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Build A Custom-Fit One-hand Keyboard
EyesWideOpen writes: "The New York Times (free reg. req.) has an article about a guy who has invented a one-hand keyboard that really isn't a board at all. The 'Stealthy Keyboard', which is in the prototype development stage, is designed to fit in the palm of the hand and uses the fingertips, the middle of the fingers and combinations of those to generate characters. More information (white paper, downloadable engineering plans, photos, etc.) can be found on this website." Inventor John McKown adds "The kit includes (open) source for the firmware. The code is for a PS/2 port but a USB version is slowly progressing."
[Insert One Handed Typing Joke Here]
or does this look like a sex toy?
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
it's a skill we all must learn.... and have learned. :)
fp, btw.
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
is it clicky?
Now I just need two mice for my feet and I can deathmatch myself.
Give it a look
Now if someone would only invent a one-handed mouse...
for getting carpal tunnel faster!
or was that to make you look like a mute?
wait... he can't be mute because he's also talking on his cellphone..
\
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
since he only had 1 finger on his left hand. Needless to say he was quit the hunt and pecker :)
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
He left out more efficient porn browsing.
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
I'd really love this in USB. Better yet would be a wireless version with a little USB plug (no cords)! Looks like I have a new project to try out in the workshop this weekend...
Hmmm. I guess he never heard of Doug Engelbart. (Inventor of the "chord" keyboard, along with the mouse.)
Look at the shape of the "keyboard". Cylindrical, held in the hand with a loose comfortable grip. All a savvy inventor needs to do is drill a hole through the center and hey... you can type, mouse AND, um, entertain yourself at the same time.
What's your plan, John? --Hopefully it includes being able to withstand a slashdotting.
What we need is multiple fingers a la ghost in the shell.
Seriously though I think this keyboard might be great for people who need to move around and stuff but if you're going to just sit in your chair in front of a screen maybe its best to have a "normal" keyboard.
We've always been at war with Eurasia.
Like we've never seen one of those before.
So, why exactly is this different than other types?
Then again, there is the Dvorak keyboard layout. I wonder how the speed typing one-handed with Dvorak compares to typing on this gadget?
Mike.
Mmmm......sacrelicious.
I know gaming is probably one of the last things a keyboard designer should consider, but in this case it poses an interesting question: how hard is it to press multiple keys at once? I guess this applies outside of gaming as well. If you use both the middle of fingers as well as the tips, is it easy to press them both? I know for my gaming I need about 15 easily accessible keys. With 5 keys, and all combinations of those you get quite a few more than 15 keys, but I dont want to have to stop running forward while I switch weapons. :)
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
If this thing doesn't have a "board", then how about calling it a keytube?
--
Employing incompetence: $35/h
Fixing the resulting mistakes: $1000's
Employing me: Priceless
Now people can efficiently tab and scroll through their pr0n collections with one hand while keeping their other hand free for 'other uses'.
That fact alone makes me wonder if this guy is single, lives in an apartment, and has a screaming fast broadband connection.
Honesty may be the best policy, but apparently by elimination, dishonesty is the second best policy.
"that he had removed the magazine from his 1908 Colt but did not clear the chamber before handing the weapon to Barr"
Magazine? Champer?
Just another device to distract drivers here in LA. I can just see it now: driving your SUV down the 405, talking on your cellphone, drinking your Starbucks, watching a DVD, and writing an email.
what's the address for the NYT login generator?
The joke here is that this was posted under the 'hardware' section. Heh.
Isn't this also called chording or something? I seem to remember that the guy who also invented the mouse (Engelbark?) had an input device like this. It was part of the work that he was doing at SRI.
Does that sound familiar to anybody, or am I on crack?
If this thing becomes any sort of standard, we'll have normal people being able to count up to 256 in binary on their fingers. Another thing too, depending on how the "chords" map to the alphabet, we may have laypeople who know the ascii system by heart.
so much for being leet.
Blaze a trail to the New World
-sam
I wonder how difficult it will be to adapt this to fit onto my steering wheel...
This on one side, a trackball on the other. I'm good to go.
this just in... another "go-grammer" was hit and killed today as he walked onto highway 44, 27 miles his home. he was found wearing only boxers and a cheerio-stained ThinkGeek t-shirt, and possessed the tell-tale single large forearm. according to drivers, he shuffled like a zombie with a far-away look in his eye, and seemed to be yelling something about "overflows".
the last information typed into his portable computer read: "oh shi#!#$%%%%%%%%"
It's only a model.
Sounds really good to me. Sure - you'd have to learn how to use it, but thats no big deal. I learned how to message pretty fast on my cell phone so I'm sure learning the key "chores" he talked about wont be to hard. Sounds like a good application for Bluetooth. You have the thing with you at all times and can use it to input text into your PDA, phone, Laptop or machine at home. And two years later that guy can release version 2 of his keyboard with built in wristwatch...
Hank! White!
This could be integrated into a steering wheel, allowing complete control of an in-dash computer. This could have benefits, when combined with a HUD for directions, maps, and even playing mp3's. Probably a little to dangerous for typing emails, unless there was a verbal read back of what was typed.
To skip this whole thing all together and continue working on mind reading sensors so you can just think about what to type and it just shows up on the screen
I believe i've seen similar things before but nothing refined to useability. maybe that will be my next project! anyone know where to get sensors to stick on your head?
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
hmmm.... I hate dibulging my info to NY times... here is a generic accnt. for those of you who have the same dilemma u/p: slash_dot1/slashdot
what am i going to do with my other hand? .....!#%!#%!^!@#%$!%#
this is the greatest idea EVER!!!
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
-sam
This looks a little like the MicroWriter available in the UK in 1983. See http://www.nifty.demon.co.uk/odd/mw/. I think the inventor was a certain Cy Enfield. The same keyboard was used later in the AgendA, see for instance http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~len/boog/aghist.htm
at all. We did this in one of our labs with the self-titled cyborg, Dr.Steve Mann, at University of Toronto. It was lab 5... you can see for yourself. The class websites are at....
http://eyetap.org/ece385/
http://wearcam.org/ece385/
if you know a little about device drivers, then this isn't very hard...
This is left as an exercise for the reader.
Uh, excuse me, but has this not been done before, also including an optical mouse, in a device called the "Twiddler"? I remember this device from a couple years back when a show on the Discovery Channel called Beyond 2000 did an ep on cyborg tech that was being used at MIT. Quite a few different input contraptions were used, but the one-handed chording keyboard called the "Twiddler" stood out, because it not only was ergonomically friendly (fit in the palm of your hand and used the thumb as the tracking surface for the optical mouse), it was readily available for $200US. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if this product is available any longer :/ Just though I'd throw my two cents in.
Otaku-Shaft
This similar product has been around for a number of years:
The Twiddler...
Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
I'll just hide it in my pocket, and I can stand there quickly typing out covert reports on events, movies, or whatever wherever I am!
Uhh... On second thoughts...
Ali
Ph33r m3!!!
This is a fine example of why patents are often a tremendous resource to the technical community. Go download the patent from the USPTO and you'll find the blueprint on how to build one of these yourself.
Patents are in a way the source code for an invention. By law, they must be detailed enough to allow one skilled in the arts to reproduce the invention. Without patents, inventors would be forced to hid the details of the implementation of their invention (or even the entire invention) from others. With a patent we can have all the details on how an invention works and the inventor can still be protected if he or she wishes to sell the invention. Remember, a patent doesn't prevent you from building something as long as you don't do it for profit.
Why the slasdot community is so hostile towards patents in principle I shall never understand. Sure, in practice there have some screwy patents issued that shouldn't have been, but in general patents spread rather than restrict knowledge.
How many of you farking morons are going to repetively spew the same damned garbage already. Look, we don't need 500 posts about the twiddler, or your personal half assed attempts at building one.
Oh, and the twiddler. It's not even fucking close. Does it fit nearly into the palm of the hand? No. Does it use "chording" of less than 10 buttons? No..
Now, being that Im' through with my rant, I would like talk about my mutant version of this keyboard which also incorporates a heavily hacked CueCat barcode scanner, but the collective has redesignated me to another cube, and I must leave now.
Since you can type 256 (2^8) different "keys" with one hand, would that be 2^16 keys with a two-handed setup?
Could you perhaps integrate a mouse or trackball into it?
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
While I wholeheartedly applaud this guy's efforts, I think he's missing the possibilities of using the upward motion of the finger as well as the downward. That having been said, I think this is fantastic. This might push me over the edge to ditch my 19" trinitron for some glasses.
For those who don't want to go through NYT, you can go right to his site at chordite.com.
My
Limekiller
Mr. McKown acknowledges the existence of chording keyboards. His patent covers the physical configuration, not the idea of a chording keyboard. His design allows the typing fingers freedom; they do not need to support the keybard at all, providing a more comfortable experience.
Also, the design is unobtrusive. He refers to it as a "stealthy" keyboard. I don't know if that's such a big fat hairy deal, but the comfort aspect is.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
it's called the Twiddler from handykey (www.handykey.com) and anyone who is a part of wearable computing has touched one at least once in their lifetime.. Granted, making your own is cool, but it's far from innovative..
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
While I agree that palm computers are lacking in the Input department, I don't see that as being the reason they aren't more widely used. Personally, I don't use mine everywhere because either I can't carry it (its bulky in my pocket and I don't always have a bookbag with me) or I'm just simply not at a place where I CAN use it (finger keyboard or not, when I'm walking I can barely chew gum much less use a Palm.
Besides, I know how to use a keyboard, why learn to use a different kind? I'm getting to the point where I can't learn new things as easily (I'm turning into my parents!)
HandyKey Twiddler 2The Twiddler2 is a pocket-sized mouse pointer plus a full-function keyboard in a single unit that fits neatly in either right or left hand. The Twiddler2 plugs into both keyboard and mouse PS/2 ports on any computer that accepts standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard input. WearClam: A Wearable Input InterfaceThe WearClam is an wearable Input device, developed for those situations where you need keyboard-like input nearly all the time. It is an ergonomic ring which resembles a real Clam's shape and as such it could be considered as a wearable interface for a wearable computer. L3 Systems WristPC KeyboardL3 Systems has developed the WristPC Keyboard for portable and wearable computer applications. The WristPC is a rugged QWERTY keyboard with a standard PC keyboard interface. The housing is a black anodized aluminum. Completely sealed, it can operate in the rain and other harsh environments. Fitaly One-Finger KeyboardThis "keyboard" is optimized for entry with a single finger or with a pen, as is the case on a pen computer or a computer with a touchscreen. The Fitaly One-Finger Keyboard minimizes pen or finger travel as well as hand travel. Tactex smart fabric technologyTactex's Smart Fabric technology enables the manufacture of both expressive and rugged control surfaces, which can be presented in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and surface finishes. A retail product, the MTC Express, is about the size of a mouse pad, and is produced for Mac and Windows platforms. Senseboard virtual keyboardSenseboard (tm) is a virtual keyboard, designed for the millions of mobile computer users, struggling with their tiny or nonexistent keyboards when trying to communicate or type. The VK hand mounted devices allow the user to type on any surface as if it were a keyboard. Sensors in the units measure the finger movements and artificial intelligence and a language processor determine appropriate keystrokes or mouse movements. Thunbscript Input DevicesThumbscript (TM) is a patented universal text entry system for mobile people and devices. Equally at home with Pen based devices like the Palm Pilot and keypad devices like your telephone or TV controller, Thumbscript offers users a single system that is simple, inexpensive to implement and easy to use because it is visual. FrogPad keyboardThe "FrogPad" is a 19-key device that uses patented simultaneous key function change technology to emulate a full-size keyboard, and requires a fraction of the physical space. Kord Interface TechnologyKord (R) Interface Technology (Kord [R] IT)is a suite of hardware and software that creates "an ambidextrous, chordic Human Machine Interface HMI, suitable for any computing device". Essential Reality P5 GloveTo digitally "walk" through an online room or actually "pick up" objects in a video game requires the ability to manipulate in three-dimensions. Not through complicated keystrokes but by the simple movement of your hand in space.
"''This accident only underscores the importance of proven gun safety measures.''"
pfhhhtt yeah...nothing like making your own news...
Hello,
I've been working on a one handed keyboard that uses hat switches..., fits arround a PDA, and uses an IBM or Toshiba style pointing stick where the thumb is.
The hat switches can fit on the other side of the knuckle, and can be moved in many directions.
(think serations of a knife with hat switches in the dips)
the points will protect the keys.
The hat switches are very short.
you can either look at the PDA or not to type.
you can use the thumb on the same hand to control a mouse.
I've been thinking about this for a year or so...
I don't wish to patent it, however I do wish to see it come about... and want to attack anybody else who pattents it.
You may barrow this design as long as you do not claim exlcusive rights to make it.
509 332 7697 is my phone number.
I hate missuse of patents, so lets make a prior art database to keep things free! (or tell me about one that has already started)
Please use [ informative / summarizing ] SUBJECT LINES
Flame me here
I've thought for a while that PDAs should have three- or four-button modified Morse code input systems built in: compact, faster than a stylus, easier to use than a tiny keyboard.
Chording keyboards make even more sense- stenographers have been using them for years, and typing at well over 200 wpm- but it takes some work to learn the system, and there isn't a simple "hunt and peck" way for beginners to get by until they learn it.
Of course, my Morse idea would take some learning if you didn't already know Morse.
Its sad, if his "invention" makes it to production it will fail just as miserably as other chord-keyboards. I saw a desktop model chord-keyboard years ago in a tiger direct catalog. I didn't buy it because like the twiddler it was prohibitivly expensive.
I believe that one could make a killing by producing a consumer grade chord keyboard (with bluetooth ) with a lite price tag, say $15-$20 usd.
I know I won't buy one until the price falls to the price of a "wal-mart brand" keyboard.
http://www.recompile.org
but I don't think I can use this device, as I only know three chords.
Douglas Engelbart, father of just about everything 'modern' in computing, showed a chord keyboard in 1968. Do a google search for 'chord keyboard' to see how many other people are doing stuff, or 'chord keyboard douglas' to find out stuff about D.E., including RealMedia of his 1968 demo.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I remember seeing ads for a one-handed keyboard in the computer magazines back in the early 80's. It was dome shaped, with two buttons for each finger and several for the thumb. IIRC, you had to basically memorize the binary values for the ASCII table to use the thing.
KM
Hmm. . .to get a character with this keyboard one often presses many keys at the same time to make a "chord" and produce a character.
:). M-> for end of buffer or C-M-w for append next kill to last. . .do we have that many fingers?
Can you imagine the insanity editing in Emacs would be?
I'm sure I heard years ago about Stephen Hawkins using something similar...
I do see that there are some differences, but I can't see anything to suggest this is revolutionary.
Personnally I would prefer to be able to input text using my apaulling hand writing (spelling included), maybe a A5 sized tablet with a full active screen, powerful enough to display all marks made immediately on the screen, thus aiding input.
I've always been intrigued by the Twiddler, but have been a little leery of the potential for carpal tunnel syndrome from using it (not that thousands of people have already gotten carpal tunnel syndrome from using two-handed QWERTY boards, but I haven't, yet).
This device looks like it might conform even better to one's hand than the flatter looking Twiddler.
What strikes me, though, is that the ultimate in one-handed keyboard comfort would be to customize the shape according to individual hands.
Once you get the basic electronics down to size, just have people go to sleep with some kind of goo in their hands that will harden into a shape that is natural for your relaxed hand.
Haven't joysticks come up with sufficient touch pads for emulating a full QWERTY board yet?
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Example: In order to pare the number of keys, all these designs resort to "Chords" -- multiple keys hit in combination, or in sequence, to produce a result. This design gets different results from your fingertips as opposed to pressure with the middle of your finger, too. So how many hard-to-recall combinations of left-thumb-tip with right-index-finger knuckle are we going to need to remember to avoid hitting ctrl-q when we meant "Q"? Not the system to learn on the laptop where you keep all your contact info, right?
We're past the point where we should be teaching ourselves elaborate new routines to accommodate new technologies. The Palm handwriting system is a good example of how crappy that model is; I can't stand that the OS is trying to make me learn a new way to write "T" as a capital letter. That's just wrongheaded. The technology's supposed to be conforming to us, and that's not just a physical thing.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I quote:
"2002 08 06 Patent issued, website up."
The more advanced the technology, the more open it is to primitive attack
Keyboard for Those on the Move
The first time i saw something like this was in college. This guy had taken an old moterola pager and modified it by adding seven keys and some memory so that he could take notes while driving in LA traffic. He called it the "dataegg" and used a mememic method for chording. I've been waiting for it to make it to market but so far in vain. He also left the pager function tied to one of the key sequences so five minutes later it would go off.
You can see several prototypes on the web.
Search google for "dataegg" or look here
This is similar to that dilbert cartoon, with the monkey that can use the keyboard and mouse and the same time with his tail. It looks like man has _finally_ surpassed monkeys.
There was a hemispherical device with 16 buttons where you chorded out the letters made in the late 1970's ('78 or '79). It was called the Write-Hander. So this is old news, at best..... I googled but couldn't find a link, but my time is limited I'm sorry to say.
"Like fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master."~RAH
Graffitti is precisely the way we should be going. I know, I know you want to jack your brain in and all that but for now things like Graffitti make the most sense.
Your capital T curves up, mine looks like a T Square, his looks like italic script, hers looks like a small T anyway. How is a computer supposed to know what you're talking about? (See also The Newton)
Giving you the parameters with which to work in is VERY MUCH the computer way. Despite what you may think we HUMANS must CONFORM to the COMPUTER all the time. (See also Programming.)
I mean Hell just look at spelling, none of it makes sense. (See also ghoti == fish)
This
Check it out: http://www.infogrip.com/product_view.asp?RecordNu
I should move to F@%*$&% Canada.
This was in the current of M.I.T. Technology Review. Just a quick little blurb you can read at their site. But the online version of the article contains a slick, interactive animation of how typing with this thing would actually work.
:)
It makes me wonder if this device could improved greatly by making it fit on both hands and having some of the typing motions be alot less awkward and quicker?
"This is Zombo Com, and welcome to you who have come to Zombo Com" - www.zombo.com
It technically should prevent RSIs, seeing as it leaves your hand in its natural position, and is designed so it hooks over your hand, making it so your fingers don't have to support the weight of the device (unlike similar products on the market today). Read, the page. And the patent.
There have been a plethora of different key-device designs over the years. There is nothing new about this--it's just the same crap in a new bag.
This type of device doesn't show any truly innovative thinking--especially inasmuch as it ignores the fact that not all people have fully-functional hands, or even have hands at all. I have a friend for whom a congenital birth defect meant she doesn't have the full five-finger hands most of us have (it was sad to hear how she had to explain to her three year-old son that she couldn't use the game console controller, because she has no thumbs). Additionally, what of the people who are paralyzed?
This sort of new device is so irrelevant that I would expect to see it only in a middle/high school entrepreneuring workshop, and not coming from an adult. Not only does this presume what I have said above, it also presumes that even a mere FRACTION of the PC-using world will want to learn a new type-entry scheme.
Ok... now setting bitchfest=0...
Mmmmmm... Bold, yet refreshing!
...for being one of the few people on /. that seem to read the links anymore... now if only the rest of the people would do the same...
Given the ability to combine finger movements, make each finger it's own key. That's sufficient number of key presses for any normal keyboard I believe. Make combos (Shift/Ctrl/Alt) have a short memory so that the NEXT actual key sequence is the one used and it's good to go. Only real problem is in getting it so that it is still a fast enough method of typing.
It wouldn't require a huge amount of motion for the hand to be able to exert the necessary responses.
Obviously, this would be much better with wireless, but heck, even the one this article describes is not wireless so...
Still has chords, but at least it's only one button per finger. No need to have to learn, which button for that finger is the one that needs to be pressed.
I think I would have to re-chord the thing for vi/bash/Linux (ESC looks pretty hard to get to and I don't really need INSERT et al). That's cool though since the guy is providing the source code I can re-chord to anything I like. As far as I'm concerned the neatest thing about this article is that it provides free documentation on how to build one (I've already got a couple ATMEL microcontrollers sitting around at home doing nothing anyway). :)
I hate to whine, but did you read his white paper? The twiddler needs a strap; his doesn't. Come ON, folks, RTFWP already!
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
why is this news? http://www.handykey.com/site/twiddler2.html The twiddler has been around for a very long time.. You can get around 65 wpm after you practive for long enough.. Steve Mann is a one-handed computer jockey.. (makes the pr0n fun fun fun)..
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
For those interested in something that fills this function, leverages your existing typing skills, and does not require chording check out the half keyboard. The disadvantage I can see is that it isn't truly one-handed as you need to strap it to your other arm, and as a result it's also not "stealth". The advantage is you can buy it right now. I do not own one of these or endorse the product in any way, but I had a link that actually seemed to be on topic for once. :)
Error: PANTS NOT FOUND. Press <F1> to continue.
Unfortunately I couldn't be chauvinistic enough to find a mechanical one-handed version of Babbage's machine, so we Brits can't claim to have invented this one....
This whole thing was done in or around 1980 (I don't have my old issues of Kilobaud Magazine which had the article). It was going to be a "revolutionary" way of entering data or information.
Trouble was all of the touch-typist wouldn't give up the QWERTY keyboard.
Same thing with the DVORAK keyboard... Old habits die hard...
It's simply impossible for even an expert with this device to type as fast as a good two-hander on a QWERTY board. Excellent when only one hand is available [paste jokes here], but not very attractive when both hands are functional. Besides, the workload should always be split fairly evenly between hands when possible, methinks. Switching the device from hand to hand would require even more training. I think the two-hand designs will always prevail when given a choice, esp. where speed is concerned.
Big deal. There are plenty of one-handed chorded keyboards around, with minor differences in shape and major differences in layout and chords.
Having a patent on them is self-defeating--why would anybody want to invest their time and effort in learning a patented input method when there are plenty of free ones around?
Remember, a patent doesn't prevent you from building something as long as you don't do it for profit.
There is no "non-profit" exception for patents. If an invention is patented, you are not permitted to build it for any reason without a license from the patent holder: not for research, not as a prototype, not to enhance it, not to try it out, not for education, not for fun.
Why the slasdot community is so hostile towards patents in principle I shall never understand.
Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that you don't seem to have a clue about the patent system. As someone who actually holds a number of patents, I can tell you: they are a useless waste of time and money. Most small inventors cannot easily afford them or prosecute them, and large companies just use them to keep innovators out of their markets. The overall result is bad for consumers and bad for inventors; only lawyers and large companies really benefit from the system (and the politicians they give lots of money to).
...or at least since the eighties.
See http://tim.griffins.ca/gallery/keyboard/chord
In the late eighties at Virginia Tech, I was a usability testing guinea pig for the Accukey keyboard show on this page (about halfway down).
It was pretty amazing. In just a couple of hours of instruction & practice I was typing thirty words a minute. Thirty wpm isn't that fast, but the learning curve was significantly faster than a typical QWERTY keyboard.
The advantage of chord keyboards is that your fingers never leave the keys. Hence they are potentially a lot faster.
On the downside, there's not cheating. Since the characters are generated by combinations of keys, the keys aren't marked. No looking down to find your place -- you need to learn the chords.
How do you get by with so few keys?
You can see the support problem he's talking about here.
The sexiest of the lot, but not handheld
This one's straight outta sci-fi
None of these have a pointing device. It seems to me that if you want to type with one hand, you might want to mouse with the same hand. I sent McKown an email to that effect, suggesting that he integrate a small trackball into his design.
I remember many years ago (like 7 or somethin, yea, thats a very long time for me), that someone else had almost exactly the same thing, a one handed keyboard, mainly for use in a car, ill dig through my magazines to find it
Saw a a one handed egg-shaped keyboard years ago. It worked by using 'chords' Wish I knew the name. Read about it in Byte Magazine like 10 years ago.
Dvorak make two one-handed keyboard a long time ago along with his fast-typing layout! This is nothing new and it's certainly not a new "Invention."
I built a two-key-per finger design back around 1996. I'm sure I still have bits of the protoype in my junk box. It didn't use the same arrangement as the chordite design, and abandoned my two-key prototype because of the difficulty in getting small enough switches; I went back to working with one switch per finger.
My designs have two bucky-bit modes; either the bucky bit applies to the next "ordinary" key or, by "double-clicking" the "bucky chord", the modifier remains active until deactivated. (That idea of sticky-modifiers is certainly not novel, Microsoft use it in their handicapped-accessibility add-on for the Windoze control panel).
I was quite suprised to learn that IBM had a patent (exipred, thankfully) on the state-machine algorithm for assembling chord events. That is just so obvious; I certainly didn't consider it remarkable when I independently arrived at that method.
Now the method of holding the device in the hand without straps, that I have not seen before.
-- veni vidi nuclei deceri --- I came, I saw, I dumped core.
"Your capital T curves up, mine looks like a T Square, his looks like italic script, hers looks like a small T anyway. How is a computer supposed to know what you're talking about?"
The same way other humans know.
Only faster.
-- Terry
a good point of this 'keyboard' is that th hand can be held in th thumb up position which is our more natural tool using hand posture and i would imagine places much less pressure on th carpal tunnel
and off on a small tangent i would like to see a 'keyboard' which uses two hands with th fingers lightly wired up and tapping against each other - probably also with chording combinations
palms would be pressed together and held straight out while 'typing' or alternatively with th fingers pointing straight upward and th hands held in front of th chest - a lovely image of us communicating with our computers in a natural attitude of prayer
When Doug Engelbart invented the mouse (back in the '60s, back when your parents were still in diapers) his original concept was that the mouse would be an all-in-one device with a chord keyboard integrated into the top.
At least one research effort that I know of then went on to build and measure such devices, namely Nat Rochester at IBM. He built one sometime in the 1970s. It used, if I recall correctly, a KIM-1 single board computer as its controller. I managed to get one from somewhere and played with it in about 1979 or so. It was quite something.
One of the fascinating results from research with this device was that people who had never typed on a regular typewriter before could be taught to type on the chord keyboard (one handed) in about the same amount of time that it took to teach someone to use a classical QWERTY keyboard. Moreover, when they were done learning, they were just as fast and just as accurate with one hand as normal people were using the QWERTY keyboard.
I can't cite results, but I presume that similar results apply to the Dvorak keyboard.
The conclusion is that the rate-limiting mechanisms for typing are not in the keyboard, regardless of the keyboard design. At least for any of they keyboard designs that have been tried to date. Hence, QWERTY is good enough, since no one has yet demonstrated a design that is measurably better.
If sir AC had every actually met me in person (like at the Mesa meetup), he'd quickly realize that it would work the other way around.
I don't understand how this is open source.
The licence from the one-hand keyboard page states: "This is not a license to sell or manufacture."
The open source definition from the OSI web site says: "The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale."
From the YAOHK site again: "John hereby grants you personally a free, nontransferrable license..."
See? Not open source. Not cool. Technology like this will be limited from evolving because of the patent. It seems everybody is making (now illegal) keyboards like these anyways. This John McKown angers me. An inventor should understand the value of the evolution of technology. Sorry if I appear angry. I am. I'm a strong belever in no-patents.
I'll definitely buy one if it hits the store shelves, just hope they offer a left handed version, the drawing in one of the links actually shows a left handed device.
Ansi's and stupid tricks!
or is this one of those "painfully obvious" ideas that should be fundamentally unpatentable? Unless there's a patent on the ASCII system or on the QWERTY layout (is there?) then this shouldn't be patented. Two years ago I gave up on this idea out of sheer laziness, but mostly because I knew I wouldn't be content with a design requiring to be held. Why not take it to the next level, with something that electrically senses twitches in your muscles like how some prosthetic limbs work? That way, you would type the same way, chording with five fingers, but the "keyboard" would just be a bracelet with a battery and a wireless (bluetooth) transmitter, so you could use it for phone, palm, etc.
Anyone ever try something like that?
As I said, I gave up on the idea based on the facts that a) I'm not an engineer, and b) I loathe the notion of someone managing to patent it and prevent me from eventually building my own.
Was your lack of knowlege of simple terms for parts of a firearm worth a Karma hit?
Other than being off topic nothing was wrong in that post.
I find it sad though that fellow NRA members would make such a public gaff.
Who run Barter Town?
IIRC, there was a strip where Dilbert goes to buy a new computer and a salesman tells him that keyboards/laptops are outdated and he should use these little sensors that go underneath one's fingernails and sense where your fingers go. In the final panel, you see his hands saying, "Bill, about last night..." and a rather embarrased face on the salesman.
i'm sure people will be less concerned by the movment of your hand in your pocket. "it's ok, i'm not secretly typing, i'm only playing with myself"
I bet u all wish u had tim hortons!
dahunt
i was trying to be funny =D
I didnt thaught that a 1908 gun would have eighter a magazine nor a chamber, they useally used rotating barrels backthen didnt they?
just did a search on google... a 1908 colt WOULD have a magazine and a chamber =/
Even if you don't want to have a one handed keyboard (no good for UT, Halflife, Q3, Tribes, etc), what about porting the button structure to a mouse? I have the M$ Intellimouse Optical, which gives me 5 buttons and scroll (click the scroll is a button too). You can easy add two more buttons on the main/top buttons with how this guy does things. That gives you 6 easy to hit buttons, plus your "awsd" cross and the q/e keys (but I use "sedf") for a total of 8 handy, easy to use keys. Many a time I've wanted a few extra controls.
You get RSI for forcing your fingers and hands to do unnatural gestures repeatedly for a long time.
This looks like it keeps the hand and fingers in its natural position, so IMHO, it should be helpful to avoid RSI and carpal tunnel syndrome.
No sig for the moment.
linux driver based on usb2key by Matan Ziv-Av(author of svgalib) is available at jimbomania.com.
the driver is a userland app requiring hid and evdev kernel modules. Source is GPL'ed.
Puny hu-man, you will learn what we want you to learn. You learned the alphabet, you learned the pencil, and you learned the keyboard. You will continue to submit in this manner.
I was lamely attempting humor as well.
Who run Barter Town?
we're obviously not comedians =D
Some Kernel or something lost his arm way back when and asked Dvorak to make him a keyboard that he could type quickly on with one hand.
It's called the Dvorak right and left hand keyboard...or simplified right or left hand keyboard.
I believe that windows comes with a driver for it...