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One-Thumb Keyboard
pagercam2 writes "As Japanese teens are so used to typing one another messages on their cellphones, they are now more comfortable with one thumb typing than the old two handed QWERTY. So a Japanese company has come out with a
one-thumb keypad
that allows a user to enter alphanumberic text and control the mouse with only one thumb. Sort of a cross between a TV remote and a phone keypad, with a USB connection, although wireless seems to be an obvious next step. Maybe not a revolution for the desktop, but this could advance data input on handhelds." Pictures transcend language barriers.
[insert one handed typing joke here]
Only in japan...
Banaaaana!
Now those shortened abbreviations for everyday common words is going to become more widespread. 2 L8 - U WILL B ASSIM8D!
alphanumberic
And this is the type of output you get when you only type with your thumbs.
so if a user types "my nose" in AIM, they've thumbed their nose at you? :]
as long as it has a usb connection, I'm sure I've seen a usb powered coffee warmer and I'm pretty sure I didn't dream up that usb ladies pleasure accesorry.
I wounder if they have considered marketing this to the handicaps.. I know a few people who have lost a hand or two in one way or another and they have often found it difficult to use a regular reybaord.. I known one guy who simply won't use a computer now and one other who simply uses a mouse with a on screen keyboard.. not as quick, but he says its more conformatable.
Over the next few hundred millenia, expect the fingers and left thumb to wither and disappear, while the right thumb advances in dexterity, utlimately develops it's own intelligence, detaches from the human "host", and finally becomes the dominant species on the planet.
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
I would bet on voice recognition or blackberry-style data input for handhelds before I bet on thumb-only input.
[aside]It kind of reminds me of those old Colecovision controllers....[/aside]
British university researchers, after studying hundreds of children in Beijing, Tokyo and other big cities, say today's youngsters have become the 'thumb generation'.
By regularly using mobile phones, especially to send text messages and by playing hand-held computer games, a physical mutation had developed in the under-25s, the researchers have found.
The thumbs of today's electronic-gadget generation of children have become more muscled, more dextrous and often more used than fingers.
This is because modern youngsters grow up using hand-held gadgets where the devices are cupped in the hand and held firm by fingers, giving thumbs the pivotal role of pushing buttons.
This has caused a significant physical alteration in the way the digits of the hand are used - with thumbs being given the thumbs-up and an increasingly important role in youngsters' lives.
The researchers found that gadget-age children were now using their thumbs for tasks such as pointing at things and ringing doorbells - traditionally the job of the forefinger.
Whereas the forefinger was also previously used to clean an ear opening, mobile-phone using, text-messaging children will instinctively use their thumbs.
Even when they want to pick their noses, more and more boys and girls are tending to use a thumb, instead of a finger.
Whereas mothers and fathers would push the buttons on a telephone with their forefinger, many children would use their thumbs instead.
And when they type a message on the keyboard of a desktop computer, children hit more keys with their thumbs than adults.
Though most older people use their forefingers to operate remote controls for television sets and video recorders, many children tend to use their thumbs.
The findings have been revealed by the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit of Warwick University, one of Britain's top research institutions.
Experts spent six months studying the habits of thousands of children in countries around the world.
The researchers included youngsters in Beijing and Tokyo in their survey, in order to ensure that their findings were globally relevant, and did not apply to just a couple of countries.
The experts found that in fact, the trend of children using their thumbs more and more was particularly marked in Japan.
1.5" monitors. As Japanese teens are so used to reading messages on their cellphones, they are now more comfortable with monitors closer to the size of their cellphone screen which...
Note that the minimum speed on these puppies is 20 words per minute, and trained ops have hit speeds of over 70 wpm. Sometimes with a ham sandwich in the other fist...
...-.-