Slashdot Mirror
AlphaGrip Starts Mass Production
punchy_boy writes "The AlphaGrip AG-5 is finally starting production. News of pre-orders for this device was reported 6 months ago.
This device is a keyboard and mouse in a 'gamepad' style form factor. It's been a while coming and the guy(s) at AlphaGrip deserve a pat on the back for sticking with it.
I was so enthusiastic about this device I wrote some software to help me learn to use it properly (alt link)."
Sometimes, I hold it with my hands crossed and upside down... I call it The Stranger
I have a plan. Using mainly spoons, we'll tunnel our way out of the city...
Actually, you should watch the video. I don't think it'be that great in an office, but like they say, during a car or plane trip, it is interesting.
And if you think you don't want to learn how to use, it could be that you're growing old and don't want to change your little habits... hehehe
I'm surprised we haven't seen a lot more novel controllers for our gizmos. We've got a lot of different people, coming from different experiences all over the world, playing many different games, musical instruments, working with a vast array of tools. And experimental hardware is very cheap and accessible to design and produce, even in limited quantities. So why are we stuck with basically QWERTY, mouse, D-pad, and a "handful" of variations and combos? Let a thousand controllers bloom! Each with a USB connection and an open-source driver :).
--
make install -not war
But i just can't get used to this kind of stuff ...
...
: www.alphagrip.com/+&hl=es
I have thought about getting out of qwerty many times, but, even when there are some input/control devices that are better and faster than the classic ones, so many years using the classic designs lets us type as fast with them as one could do with newer toys. Also, it's pretty hard to get used to that kind of changes.
I have tried DVORAK, and even a crazy experimental layout that i found out there
k , u y p w l m f c
o a e i d r n t h s
q . ' ; z x v g b j
Here is the link to experiment that created this layout: http://www.visi.com/~pmk/evolved.html
In conclussion, this devices might be very comfortable, but an old hacker just won't get used to them.
BTW: The site is slow, here is the google cache link: http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:qO6W-dkdz4kJ
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
I wasn't really interested, untill I watched his little demo video. I really like the idea of being able to type while sitting in my lay-z-boy and not having to handle a wireless keyboard. I am sure it has a learning curve like anything else, but I am an avid console gamer and I think I could pick it up in a week or so, I might just order one right now.
Steering wheels make sense for racing games. They are still sold. It is one of those things that I don't think make sense when crammed into another style computer input device. Yeah, you can do it with a keyboard (no space!) and mouse but it doesn't make sense. A mouse isn't as intuitive as a steering input. A keyboard is less so as pushing a button isn't an analog input, but steering direction is analog.
But I guess it doesn't matter as realistic driving physics is outside of the gaming industry's grasp.
Did you watch the gaming demo ? It seems that the "joystick" function of this controller is a on/off switch. That's ok for strafing (that's what we use with our keyboards) but it's totally unusable for proper orientation ! I already find that joysticks are far less precise than mouses when comparing movement acceleration range, this is even worse. Definitely not a gaming device.
Seems to me that there have been a lot of attempts made to come up with better keyboard designs - Dvorak; that alphabetical keyboards; chordic keyboards; split keyboards; weird keyboards; other weird keyboards; and so on.
Call me when one of them has broad market acceptance.
Michael
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
Is there anybody who (having used both) can tell us if the alphagrip can challenge the supremecy of the handykey twiddler chording keyboard as the device for typing while running?
do you think US special forces are going to be punching in artillery corrections on a ruggedized alphagrip instead of the L3 wrist keyboard that I'm told they used in the 1990s?
It says right on one of their webpages that it works on Windows, OS X, and *nix that's set up to use USB keyboards and mice.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
My PS2 steering wheel took 2-3 seconds off my GT3 lap times.
/., I would be all over it.
More importantly, it helped me suspend disbelief when I was pretending to drive a car on my TV.
If a controller shaped keyboard could help me suspend disbelief while I try to make interesting points on
i forget
http://www.gyration.com/
But it costs $$$.
One of the advantages of a chord keyboard is that it allows one-handed typing, which is essential for wearable computing: you shouldn't need to put down your "keyboard" to open a door or pick up a glass or whatever else you need to do in the "real world".
I'm quite open to novel mechanisms to data entry and have experimented with a few in the past. However, these keyboards are often optimized for typing English text while unwittingly complicating the entry of shell and vi commands, which are just as important to me.
I'd like to see a keyboard designed around the key usage of a sysadmin who uses vi and tcsh (and other obscure programs such a emacs).
Michael.
Linux : Mac
And since we just recently had a story about typing recently, I'll suggest these folks update their web site and scrape away the BS. To wit:
>>And even those who do touch type do
>>so with a letter layout that was
>>specifically designed to slow down typing
>>so the first mechanical typewriter keys wouldn't
>>jam.
*sigh* No, no it wasn't.
>>The Dvorak lets you type faster
*sigh* No, no it doesn't.
...play Doom 3 with something designed like the AG-3 :)
Think about some of the characters most often needed for programming in common languages: ( ) { } & * $ % @
They're all shift characters on qwerty keyboards, while characters I use relatively less frequently (like digits and most letters) are immediately available without any special combinations.
I guess the obvious problem would be the need for new layouts when using C or Lisp or Python or whatever, but it's still nice to dream about a keyboard designed for programmers in 2005 instead of secretaries in 1873.
Dang that's a big ball o' plastic. It reminds me of the old Super Controller from my ColecoVision childhood.