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.

Comments

Oh Jeez...

[bje2]

let the stream of one-handed web surfing jokes begin...

Cue joke

[3eyedlie]

about what the other hand is doing. "I tried to have phone sex, but the holes were too small" - Sage Francis

example:

[Anonymous Coward]

"yes, but is it left-handed?"

Then you can't buy a one-handed keyboard for $25..

[Brento]

Saying that you can buy a one-handed keyboard for $25, but you have to roll your own software, means you're not buying a one-handed keyboard for $25. That's like saying you can buy your own crystal meth for $25 - sure, the ingredients are only $25, but you have to know the recipe and risk life and limb cooking the stuff.

Not that I'd know about those things. (And that applies to both coding my own keyboard drivers as well as cooking meth.)

whaw

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks pretty armless to me ;-)

Age old question answered!

[elSpike]

What is the sound of one hand typing?

One handed Dvorak

[Shard013]

Dvorak allready has keyboards designs for both left and right hand only. These could probably be put on the new kb easy enough. Not that I can read the article, mirror anyone?

Worth a try

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Worth a try

[Anonymous Coward]

you really cant use this to type. this is an 'enhanced version' of a previous belkin product, the n50, which i own. it simply doesnt have enough keys to do more than keyboard shortcuts and macros.
think forward, back, and up a directory, not
'all good men are created equal'
in terms of what this device can do

Maybe

[Anonymous Coward]

Writer must be stuffed, this couldn't possibly become a successfu... oh Bruce Perens, ^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h
Wow, great idea! Lets start coding! Where's the source-forge page?

DVORAK keyboard

[w.p.richardson]

Some would argue that a Dvorak keyboard is an improvement over QWERTY. Why hasn't it taken over? Simple - there is no real cry for an improvement.

This idea is akin to changing the steering wheel in a car to a joystick; possible, but why change something that is a functional standard?

Re:DVORAK keyboard

[gilesjuk]

There's a proper reason for having a steering wheel in a car and that is accuracy and usability. You have to turn the wheel quite a large distance to go from full lock left to full lock right. With a joystick it would be a foot at the most.

Other reasons include feedback, you simply wouldn't get the right feedback from a joystick. A stick is ideal for a plane as you are banking the plane towards the left and to the right, in a car you are rotating the wheel and so a rotating control method works best.

Also, to use a stick you would need control systems, fully powered hydraulic steering, this would be prone to faults and in the event of a system failure you would lose steering. Currently cars have power assisted steering but standard steering still functions in the event of a fluid leak etc.

Other problems with a stick system? how about requiring the engine to be running for the system to work? this would make getting your car onto a recovery truck rather difficult if the engine won't run. What about getting towed? impossible without the engine running.

So while it might be possible to change cars to use a joystick it is simply a bad idea.

Re:DVORAK keyboard

[Cska Sofia]

Some would argue Mac OS X is an improvement over Windows. Why hasn't it taken over?

Just because a technology is established across the vast majority of users doesn't mean that alternatives wouldn't be a great improvement. QWERTY is so firmly established that despite the common knowledge that it was designed to put common letter combinations as far apart as possible, most users do not even consider looking for an alternative. There are many reasons - lack of knowledge, lack of learning resources, cost - but don't think that, all else being equal, users wouldn't pick the alternative that is designed for the greatest speed, comfort and accuracy.

Re:DVORAK keyboard

[the pickle]

Let me preface this with "I think a joystick is a horrible way to drive a car" and "Change for the sake of change is almost always bad." So in principle, I agree with the spirit of your comment.

A stick is ideal for a plane as you are banking the plane towards the left and to the right, in a car you are rotating the wheel and so a rotating control method works best.

Uh, what? This reasoning sounds awfully circular (honestly, no pun intended) to me. There are plenty of planes that use a wheel instead of a stick. The main reason for using a stick with an aircraft is that a wheel doesn't easily (or as conveniently, anyway) lend itself to motion in a third axis. Using a stick removes a lot of that awkwardness.

Also, to use a stick you would need control systems, fully powered hydraulic steering...

There are plenty of planes that don't have hydraulic systems associated with a control stick, and there are a lot more that have systems no more complicated than what's in a car. There's no reason a hydraulic-assist stick, much like today's power steering, couldn't be developed for use in a car.

I can almost guarantee you that helicopter (and maybe fighter) pilots would be the only people who would be able to drive such a system with any sort of precision, though. Your point about having to turn a steering wheel a very large distance to effect a fairly small change is a good one. Without some sort of serious speed sensitivity, the smaller range of control input inherent in a stick would make for VERY lively steering (read: easily overcontrolled).

Of course, if cars had *always* had a joystick-type steering mechanism (some early ones did, in fact), we'd be sitting here having this discussion from the opposite perspective. There's really nothing inherent in a steering wheel that makes it the perfect solution to steering a car. It's more a matter of "what's always been done."

To get this back on topic, there's really nothing inherently superior about a QWERTY keyboard, and many arguments can be made that there are inherently inferior aspects of it. The problem is, QWERTY layouts have been in use for so long that they're the de facto standard, no matter what other great technology comes along. QWERTY keyboards will rule the world until either voice recognition or direct brain control is perfected.

p

Re:DVORAK keyboard

[singleantler]

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.

Re:DVORAK keyboard

[BillyBlaze]

I personally use and like Dvorak, but it has three problems. First, you can't learn only Dvorak, so you have to switch, and this still takes my brain a few seconds, egpcbi ,dcjd C yfl. icxx.pcodv (Mat.o a jrrn jre.w ydrgid) Second, with QWERTY you typically have runs of several letters on one hand, and you kinda queue those up, position your fingers, and type them in one handfall. With Dvorak, because the vowels are on the left hand, you alternate hands - some consider this an advantage, but as someone who learned QWERTY first, it's hard for my nerves to coordinate the hands to avoid transposition errors at high speed. And third, every word, every single one, needs both hands, unlike QWERTY where if you only have to type one word, there's a good chance you won't take your hands off the mouse.

Re:DVORAK keyboard

[SlipJig]

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.

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 /. 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.

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.

Direct link

[Brama]

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process ?Product_Id=157024

Seems the technocrat site is already slashdotted.

Re:Direct link

[Blind_Justice]

Here is the text of the page:

One-handed keyboards sell for $99 to $350, but here's one that can be had for $25 at a well-known net merchant, and a little more at the CompUSA. 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...

design an appropriate keying pattern and learn it, and write a little software. This is just crying out for an Open Source project. You can help handicapped people, perhaps even influence a new generation of low-budget cyborgs!

The Belkin Nostromo n52 Speedpad has 14 typewriter-style keys that chord (meaning they can all be read individually), LEDs, a dial, and a game controller with firing button. That's easily enough to make a chording keyboard. You can use the game controller as four shift keys (your thumb rests upon it).

To make the job easier, here's C code to read the device on Linux. To finish the job, you'll also have to push key events back into the Linux console or X Windows. Code to do that is already available on the net, it's been written for use with other USB devices.

Re:Direct link

[JWSmythe]

My automagic mirror caught the original site and picture.

Re:Then you can't buy a one-handed keyboard for $2

[DocSnyder]

Saying that you can buy a one-handed keyboard for $25, but you have to roll your own software

man xmodmap

As long as the one-handed keyboards gives any kind of output, it can be mapped al gusto.

wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine what you could do with two of those!

software for the n50

[Anonymous Coward]

the previous version of the nostromo, the n50 ( same thing w/ less keys and less orange ) had some linux software written for it avalible here

Small Laptops

[Vandil X]

My small form factor ThinkPad has such a small keyboard, it's essentially one-handed.

And it even comes with a nipple!

Gaming Device

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a gaming device. It is not a keyboard replacement. It has been around a long time. It also has no Linux drivers, so I'm not sure why it's in the "Linux" category.

Other than the title, category, subject matter and content - great post!

Re:Then you can't buy a one-handed keyboard for $2

[The_Dougster]

I have one of these things and it works fine. You could probably use joy2key to use it as a keyboard. I'm not sure if the shift functions work or not.

Re:Left or right?

[__aatgod8309]

You could always use the right-hand Dvorak layout here - windows can switch to it pretty easily (i use the standard Dvorak layout myself on MS Natural Keyboard Pro), and there are online stores where you can get 'custom' keyboards and keytop labels if you want them. (I'm not impressed with the keyboards though, which appear to have just had the keytops switched)

It's 1968 all over again

[wowbagger]

Funny, but one handed keyboards have been around since the Englebart demo.

Except for CAD, they never really took off - until the modern video game.

And while I certainly would not want to type a comment like this with a one-handed keyboard, I can see where they would be damn useful in editing a document - click-drag, button press for bold, click-drag, underline (or click-drag indent, click-drag create-subroutine-skeleton, click-drag lookup-definition).

Another one-handed keyboard

[jerometremblay]

This one is smaller, and supports both a USB and a Bluetooth connection (so you can use it with your cell phone).

I only wish they included flash memory on it.

http://www.frogpad.com/information/bluefroginfo.as p

Already own one of these and...

[ILL Robinson]

I actually own the n52, upgrading from my earlier n50.

As a gamer (yes, I admit it), I do find these devices useful. After about 4-5 gaming sessions, I became extremely comfortable with the device, and began integrating its usefulness into more traditional applications (like 3DS Max). Given the included software (albeit Windows), you are able to map keystrokes (macros as well) to the device, to which you can reconfigure/reinitialize the mapping through an app that sits in the systray (Loadout Manager).

Now onto the bad stuff. The n52 makes some improvements over the n50 (extra row of keys, dpad, thumb shift key), however the response of the keys themselves seems to have suffered a setback. While I was never completely satisfied with the response of the n50 keys (not enough tactile feedback for these fingers), the n52 has this even less so. More importantly, the keys sometime stick, making you depress some of the keys more than once in order to execute the keystroke - a pretty large issue when it comes the one thing a keyboard should do well.

Hopefully, the problems I encountered with this n52 is a defect with this particular unit (/.er's, chime in!).

All-in-all, the n50/n52 are good and versatile products, and I recommend them for those looking for a one-hand input device - particularly if you come across them at a cheap price (I bought my n52 for $35). The software support is a little flimsy, but Belkin seems to be more focused on this as their products are growing in popularity.

Another extremely interesting input use... The ILL Clan (a Machinima team I co-founded) use these devices to puppeteer their virtual characters during their Machinima productions/live performances - mapping the keys to facial gestures, lipsync and triggered animations.

My Review of the Speedpad N52

[vjmurphy]

Rejected from about a year ago, even, so who says Slashdot doesn't keep up with the times? :)

Here's my old review, in plain text glory:

Review of the Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52

The Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52 is a reworked version of
the n50: both are gaming peripherals that combine a small keyboard,
a D-pad, and a scroll wheel into a small, ergonomic package. Using
the included software, you can bind keys and macros to the Speedpad
for use in games and applications. So, for example, instead of using the
typical WASD layout on your keyboard, you can map those keys to the
Speedpad, along with keys for throwing grenades, switching weapons,
etc.

With macros, you can initial multiple actions, such as targeting
the nearest enemy, following him, and going into attack mode, all
with a single keypress.

The n50 is probably the best gaming peripheral I've ever owned: I
find it indispensible for FPS and MMORP games. When news of the
n52 began to filter out, I was hoping that many of the flaws of
the n50 would be eliminated, but that the core utility of the
device would be maintained. I'm happy to say that I was not disappointed.

Firstly, some of the flaws with the n50:

* Lame "scroll" wheel was really not a scroll wheel, but more like
a throttle: it did not have full 360 degree motion.

* Shift state indicators in a bad spot: the n50 (and n52) has three
"shift modes" that you can switch between, allowing each key to have
more than one use, depending on the shift mode. However, the n50's
shift mode indicators are on the left side of the unit: when you are using
it, your hand blocks the ability to see those indicators.

Minor problems, really: the scroll wheel was easy to just disable, and after
a while, you didn't worry about the shift mode indicators.

The n52, though, fixes both problems: it has a 360 degree scroll wheel (that also
can act as a button when pressed, just like many mouses) making it actually
useful. The shift indicators have been movies to the right side of the
controller, near one of the new thumb buttons. Now you can see the shift
state at a glance.

There's a new row of keyboard buttons, adding 4 more buttons in good positions.
Your pinky will now be able to trigger death and destructions much more easily.

The new thumb buttons, though, are a disappointment. The idea is great: two
buttons above and below the dpad on the right of the controller. However,
the round orange button above the dpad is extremely difficult to press without

Pros:

* Great ergonomics
* More buttons
* Better positioning of shift indicators

Cons:

* New thumb buttons are a little annoying in placement and use

One hand on the keyboard, one hand on my ball...

[StressGuy]

...trackball that is, I find it an excellent way to use AutoCAD. ...oh...you didn't think that......

you people are sick.... ;)

Re:Then you can't buy a one-handed keyboard for $2

[Anonymous Coward]

I typed that command, and my keyboard still doesn't work.

Left-handed? Right-handed? QWERTY!

[Tackhead]

> "yes, but is it left-handed?"

My QWERTY is just fine, as long as I use one hand at a time:

Fred was a fat ass
"Hop on my jolly polonium puppy, you union ho'..."
Greedy Fred created extra stewardesses
"Union ho?" I'll kill you!
Badass stewardesses cratered Fred
Unholy, huh?

Linux Drivers

[philipx]

It actually does have Linux Drivers: "Project: Linux Nostromo Speedpad Driver" http://sourceforge.net/projects/nostromodriver/

Re:Then you can't buy a one-handed keyboard for $2

[Minwee]

Yeah. "Some Blogger". What does this... whassisname... Bruce Perens guy know about geek culture, free software, and all that? I mean really now. What did he do? Write the Open Source Definition? Found the Linux Standard Base, Open Source Initiative, and Software in the Public Interest? Write widely used software and libraries? Spend eighteen years at Pixar and the NYIT Computer Graphics Lab, then two years as Senior Global Strategist for Linux and Open Source at HP?

It seems they let just about anybody post to Slashdot these days.

Re:Then you can't buy a one-handed keyboard for $2

[OrangeTide]

The idea with open source is that it only takes one sucker to write the driver and the rest can benefit from the novelty of it.

Re:Chording is possible with standard keypads.

[OrangeTide]

Generally keyboards that have chording problems don't give you break codes (key release) when you have more than 3-8 keys down. (depending on the model). Make codes work fine on all keyboards, to the best of my knowledge.

The symptom is that when playing a fps you might get stuck in firing or stuck crouching after a crouch-jump. etc.

Keyboard controllers only report the changes in the state. every few microseconds the keys are scanned (in a matrix pattern). And keys that are down are checked to see if they've been reported as down in the past, if not it's sent out. Keys that are no longer down are reported at up if they haven't been reported before. Generally it's easier to report down keys than up keys (because there are almost always more keys that are up than down). Cheap keyboard controllers have small queues rather than complete bitmaps because it's less memory (the microcontroller they chose might only have 16-32 bytes of RAM).

DOWNLOAD HERE

[Grym]

In case you don't have one of these Belkin Speedpad 52s already, they're awesome. I use it for gaming, and there's no limit to what you can program these things to do. In fact, I might even consider using one borderline cheating if you program the macros well enough.

Anyway, because I had some with the "profile editor" of the included software, I went ahead (after reading the article) and made a profile that does (what I believe) the original author had intended.

I did this in about 30 minutes, so bear with me if some keys are missing or if it's a little buggy. All major symbols and lettered keys are included but I still need to find where to put keys like "[", "]", and so on.

I broke the keyboard down into 4 logical secions:
1. All function keys / most symbols
2. Right lettered side
3. Left letter side
4. Numpad

From there, I made each of those sections one of the four "shifts" for the controller. Shifting is controlled via the 4-way D-pad with up being "cycle shift", right being right letters, left being the left letters, and down being the numpad. Function keys are the default. Additionally, because of the frequency of their use, the enter and space keys exist in all "shifts" on the circle button and button number 15, respectively.

I know this sounds complicated, but it's really not. Once you take a look at the design in the profile editor, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

I'm posting these files up on my university filespace. They're small, but if anybody wants to mirror, feel free to do so. Also, feel free to change my design and distribute as you see fit. (Patents/copyrights are for the birds, imo.)

To use these files, you'll have to already have to use the software that is included with the device. Directions, which consists of 2 steps, are included within the readme.

DOWNLOAD HERE

-Grym