Slashdot Mirror
A One-Handed Keyboard For $25
Bruce Perens writes "Slashdot has often featured attempts at improvement upon the QWERTY keyboard. Here's a one-handed USB keyboard that you can buy for $25 online, or a bit more at the CompUSA. There's one catch: someone will have to design a keying pattern and hack up software for it. It's a task just crying out for an Open Source project." Bruce has also included on the linked page code with which to read the output from the device.
My daughter only has one hand. I used to think she had a really hard time typing because of the style of typing she used on AIM, it was very fast but did not make much sense. Then I realized all the kids type that way. She can type about 15-20 wpm with just her one hand. I guess it depends on how handicapped someone is but if someone handicapped learned to type with this device, they would be "stuck" using this device any time hey needed to type.
First, you will not risk life and limb writing your own keyboard driver, unless you've somehow decided to add in a force feedback option.
Second, my bet is that there will be an open source driver for this thing by the end of the week. Just keep watching the comments on this story and someone may have a link by later today.
KDE (and, I believe, Gnome) allows you to configure shortcut keys to more or less anything, based on keys/key combos.
It wouldn't be all that difficult for someone with a modicum of experience to configure a one-handed keyboard so it becomes very usable - at least for whatever it is you'd want to use a one-handed keyboard for. No need to write code.
Other than the title, category, subject matter and content - great post!
I've been looking for a cheap one-handed keyboard for use with my tablet PC, hopefully something I could velcro onto the back for use while holding the tablet. Photoshop and Painter are tedious without tab, alt, shift and ctrl. This could be just the thing to provide those.
Of course, it's intended for gamers, but can easily be made into a one-handed chording keyboard to nurture your inner cyborg, if you just...
Yeah, so why buy a $25 gaming thing with 14 buttons when you can get a numeric pad? those have 17 keys, have been around for ever and can be had for a buck at your friendly computer recycler.
What's so different with the gaming pad? why didn't Bruce propose the same thing with numeric pads? hell, why didn't he propose the same thing with the numeric pad section of a normal keyboard?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
They had to make the one handed linux keyboard to prepare for the war that is coming. This war I speak of is the war against M$. We will need one hand free for a weapon, to use against the M$. The other hand must remain on the keyboard to make sure to inform everyone about just how bad the M$ really is, and it is bad, they told me. This invention is as big as the wheel. It's the first sign of the coming of the great war. Take part!
People with various types of disabilities all ready use joysticks to drive their cars, it's just a later adaptation by specialist companies. With the latest generation of cars with drive-by-wire this is a lot easier, but it's been done for years.
I don't think the steering wheel will disappear any time soon. There are huge advantages to having one over-riding standard in vehicles - once you know how to drive a car you can get in any car and drive it. Learning on a joystick car only to then need to drive someone's steering-wheel car would be very awkward and annoying. A smaller version of this is seen in the UK when someone learns to drive with an automatic gearbox then goes to a manual (stick shift.) It's a whole extra thing to learn and, at least when I learnt to drive, if you didn't learn in an automatic you had to take lessons and another test if you wanted to drive a manual in the future.
Steering wheels are just like keyboards - QWERTY is used everywhere, and we're stuck with it unless you have a special adaptation. Steering wheels are everywhere unless you've got a specialist vehicle (e.g. some fork lift trucks) or had it adapted to your special use.
"What if they're using IE?" "I've dumbed Mozilla down to cope with it." - BOFH
...gives a fuck about wpm. They're still stuck in the old days when they had to write everything on paper and then transcribe it to the typewriter or the word processor. Nowadays, we just type everything in directly into the comp, and it doesn't really matter how fast it is, as long as it's not too slow (yeah fp's can be copy-pasted).
IM: u only put in a few words, 15wpm or 200, it only takes seconds for a few words. Message forums: You take your time type in comments anyway, I'm typing this using 4 fingers, and sometimes just one as I also eat breakfast. Progamming: very few us write cobol anymore, so not that many words to type in anyway.
WPM is passe.
I've used KeyTweak (freeware) to remap the control key on my old Toshiba laptop.
It is extremely useful for non-standard keyboard layouts.
You can download it at http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/
Who cares if Dvorak takes over? It's not like everybody has to switch before anybody can use it. I think it's better, and that's why I use it. However, this is a different argument than whether it actually IS better, and whether it was designed for the sake of change.
/. readers think Windows can't be improved on? How about another one: how many people think the plurality election method is the best one possible? How many people even know there are alternatives? (/. readers are an exception here). Criticizing folks for questioning the status quo is just bad for everybody.
There is an excellent description of the Dvorak layout on the web, along with a brief history. The inventor of the keyboard conducted extensive keyboarding studies that fed into the design; nevertheless they (and the studies that followed) can only be taken for so much truth before succumbing to the "lies, damn lies, and benchmarks" argument, usually due to whether you believe the study director was biased. Regardless, I think it's clear Dvorak designed the keyboard because he thought he could improve upon Qwerty, not because he just wanted to be different.
In a more general sense, I think it would be stupid to think we can't improve on things that already are functional standards. Quick show of hands: how many
Anyway, back to the point: you're right there's no real cry for improvement, but this could be due to any number of factors. Most people don't even know Dvorak exists; others already know Qwerty and are resistant to change; others have concrete practical reasons for using Qwerty, like the need to use special software like Autocad; or, Qwerty may just be better. Regardless, I don't think anybody's suggesting that everybody switch to Dvorak en masse.
Read my keyboard review.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
They also market to the handicapped market, though their products for them tend to be overpriced - all you really need to implement it is a different driver for a standard keyboard that lets you flipflop both sides. They've got demoware that lets you try it out. And unfortunately, they've patented what they've done, and would probably get annoyed if somebody released a freeware driver...
Another interesting design is the FITALY keyboard, which is designed for one-finger use, or one-stylus use on a palm touchscreen. Like DVORAK, it's designed for low-travel efficient movement.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks