Very Cool, Very Vaporous 1-Handed Keyboard

beckett sent us linkage to one of the more bizarre one handed keyboards that I've seen in recent memory. It doesn't contain really anything technical (just a stupid rant about how people talk more during games (duh! I kept getting destroyed last night in tetrinet because I was busy screaming when I should have been dropping pieces) Update: 12/02 09:27 PM by CT : Ok, apparently it actually is 2 handed, it just looks weird and the buttons seem to be on one side.

Comments

Handy links on alternative keyboarding...

[GuavaBerry]

The CTD Resource Network has a very fine examination on all kinds of keyboards, including several like the one you're looking for. These are all, as to be expected, quite pricey, but each has something to offer to everybody.

The Alternative Keyboard FAQ

I fully agree that too many 'ergonomic' keyboards still require typists to squeeze their shoulders together. I would really love a typing solution that let me place my hands wherever I please (like a motion-sensitive pair of gloves, or a pair of flexible mats), so I can reposition my arms however I like (on my lap, at my sides) and not lose any typing speed.

Re:no chording?

[dbarclay10]

You could also monitor the position and force of the tendons in the wrist; this is very doable with current technology. Maybe even cheap.

Some research would have to be done one exactly what tendon-positions make which key-press, and it might turn out that it's impossible to tell. There's also the problem with people who don't have tendons near enough to the skin to be able to detect properly. People with particularily muscular wrists, or people who have a lot of fat might pose problems.

Training would be incredibly easy. One could just wear the gloves, hook the keyboard into the gloves, hook the gloves into the computer, and whenever you press a key the gloves record the position of the tendons(and their force and such), and remember which key was pressed. This needs a fair bit of intelligence on the part of the gloves(I'm actually thinking more of wrist-bands, not gloves), but things are small enough today that it shouldn't pose a problem.

I don't know enough about alternative power sources, but this device would need much at all if it could harness a bit of the energy whenever your tendons move. This could be very tiring if too much force is required to power the device, but I don't think much would be needed.

Anyways, food for thought.

Dave

Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)

Re:no chording?

[burris]

Check out this. They think they can shrink the whole thing into a 1-2mm speck on the end of each fingernail.

Burris

The problem with this is reliance on a central pt.

[timothy]

I'd rather keyboards have a left component and a right component, perhaps communicating by bluetooth ... despite their assertion, this looks anything but comfortable to use while lying down, because you would have to scrunch your shoulders to the center in order to grasp the device. Lying on your side? Forget it!

How about a simple (not chording) keyboard that's split in the middle not by a few degrees of angle, but not a cord that lets you position them a few feet apart?

timothy

One handed?

[jfunk]

It doesn't look very one handed to me. Just because there's only one hand in the pic doesn't mean that it can reach all of those buttons on the other side.

Actually, it looks a hell of a lot more like a gamepad. A hell of a lot more confusing.

I haven't tried it, obviously, but it looks really hard to get comfortable with. They appear to claim 50wpm. I bet that's the maximum someone's been able to get out of a prototype, the average being much lower.

It looks ok for games which require keyboard keys all the time, but most intelligent people play those with a mouse or a one-handed analog joystick anyway. The Twiddler looks much better for someone looking for a keyboard, rather than a gamepad.

Smell my vapors...

[K8Fan]

One of the most telling things about the thing's vapor status, is the improbable reverse curve display. Especially obvious on the zoomed view of the alleged device. God help us all when industrial designers get ahold of displays that can be bent and formed into convex and concave shapes.

Yep, the only type of person stupid enough to possibly fall for this is a Wall Street investor.

Dreadful ergonomics too. This is an example not of ergonomic design, but of the insidious and evil "ergonomic style" design. Not actually good or comfortable to use, it just has to losely resemble stuff that does. Blegh!