERTY/DVORAK QD® SWITCHABLE , which allows to switch from DVORAK to QWERTY on the same keyboard and the best thing is it not something that the OS needs to support it's all done on the keyboard.

There is also programmable keyboards -- Like the Proffessional which has "Programmable Key Layout - anyone can easily set keys to suit individual needs" and has on-board memmory for 24 macros holding up to 142 Characters each.

The Professional QD for PC (Qwerty/Dvorak convertible) costs $355.50, which the simplier Professional for PC costs $319.50.

It's not a matter of if you can switch to a different layout. It's a matter of (1) do you want to spend so much on a keyboard? and (2) do you really want to have to take your keyboard with you(to work, ...)?

There is more information at the kinesis website on there keyboards.

Chad

I purchased this myself and bring it with me when I change jobs.

http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/

I'm just getting used to this keyboard but so far I really like it. Ctrl and Alt are kind of awkwardly positioned, so if you're going to use Emacs you really want pedals.

This FingerBoard looks really cool, I'd love to try it. I have RSI kind of problems myself, and for me, keyboards with lighter touch are definately nicer on my hands and arms. Hmm... gesture recognition... light keys... i'd LOVE to have one of these. I want one now!

I feel inclined to make the obligatory reference to the exceedingly cool Kinesis ergonomic keyboards. I own both a Classic and a Professional (the ones with the bowls that the keys sit in) and I honestly don't understand how I was able to type before. They've helped to reduce the pain that I feel in my wrists when typing pretty substantially.

Yes, Dvorak has been around for a while, and while some subjectively feel it's more comfortable and / or faster, there aren't really any reports proving that this goes in general. It is, like many other things, an individual preference. Remember that Qwerty wasn't only made to work with mechanical typewriters, it was also made to be really fast.

The Kinesis keyboards -- the advanced contoured ones -- have had the option to switch sides with a foot pedal for a few years now. That way you can easily do this kind of one-handed typing with either your left or your right hand. They're also available with Dvorak keys printed on the keycaps, and you can switch between Dvorak and Qwerty with the foot pedal if you want. I myself have the non-programmable contoured one, so I haven't been able to try all this out, but it ought to work really well. If you were wondering, I really like it, and speed-wise it's almost exactly the same as a flat keyboard for me.

Yes, Dvorak has been around for a while, and while some subjectively feel it's more comfortable and / or faster, there aren't really any reports proving that this goes in general. It is, like many other things, an individual preference. Remember that Qwerty wasn't only made to work with mechanical typewriters, it was also made to be really fast.

The Kinesis keyboards -- the advanced contoured ones -- have had the option to switch sides with a foot pedal for a few years now. That way you can easily do this kind of one-handed typing with either your left or your right hand. They're also available with Dvorak keys printed on the keycaps, and you can switch between Dvorak and Qwerty with the foot pedal if you want. I myself have the non-programmable contoured one, so I haven't been able to try all this out, but it ought to work really well. If you were wondering, I really like it, and speed-wise it's almost exactly the same as a flat keyboard for me.

The Dvorak style key layout has been around for a while; if you want to spend alot of time relearning how to type, that's probably your best bet. I myself spent 2 weeks learning a Kinesis keyboard and I still type faster with a standard keyboard. I had generally expected more exploration from the hacker crowd, but really no one has moved from the QWERTY model.

That said, it's always good that people are playing with new designs. If one of my hands got blown off, I'd be pleased to be able to find a custom product like this one. If I were running a keyboard company however, I'd be hesitant to mass produce them.

That link wasn't responding when I tried it... here's one that works.

I would rather relinquish my computer than give up this keyboard.

I would have to relinquish my computer to afford this keyboard! This one (the one you bought?) is more affordable, but it doesn't look like the hands are angled to use it comfortably. Still, I'd like to try it. Thanks for the reference, and I'm glad you like yours.

I would rather relinquish my computer than give up this keyboard.

I would have to relinquish my computer to afford this keyboard! This one (the one you bought?) is more affordable, but it doesn't look like the hands are angled to use it comfortably. Still, I'd like to try it. Thanks for the reference, and I'm glad you like yours.

The Qwerty keyboard layout was designed in 1872. The Dvorak keyboard layout was designed in 1932. Since then, many people have sat around and argued which is better. But it's not clear that either one is truly the best.

I think they are both pretty good. But I'm confident that today we can do better. And this is a project that I've just started to look into.

I'm currently an SDE, but most of my graduate work was in theory. There are two reasons why I think we can do better today:

A) We have developed many algorithms that can solve or closely approximate hard optimization problems.

B) We have computers.


I've broken the problem of determining a good keyboard layout into the following steps:

1) Determine what people actually type. I'm not quite sure how to best do this. Ideally, everyone would send me a file which captured the key strokes that they've made over the past decade. Realistically, I was thinking of simply gathering data from the web, and using word frequency data.

2) Determine how to effectively model typing. There are some interesting experiments that show that, for example, your index finger is faster and stronger than your pinky. Also, you can type more efficiently if the keys you need to type alternate hands. Here are some interesting reports on typing micro-benchmarks and such. The goal of this model would be to tell you how efficient a particular keyboard layout is. Until I read otherwise, I'm assuming that maximizing efficiency also maximizes ergonomics.

3) Develop an algorithm. This is the fun part. Develop an alorithm which searches the very large search space of possible keyboard layouts and find one which is as close to optimal as possible as defined by the efficiency of the model. I may find that this optimization problem is best expressed at a semidefinite program, or such, but it will be interesting to see where the model takes me.

4) Real world test. I have no illusions of gradeur. I don't expect people to come rushing to try out the keyboard layout I design. But I'm hoping that I can convince a few people to try it out and give it a test drive.


I would like to post this as an "ask slashdot" after I make more progress and can give more specifics, but does anyone have some good suggestions at this point? I'm especially interested in information concerning (1) and (2). Can anyone point me to other keyboard research?


BTW, I currently have two Kinesis Ergo keyboards (one for work and one for home) which can switch between qwerty and dvorak. I highly recommend them. There are many reasons I prefer them over a normal keyboard, but the biggest reason is the thumb keys. When the standard computer keyboard was designed, they just took the qwerty keyboard layout and added function keys around the edges. Thus, on a standard keyboard, the pinky (the weakest finger) is completely overworked while the thumbs (the stongest "finger") hardly break a sweat.

ErgoInterfaces didn't make that keyboard. Kinesis did. Give them the credit. Kinesis Made it, ErgoInterfaces is just distributing it. Kinesis is the King of countour keyboards. You shouldn't be surprised that they made this one.

The pain around my knuckles and center of the top part of my hand got bad enough that I had to have an intern read/write e-mails for me at work. And rather then being a senior systems admin, I did staff training for various technical topics. Yippy. I took two weeks off of typing, and did a lot of research. This is what I ended up doing:

1) Kinesis Contour Keyboard . I was highly skeptical of this keyboard, being $250... but my hand pains were enough that I would try anything. I got it for home, the one with dual-dvorak/qwerty caps. I now swear by this keyboard so much that I would rather give up my Athlon and go back to a 486/33 if it was the only way to keep this keyboard. I then had work buy me one. It's hard to learn a new keyboard if it changes depending on where you are :) The primary advantage of this keyboard is no matter what keys you hit, your hands never move. Things that don't move, don't get stressed. I've also got some good photos of it's inards and some closeups.

2) Dvorak Keyboard Layout . I took the dive when I bought my Kinesis and immediately began learning Dvorak. Having my keyboard labeled with dual-dvorak/qwerty keys helped me a lot. Un-learning 12 years of QWERTY was by no means easy, but worth it. It was very rough to learn (took about 3 weeks to get back to normal speed), but because your fingers don't have to move as much for english words, my fingers are under a lot less stress. Doesn't help much with perl though, but Ruby's nicer syntax means my hands contort less anyways. Oh, you don't lose your qwerty skills. Whenever I type on a normal keyboard, my hand things qwerty. It associated Dvorak with the Kinesis keyboard.

3) Contour Systems Perfit Mouse . This was almost as important as the keyboard. It amazed me what a difference this made. These mice are custom to your hands. I got two 3-button mice for 7-inch hands, one lefty and one righty. I use the left handed mouse at home (my natural hand), and the right handed at work. It took some training on my right hand, but the balance makes it much less hurtful. I still get pains going to Microsoft mice or trackballs. I can't stress how excellently designed these are for your hands. Rather then pushing the end of your finger to click, you apply a very light pressure in the middle of your fingers. Less movement is less stress is less pain.

4) xwrits . This is software to remind you to take keyboard breaks. You can install it straight from /usr/ports/deskutils/xwrits in FreeBSD. This is the .xsession command line I use:

xwrits typetime=50 +finger=japanese +clock +mouse +beep +breakclock +multiply +top &

I'm going to have to set it so that locks me out of my workstation soon. I often will type "killall xwrits". Anyways, that's what I ended up doing for my situation. I can now type again quite happily, though I still get pains on normal qwerty keyboards like the one I'm on ATM at a friends house. Hand damage really sucks, I miss being able to use laptops without pain. Now I have to drag this Kinesis around.

IF YOU FEEL PAIN - STOP - TAKE BREAKS - FIX YOUR SITUATION! SEE A DOCTOR!. I cannot stress this enough. Not fixing this earlier has cost me.

I happen to suffer from serious wrist pain and being an input freak I decided to take it all the way. Yes, I'm convinced that the Evolution keyboard is better than an old clickety-clack keyboard, but if you want to see some real damage reduction, you have to go extreme.

I decided to go for a Datahand, and at around 1500 bux I think it's the most expensive keyboard out there. I'm very happy about it, but I only type at max. 95% of my old typing speed. A little bit frustrating, but worth it. If I use a regular keyboard for more than 20 mins, it's hell. I have also tried the Kinesis Essential keyboard, which is much cheaper, but a very good ergonomic keyboard.

For a while I used a Foot switch, also from Kinesis, but this was a real waste of money. You have to always have your feet in the same place to use it, and it's waaaay too small - I kept hitting two buttons at the same time.

Since I still have some problems with my arms, I decided to go for some armrests. These are movable and kinda cool looking together with the datahand, and although the product is good quality, I don't really feel that they that much. They give a marginal improvement at best.

Oh, the built-in mouse on the Datahand sux, so I ordered a head tracked mouse (after seeing it on /.) from Eyecontrol, but it still hasn't arrived.

I personally think that the mouse is the biggest culprit when it comes to wrist problems, but I am still considering using some kinda speech recognition software. Ok, I'm a bit geeky about this, but I'm 23, and I need these hands for many more years.

-Kraft

-Kraft

I happen to suffer from serious wrist pain and being an input freak I decided to take it all the way. Yes, I'm convinced that the Evolution keyboard is better than an old clickety-clack keyboard, but if you want to see some real damage reduction, you have to go extreme.

I decided to go for a Datahand, and at around 1500 bux I think it's the most expensive keyboard out there. I'm very happy about it, but I only type at max. 95% of my old typing speed. A little bit frustrating, but worth it. If I use a regular keyboard for more than 20 mins, it's hell. I have also tried the Kinesis Essential keyboard, which is much cheaper, but a very good ergonomic keyboard.

For a while I used a Foot switch, also from Kinesis, but this was a real waste of money. You have to always have your feet in the same place to use it, and it's waaaay too small - I kept hitting two buttons at the same time.

Since I still have some problems with my arms, I decided to go for some armrests. These are movable and kinda cool looking together with the datahand, and although the product is good quality, I don't really feel that they that much. They give a marginal improvement at best.

Oh, the built-in mouse on the Datahand sux, so I ordered a head tracked mouse (after seeing it on /.) from Eyecontrol, but it still hasn't arrived.

I personally think that the mouse is the biggest culprit when it comes to wrist problems, but I am still considering using some kinda speech recognition software. Ok, I'm a bit geeky about this, but I'm 23, and I need these hands for many more years.

-Kraft

-Kraft

You might note that these keyboards are made by Kinesis, and can be purchased from them online. I use a Kinesis contoured keyboard, which is great. There is a lot more information on kinesis' site than on the site mentioned in the story.. go there, fool