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(Nearly) Zero-Force Keyboard

ahertz writes: "Just ran across another nifty keyboard, the FingerBoard from FingerWorks. It's like a giant touchpad (although the technology is a bit different), so you can type with virtually zero force. It also works as a mouse, and lets you perform guesture based commands. Would something like this be good for someone with RSI?" To me, this looks like the most unresponsive, most annoying possible keyboard, even if I'm a QUERTY typist rather than a shuffle-weird-disc-items typist, and trackpads always seem wibbly to me.

5 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. QUERTY?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    Er, QUERTY, eh? Didn't you notice that you weren't using the keys at the top-left of your keyboard?

  2. Yeah, right... by Polo · · Score: 5

    Looking at the image, I can't imagine why I would type with my hands crossed.

    The picture shows an image of a right hand on the left hand side of the keyboard.

  3. Re:Don't dis Dr. Querty. by sjeng · · Score: 4

    We should ask the guys of Microsoft what to do with this... They probably will dynamically change key so you have to look for them all the time! And finally some annoying paperclip will say: "you do not seem to use the 'e'. Should I show it in the future?" A nightmare!

  4. guesture based commands by IainMH · · Score: 5

    lets you perform guesture based commands

    Oh dear. If my laptop starts to understand some of the gestures I make to it, it would never talk to me again.

  5. Don't dis Dr. Querty. by Flying+Headless+Goku · · Score: 4

    He was the greatest mind ever to have developed a keyboard layout. Far greater than that wannabe Dvorak.

    Any hack can study character frequency and place the keys to minimize finger travel (hint: layouts based on past usage are optimized for use in the past!), but it takes a real genius to create a design that lets you spell "typeuriter" using only the top row.

    However, there is a better keyboard design, which promises to reduce instruction time to a fraction of current cost by the use of a surpassingly elegant mnemonic device:

    \Mr.Jock:TV"
    quizPhD,bags
    ([few])lynx?

    And who created this great innovation?

    It was found among the lost notes of none other than the great Jock Querty! He invents better dead than Dvorak did alive!
    --

    --