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Silent Keyboards for Silent PCs?

Posted by Cliff on from the well-if-the-mice-can-be-quiet... dept.

Kethinov asks: "Following up on the question asked in this story, I have a similar problem as he did except my late night coding (typing) sessions, not my clicking, seem to generating excess noise for the people I'm living with. I, as he did, checked out this possible solution, but to be honest, I can't type on anything but a standard-layout keyboard. Now, I too can search Google, but just looking at a possible solution doesn't help much. Does anyone on Slashdot have experience in this matter, from which I could better narrow my choices?"

6 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. fruit roll-ups by Phoenix+Dreamscape · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What about those roll-up keyboards? ThinkGeek sells some, and I even saw one at CompUSA recently. I've never used one, but I assume they're made mostly of rubber. I'm willing to bet those are silent.

    --
    Scratched Emulsion
  2. Paradigm shift by skinfitz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The PDA market is the place to look for alternative input methods - there is certainly some development in virtual keyboards.

    Have a look at this.

  3. Siemens Virtual Keyboard? by Squideye · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Loath to cite Ananova, but there's a "virtual keyboard" you might be able to look into. Projects light onto a surface, and you type by interrupting the beams.

    From the designer's site: Here

  4. Re:Touch Stream Keyboards by jabberjaw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In addition, if you happen to have a 15" tiBook you can get a drop in touchstream keyboard

  5. iMac keyboards. by saintlupus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I like the smaller keyboards that came with the older iMacs -- the ones with the half size arrow and function keys. They're nice and quiet, and have a far better key action than any of Apple's newer "Pro" keyboards.

    Then again, I'm among the only people I know who like the way they feel. And I'm definitely the only one I know with huge, ogrish hands who likes typing on them. Anyway, give it a shot.

    (And before anyone asks, they're just regular USB keyboard. They'll work fine on any computer. I have a couple of them stashed away with my NetBSD machines and no troubles.)

    --saint

  6. Remove the springs by no_such_user · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The IBM M keyboards *can* be completely silent. Just remove the springs. I kid you not -- remove the key caps, pull out the springs, and put the key caps back on. Though the keys don't spring back anymore, the keyboard is still functional -- just the tiniest bit of pressure on a key will cause it to register... silently!