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Single-handed, Offline, Portable Data Input?
One Armed Bandit asks: "By now everyone knows the available single handed keyboard alternatives. What I've not seen available is a true portable one-handed offline input device. Gary Friedman's final concept for the DataEgg is a fantastic one. Unfortunately, it never made it to the market. I - for one - would pay a premium for this kind of device. I think one of the reasons that this hasn't been built is because of the requirement for users to learn a new input mechanism. In my experience, this is a more difficult perception to overcome than a skill to acquire. How many of you can navigate your various electronic devices by touch? Is anything on the market? Does anyone have a pet project?"
"The high points would be:
- Single handed operation (probably chorded)
- Local file storage
- On-board display for visual feedback and document review
- Uplink to host (USB, IR, Wireless)
The user base keeps going blind.
Even in a noisy environment, you can take audible notes if you have a nose cancelling headset. With the exception of car horns, the traffic can't be heard. However, you also look like a homeless person jabbering to invisible people even more than the usual headphone+cell phone geek, because the normal cell phone pattern of speaking goes away. Nothing like randomly beginning to speak into the air to freak the locals out...
Sig under construction since 1998.
I can't count the occasions which I'm walking down a noisy street (hence no voice recognition) and dying to jot down my stream of consciousness (without using two hands for a stylus and walking in front of a bus)? I would kill for something like this!"
Wouldn't a digital recorder built into a pen or something like a mobile phone with voice recorder built in be much better for this task?
As for the device itself, the above usage of voice brings about what I think is the best interface and that's voice. If you only have one hand to type with (and not because of a disability), it's probably best to use voice to do so. It will be hard to type faster with just one hand than the speed at which you can speak. Improvement of our existing speech-to-text technologies may be required.
I don't know. I happen to like PEN AND PAPER.
Handykey, in New York, used to make a device that was both a keyboard and mouse. I got mine about 3 years ago, it had DOS drivers and they apparently came out with Windows and PS/2 drivers later. Plugs into the serial port for data, the keyboard port for power (only drew 9 mA or so.) It's chord based, most characters are two fingers, with the modifiers on the thumb; it had a velcro strap to wrap around the back of your hand to hold it in place.
There used to be a FAQ about such keyboards; look at any of the RSI resources. Also look at the pages about the "Behemoth" nee' "Winnebiko" project, they used the one of the "bat" keyboard sticks.
You might also look at some of the one-handed layouts for conventional typewriters that Dvorak came up with, along with the more well known layout. It depends on what you're trying to do...
I remember from the early days of microcomputers, when real programmers used toggle switches and keyboards were outrageously expensive, there was a one-handed ASCII keyboard. It was a sphere with four finger buttons and eight thumb buttons. One was supposed to play a chord with the fingers, giving eight bits, and then press one of the thumb buttons, giving three more. It was attractive to a lot of people because the small number of moving parts made it cheap. You might be able to find one used. It would take a lot of training to use, and it might be very hard to get any amount of speed, but it's worth investigating.
There was a commercially-produced keyboard of this form, known as the MicroWriter. It was - probably still is - quite popular among blind/disabled/special-needs users, though that was not its primary market.
First incarnation was a hand-sized device with 6 keys (only the thumb had to move) with about 8K of RAM and an 1802 processor. It was intended for use as a portable word-processor. The same mechanics and case were used as an auxiliary keyboard for the BBC Micro (using a resistor network on the switches, fed to an analogue input port on the micro).
Some cellphone manufacturer (can't remember which one or which model) has already produced an excellent keyboard that's about the same size as a cellphone number pad. Looks like it would work pretty well.
I have small hands. Worse, they have little to no grip. Both are because of a physical disability I guarantee you that I do not have fingers long enough to hold this and reach all the buttons.
Worse, I can guarantee you that I couldn't hold it and push buttons - I don't have the grip or finger strength. I can hold a standard cellphone in one hand - but my thumb doesn't wrap around far enough to hit the buttons, and I wouldn't have the strength to anyway.
This, and most one-handed input methods I've seen, exclude those with physical disabilities - including arthritis.
I would like to see a keyboard "breastplate" - like armor. I can see typing with one or both hands interchangeably on such a device. But it would have to fit very well, or be tightly strapped, in order to be accurate (it couldn't be accurate if it was bouncing around).
With either method, though, as you describe jogging & typing, display (to confirm input) is still an issue. How many times did you hit the delete key submitting the article? How many more times would you hit delete using a non-standard keyboard, or a Graffiti input device?
CyKey uses a wirless connection to a PDA. Leave the PDA in your pocket, have the CyKey in one hand, and you are ready to Rock, I mean WALK!
My user number is prime. Is yours?
There was a comment/story on a device on /. in the last year... one handed, shaped like a bicycle grip, depending on which combination of fingers you pressed it outputted a different alphanumeric character... can anybody remember the name, or anything more about it? I was trying to find it a few weeks ago...
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
when i'm around the house, listening to the radio away from my machine and i hear a song i like, i take out my mobile phone, use the shortcut to load a text editor, tap the song name in using t9 predictive text input, and hit 'send via bluetooth' and it's on my machine for when i return.
you can operate it single handedly, it has local file storage, a display and can trasmit data via bluetooth or irda or even email if you want to pay.
it can also act as a telecommunications device. modern phones like the siemens s55 also act as dictation machines should you get the oppotunity to speak.
behemoth "chord keyboard"
I think he used it one handed.
Another chorded one-handed input device, like we didn't have enough of them already.
What would be nice to have would be a chorded one-handed keyboard with Bluetooth. A small display would then go into the glasses or into a wrist watch. That's a much more convenient arrangement than putting everything into a single "data egg" (with a proprietary and patented layout to boot).
Morse Code using a sip-and-puff interface for disabled people; see the video. For desktop or laptop use there is the DARCI Morse USB device, though pure software methods shold be available somewhere. (And yes, technically it is International Morse Code).
The SoftAva Q12 is a prototype of just such a device.
Unfortunately, they don't produce the hardware, they simply licence it out, and I don't know if anyone is actually shipping it.
Might be worth following... I'm sure someone will find it useful someday....
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
I think you are looking for this little beast: http://www.filewalker.com/
Dialectician. Archology.
I can't resist...
Put a morse code key between your fingers. A simple microcontroller could translate to ASCII and store on Flash.
A little shorthand to shorten up longer words and you're set.
Not efficient, but very cool.
+++OK ATH
What about a mobile phone, especially 1 with T9 text input?
Logitech makes a pen which records your notes as you write them. Product info can be found here.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
How about one that straps to one wrist, lets you type with the other hand?
Check out the Half Keyboard
I haven't tried one yet, but they have a demo that lets you practice on half your real keyboard. It seems pretty cool.