Slashdot Mirror
New Keyboard Has Just 53 Keys
Enigma5O writes to tell us The Tech Zone is reporting on a new style of keyboard with just 53 keys. Departing from the normal QWERTY keyboard setup the 'New Standard Keyboard' designed by John Parkinson measures just 12.5 inches wide x 5 inches deep x 1 inch thick and is arranged in alphabetical order. The keyboard has been designed with ergonomics in mind keeping all keys within easy reach of the home position. The only question is, will everyone be willing to relearn how to type?
Ok, I looked at this keyboard and (aside from moving the keys to an abcd format) it seems to use more of shift-like functionality. Each key I see has 5 labelings and I hope to god that the ones I can't make out in white are the numbers because I can't seem to find them anywhere else on this freak of nature.
...
... and I'm not seeing these innovative
designs, just a need for me to memorize a new key pattern.
I just counted on my own traditional 101-key keyboard 146 or so different values I could want to send to the computer. So let's use that number in a brief analysis of methods we could use to design a keyboard.
On one hand, you could have a physical key for each and every character/signal you want to send. Yes, even upper case letters would be a key different from lower case.
On the other hand, you could say that combinations of keys count for sending signals. This assumes the user can depressed keys instantly but this means that for each key, we've doubled the amount of signals we can send. So, the smallest power of 2 above 146 is 256 or 2^8. And this is fine because we have 10 fingers which is more then enough to hit 8, if required.
However, we don't want a keyboard with a key for every signal and we don't want to have to memorize combinations and press down on keys instantly to obtain the desired signal.
What we do want is a happy medium.
Both the 101 and 53 key methods provide that medium, I guess it's just a case of who came first (similar to the problem with Dvorak simplified keyboard Which many people have contended is better than QWERTY yet has not taken off like it should have.
Unless this new keyboard poses some amazing qualities that set it far and above the old design, it's probably not going to take
My work here is dung.
As many of you will know, QWERTY was actually made to slow typists down (to most Slashdot readers however, it seems to have been ineffective) so an alphabetic arrangement, which was the original arrangement of letters on a typewriter AFAIK, would probably speed typing were anyone to learn it. However, some of you will have heard of the Dvorak keyboard layoyut, this was designed with speed in mind locating the most-used keys in the easiest to reach positions. (More about Dvorak: http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/). This seems to be almost stuck in the middle of two ideas: QWERTY being well-known; DVORAK being supposedly the best for speed and ergonomic typing. I'm not sure why anyone would buy this keyboard (or use this layout with another keyboard) although it could come in handy for teaching children to use computers - I know when I was first introduced to a computer I couldn't understand why the keys were where they were.
Matthew Grint Midnight Artists
The only question is, will everyone be willing to relearn how to type?
no
They seem to have forgotten the space key?
Any keyboard without a big bar that either thumb can use to space will never take off in my book. But maybe the PDA market will like it
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
This keyboard will be equally succesfull as the dvorak keyboard. People are so accustomed to their 'native 'keyboard (I have azerty but can type fairly well on qwerty) they won't change unless this new keyboard really is so much better.
As for gamers, why would I want to give up the luxury of binding each and every key I want from the standard 101-key design to a special function, or why would I want to reset my movement/jump/whatever keys?
Unless they give away bars of gold with each one I don't see why the general public might need this keyboard.
From the article: Alphabetical letters are easier to find and keys are color-coded on the NSK535R to aid hunt & peck typists
So people who are new to computers need to 'find' keys on their keyboard? After a while you know where they are, I guess. I don't think new computer users would like to be treated as children with such a nice colorful slimmed down keyboard. I expect people want the whole deal, even if it's only for later on...
Dependency hell? =>
is bad enough, but alphabetical? If I was ever going to change typing style, I'd change to dvorak
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
But if they implement a key for CTRL+ALT+DEL, the sales will go high as the sky
s ajfds jfd skxloq fjdksl;oncds!!!! s)
The problem with any new interface is its rate of acceptance. With standard QWERTY keyboards firmly entrenched, there really isn't a place for a new keyboard layout for computers.
However, there are many places where a well-designed keyboard could be useful. Cell phones need a good keyboard design. Cash registers are notoriously over-keyed. Even airport check in counters could stand a new interface.
The site isn't loading the picture of the keyboard, but aside from the "split" keyboard, there really hasn't been any keyboard layout that has caught on.
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
Here
You'd need two hands just to reach A, W, S, and D and god forbid you have to strafe
Well, I can appreciate the space-saving design in theory, but I doubt anything good will come from a keyboard in which you need to use a Function key to type a number. Laptops may have this feature, but they also have a regular number row.
A side note: The article uses "There are only half as many keys to learn" as an advantage. Not quite. I still need to learn all the keys, but there's only half as many spaces in which to put them. So I'm learning at least two key positions for every button...if not more.
-Barkeep, a draft of your most hazardous brew, for the world is slowly stepping into focus, and I don't like what I see.
That sounds like the keyboard that was on my first computer like toy. The Talking Computron, it was sold by Sears and contained many learning / teaching games. One of my memories of playing with the computron was playing hangman with my Aunt. She had considerable trouble typing on it as she was used to the qwerty layout. Now im going to have to go home and play with the Talking Computron over Christmas/Holiday break.
GNOME developers confirmed. More keys would clearly irritate new users :)
"offer several advances over standard keyboard designs for businesses, home users, gamers " (From TFA)
So much for my WSAD key combination. How are you supposed to effectivly play games if you have to use function keys for every other move.
I just invented a language to replace English. English is clunky and antiquated. My new language uses less words and extensive color coding. Aside from needed to relearn how to read, write, and speak... it's way better.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
While I can't see the keyboard because the site is slashdotted, why did they stop at 53 keys? If you wanted to go for a truly minimalist design, why not go with something like the frogpad instead. I've heard from people that it's very efficient and easy to use, although its price prevents me from casually "trying one out." I think the idea of one-handed typing is pretty seductive. If I'm going to completely re-learn how to type, it's going to be with purpose, not just so I can cut down on slightly less than half the keys.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
A good keyboard isn't about the number of keys being optimal, it is about how good it is to use, it's tactile response and a myriad of other things.
Take for example the MSX style cursor + in the middle of the keyboard. It isn't biased to either side for single-handed operation, and an upside-down T is better for the middle finger anyway than a +. They'd have been better off adding a 'Cursor' function key and assigning it to WASD or IJKL (well, the alphabetical arrangement that corresponds to those qwerty keys anyway).
As for the ordering, Serenity shows that we'd still be using standard plastic PC keyboards in the distant future. So why bother trying to reinvent the keyboard. Again. Times a hundred.
The major issue with keyboards these days is that navigation isn't integrated (excepting nipple/clit mice) so most users will spend their time switching between the mouse and the keyboard. There are some keyboards that integrate a trackpad, but they lack the feedback that normal keys provide.
Are those colours there on the real keyboard, or are they only on the pictures in order to show where the keys are?
[sig]
The article states:
Keys are aligned with natural movements of fingers to insure proper posture when typing
This is a good thing.
Alphabetical letters are easier to find and keys are color-coded on the NSK535R to aid hunt & peck typists
Easier to find if you have never typed before, otherwise they will be just as hard to find.
All keys can be easily reached from the home position
This is true if you have small hands.
Shift keys are centralized and shift characters can be typed one-handed for assisted applications and handicapped
This may be a good thing
Editing keys are integrated
This also may be a good thing
The keyboard has a smaller footprint, which allows the mouse to be placed right next to the typing keys
This is not necessarily good, a smaller keyboard may just cramp your hands and typing leading to more mistakes?
There are only half as many keys to learn
Again, if you are using it for the first time, otherwise there are 100% more keys to learn.
It looks interesting but I am not so sure it will catch on quickly.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
What...? Are CTRL, ALT and DEL placed next to each other?
While it does piss me off that I'm relatively efficient at a system designed to cap efficincy rather than maximize it, a) I'm not sure that I could retrain my fingers easily enough to warrant the switch to a different device, and more importantly b) I'm not sure it would make me much faster, as my fingers already tend to get ahead of my brain. What's really improved my efficiency is the backspace (delete) key that saves me from having to pull the paper out, hit it with an eraser or liquid paper, then line it back up, sort of, everytime my brain falls behind. I would be willing to retrain myself to use a keyboard layout that let me type with relative efficiency with one hand....eventually.
The URL seems to be very slow, try the Coral cache instead: http://www.thetechzone.com.nyud.net:8090/?m=show&i d=469
The problem is nobody's likely to stay hunt-and-peck forever. And nobody's likely to use the same computer forever. I wouldn't recommend it even to newbies.
As for the claim that qwerty was meant to slow you down: that was a myth. What it was meant to do was to place frequently typed letters far apart so that they wouldn't jam if struck together.
...but I wonder just what it is they have patented? According to the article:
New Standard Keyboards (NSK) of Santa Maria, California will introduce a new line of patented USB-interface computer keyboards at CES, which have just 53-keys and offer several advances over standard keyboard designs for businesses, home users, gamers and assistive technology users.
Now certainly even the USPTO wouldn't allow a patent on alphabetical arrangement, so I'm guessing it must be with the USB interface. Anybody have any info has to what they are doing that is original and non-obvious?
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
They built a "hexagonal wheel", we all make mistakes.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Albeit 53 keys are too little, I like the idea of less keys on my keyboard.
I don't want a windows key. Nor do I need an email key. Or a key to open my browser. Or a volume slider.
My old metal IBM keyboard is still the best I've ever seen.
Is it a dupe or an update?
story
Here's another story about this keyboard from almost a year ago...
http://www.everythingusb.com/news/index/6039.htm
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Um, is the "ergonomic rule" about putting commonly used keys under strong fingers only one of these "everybody knows it's true" and not a real truth? 'Cause this sucker has 4 vowels under pinkies (a, e, i under the left pinky at that). Wouldn't that be bad ergonomic design, if the finger-strength rule is real?
This article, written in JANUARY, provides a better overview of the product.
A few interesting quotes...
That's because the QWERTY layout was never intended to slow down typists - a common accusation from Dvorak supporters - but to allow them to type quickly without jamming the keys in their typewriters. In other words, QWERTY was designed to be efficient, too.
The New Standard Keyboard addresses the issue of key layout by subsuming ergonomics and typing efficiency for the sake of the hunt-and-peck typist.
Meaning it targets the lowest common denominator... another quote I read said that it was target at (or atleast could appeal to) senior citizens and those who don't know how to type. I can see that... but figure the market for people who are going to die before it makes sense to learn how to type is probably not that large or sustainable. Could be wrong.
Anyways the website for the product is here, and appears to under reconstruction. Lame... like the color scheme of this keyboard.
Old news... lame news... next please.
It has only a gas pedal. You have to pull the door handle and hit gas simultaneously to brake.
I switched the gearlever from the traditional five to a more ergonomical two gears and second gear is the default. Studies have proven that more motorists pull away in second.
We expect this new model to replace traditional models around the same time DVORAK replaces QWERTY.
Cross your hands and you would start typing in ROT13!
a keyboard that might come with a childrens' toy computer... too cute for me, and the alphabetical keyboard has been proven time and time again to be very inefficient, difficult to learn, and counterintuitive.
QWERTY is more efficient, but still not the best, as its primary design philosophy was to keep typewriters from jamming by keeping commonly adjacent letters far away from each other on the keyboard
DVORAK supporters say that it was designed to minimize the distance that your fingers travel, but for some reason, I could just never get used to having to type all vowels with my left hand (and hence the right brain). Language is predominantly handled in the left brain, and vowels are sort of mathematical in language, so it stands to reason that the building blocks of words (vowels) should be handled by the left brain.
The thing that I like about the Dvorak layout is that it is a standard, so one can easily remap the keys on a computer using software usally included with the OS.
What about the people who would want to remap their keyboard (just to try the layout out) to this style?
And the answer is no.
12.5 x 5 x 1 ???? Sold! Perfect for my carputer and other small-footprint applications.
May I recommend the Kinesis Ergo keyboard?
This device helped my wrists recover from severe tendonitis; I have had no relapses. The keys are arranged in vertical columns, which is something the "New Standard" got right, but it looks as if it forces your hands to remain unnaturally close together. Also, "chording" (pressing more than one key simultaneously) just creates superfluous keystrokes.
This signature is being generated randomly.
51N5 1T HAZ L355 K33Z 1 KAN AL50 T1P3 FA5T3R + M0R3 AKURAT3LY.
1T5 35P3C1ALLY G00D F0R WR1T1NG 5PAM MA1L, WH1CH H3LP5 M3 B3 M0R3 3FF1C13NT AT W0RK.
---- It won't be as bad as you fear or as good as you hope, but it will take twice as long as you plan.
I've heard and read about Dvorak keyboards before, and this article made me want to go buy one. I realize that I could just remap my current keyboard, but I would like something with all the keys marked. When I did a quick froogle search, I came up with this site: http://www.typematrix.com/dvorak/ I have *never* seen a keyboard like that. Has anyone used them? Are they comfortable? Whats the deal with the orthogonal layout?
--Nycto
I'd neither want to start a VI vs Emacs flamewar, nor be too off-topic, but here are my thoughts on the design of an ideal keyboard (for programmers, that is).
I am using Emacs, and of the only two weaknesses this editor has in my opinion, one is that it can cause hand injuries. On many keyboards, the often used ctrl and meta keys are available only on the left side of the keyboard, leading to a twisted hand when one tries to combine them with a nearby letter. To avoid this hand-twisting, these keys must be easily reachable, by both hands, and without taking the hands off the home row. The positions that satisfy this requirement are those reachable by the pinkies, directly on the side of the homerow and maybe the upper or lower row. So, caps-lock, shift and tab qualify on the left side, and locale-specific keys qualify on the right side.
To get the ideal Emacs-Programmer-Keyboard, a remapping of keys is necessary. Of course that's where things get complicated. While the hardly-used caps-lock is the ideal candidate for ctrl, tab and shift are more often used, and on the right side of the keyboard, it's even more complicated. I am still trying to find the ideal layout, if someone thinks he/she has found it, let me know.
The other weakness of Emacs by the way is the insanely steep learning curve and complex configuration, should it be used for more than basic text editing (i.e. code completion, folding, macros and so on).
http://www.atpm.com/7.05/datahand.shtml
That's what I call a keyboard..not even 20 keys..
uiqns hre lkps ewwz!!!!
That was esperanto which has its own website. Read it in esperanto if you really want to bend your mind.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Someone calls a 53-key ABCD keyboard a "new standard keyboard" and suddenly people start to think that it will replace keyboards? ABCD keyboards have been around for a while and aren't any good for typing. As far as layout goes ABCD is as bad as QWERTY in terms of random placement of the keys. The theory that it will "help kids learns" is bull. It might help grandma learn, but a normal kid will pickup any keyboard layout. This might as well be the DVORAK layout then, it's truly much better in terms of key placement.
No way am I giving up my current keyboard for that thing.
Who ordered that?
haha I can just imagine it now. You install a clean version of windows or Linux... and you can't load drivers for your new fancy keyboard because nothing you type comes out right! Fantastic! Does anything else think this looks like a speak and spell? I wouldn't take a computer seriously with that thing plugged into it
Looks interesting. "May" be good. But no way and I paying $70 +tax/shipping for just a simple keyboard.
That is already one big red X against it. Does it really cost $60 more than the current keyboards to put the keys in a different place?
No need for those arrows in the middle of the keyboard.
h, j, k and l work just perfectly fine.
Look at the whole picture, not just the hole in the picture.
WHY on earth is the layout alphabetical? This looks to me like they really didn't think it out enough. "Well we've got less keys, how should we lay them out?"
"In alphabetical order, with the first half on the left... so they're easy to find."
Easy to find had nothing to do with keyboarding/typing. The initial learning period of the layout is so small compared to the amount of time later typing w/o looking.
http://www.physorg.com/news2786.html
According to that article it also has clicky keys. Woowoo. Anyway, nothing to consign my lovely type-M IBM keyboard (bless it's blucking spring innards) to the trash for.
There are only half as many keys to learn
Yes, what an earth shattering advantages, when it's "just" 53 keys to relearn.
Why didn't they keep the QWERTY order at least? Would it have made things too easy?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
There's no DELETE key. How am I supposed to log into Windows? (Engineer: "Damn! I knew I was forgetting something!")
BTW, here is a working link to the image.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
These new design of keyboard forget to implements extended caracters for foreing languages, like "accents" in French (à é ë ê î ô ö ç ... and ...) and it seem harder to make something like
int main( int argc, char * argv ){ char blah[10]; for(int i = 0; i 10; i++) print blah[i]; }
At home my happy hacker keyboard has only 60 keys. At work I splurged and spent my companies money on a 65 key happy haker II keyboard.
a new 12 key keyboard has been introduced into the market. With the wide spread use of text messaging it was just a matter of time for the smallest keyboard to be used directly on computers. This is expected to result in further reduction of weight for laptops which no longer are constrained to much larger keyboards.
In other news, many p33ps r n0 l0ngr abl3 t0 c0mun1ct3 w1th us3rs 0f n3w k3yb0rds.
I'm doing fine with my morse key, thank you.
It's been said before, so I will repeat it just for all of you to get reminded.
The reason why this won't fly is that all of your keyboards are cheaply manufactured in places like Korea, Taiwan and China. The places that produce the keyboards don't want to pay for the patents. The QWERTY design doesn't have any patents on it.
Until someone comes out with a design and says "Here is a great design for a new keyboard, take it and do with it what you will"; nobody is going to take the ball and run.
Curiosity was framed; ignorance killed the cat. -- Author unknown
I don't think I would use this keyboard, the WASD keys are just positioned too awkwardly to play comfortably.
mmm... chicken...
Clearly, this keyboard has no competition as the best of the best. http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/7727/
Look at the whole picture, not just the hole in the picture.
It seems to me that everyone wants (or says they want) to move more toward voice interaction. *picture Scotty talking into the mouse "Oh, computer!"*
Now, since voice recognition is so difficult due to the myriad twists and turns of human language, why not split the difference and design an input device that enables us to use both our hands and our words?
If I could just say "shift" or "alt" or "cap" instead of having to convolute my fingers to hit those keys on the keyboard, that might be a start.
Some UI guru (like that new one they just hired at MS) should be able to figure out what the best mix of hand/voice usage would give us optimal efficiency.
At least it would placate us until they got the entire voice recognition thing figured out.
"Oh, computer!"
Read any good sonnets lately?
http://www.thetechzone.com.nyud.net:8090/?m=show&i d=469
Cached. http://www.thetechzone.com.nyud.net:8090/?m=show&i d=469
Fractured Element
C'mon, it's just another useless invention. It hardly deserves attention.
Whenever you read this sig someone's refrigerator light turns on.
Bah, as long as a meaning is foolishly hardcoded to each key combination, a keyboard lacks the flexibility to be optimal. And as long as keys are laid out on a plane, it's ergonomics are in doubt too. Now, would the rest of the world please get with the program and visit http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/ for a good alternative keyboard?
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
I can't live without it.
I neeeeeeeeeeed my many keys!!!
Also how do you play continuum on such a monster? Or type Latex-documents without accidentally tying your fingers in a knot?
int main(void) {while(1) fork(); return 0;}
But.......will it run on linux?!?
Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling a pig in mud. Soon, you realize the pig is dirty, and he likes it.
i just designed a guitar with 6 frets and 24 strings...of course, now the tuning pattern is completely different, so i'll call it..uhh..."new standard tuning"! i wonder if it'll catch on.
You sure 'bout dat?
"The only question is, will everyone be willing to relearn how to type?"
The answer is now, and always has been a resounding "NO".
I can't open the link! Is it the usual "Keyboard error. Press F1 to continue", or does it have it's own errors? Or could it just be the slashdot effect?
This message has been ROT-13 encrypted twice for higher security.
...do people keep trying to redesign the keyboard despite numerous failed attempts? Dvorak may have a theoretical speed advantage, but how many work situations actually have sufficient periods of sustained typing that the improvement is measureable over a work day? I personally wish some of the design effort wasted on alternative keyboard layouts went into better overall interfaces, but that's me.
Back in the 80's I worked for a company that made control systems for the chemical and petroleum industries. The systems included enormous consoles (think NASA) with numerous displays and data entry stations. Input devices included standard QWERTY keyboards, alphabetic keypads, mice, trackballs and touchscreens. Guess which got used the most. If you guessed the QWERTY keyboards and the mice, you guessed right. Doug Engelbart was a wise, wise man.
I will learn new way of typing if I'm sure that every other keyboard supports the new "standard".
;-)
Patenting the layout (how the new 53 key keyboard) does not help spreading the new keyboard.
But generally I'm fine with QWERTY. I'm fast typing and the only problem I have is the Emacs key bindings - especially the ALT+CTRL+SHIFT layout on standard keyboard... 10 hours of typing in Emacs kills my thumbs
For now I will say NO to the new PANTENTED 53KEY LAYOUT. I'm afraid that by patenting it the creator sentenced it to death before selling it.
Well, I've got to get back to work. When I stop rowing, the slave ship just goes in circles.
I've worked on Sun machines for about 10 years. It still drives me nuts trying to switch between my PC keyboard and my Sun keyboard. Only a few keys changed between these two: the CTRL and Caps Lock; the Escape and tilde; the Pipe and Backspace.
I couldn't imagine trying to switch between qwerty and abcdef.
KeithSupport bacteria. They're the only culture some people have.
If any of these efforts have a prayer of working they have invest tons of money in the schools and trade schools to teach people to use them from an early age and then position the devices in the marketplace so that they can be easily accessed.
While the one show is yet another rehash of the alphabetical layout - which others have built before and in a better way - our current keyboards need a solid redesign.
:-)
Alignment in rows and columns for instance is much more effective and less strainfull. Shifted allignment is a herritage from 1895 or something (pure technical constraints back then). Caps Lock is really bad the way it is. Even for the countries that need it a lot for alternate Glyphsets (russian f.e.). It need to be moved away. Far away at a special position. Much to big too. In a way simular to Escape - the only key in a position and size that can stay the way it is. How often have we *all* pressed it by accident.
Then there's the asymetry. It sucks. To quote Edison: "There's a better way to do it. Find it."
The important alternation keys like Caps, Ctrl, Alt, Command and the extra ones like Enter, Backspace and tab need a redo aswell. Symetry in size, amount and position all the way through and Enter moved to a super-prominent position in the center just the way space is now. Keyblock needs to be standardised, one way or the other. Either telephone or ancient-electrical-start-at-the-bottom. I prefer telephone since the other was only implemented due to technical constraints on the first calculators. Bottom-to-top keyblocks suck. Period.
While navigation keys are a must, F-Keys, Print, Help and such are nice extras. Maybe those could be spread about in an even fashion. F-Keys to the left, Navi and Fixed Funktions to the right. Mayybe a few extra keys in Mac style (volume+, volume-, mute, on/off, eject). Curiously enough I'm sitting at a current-state white mac kb just now. The Multimedia keys adside this kb has all the suckage I critized above. It actually expect Apple to sumon the guts to change all this. Maybe someday when all the Win people have switched to a unix variant.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
It's designed by a guy named "Parkinson"... whadya expect?!
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/03/new-standard-ke yboards-53-keyer/
Yes, January 1, 2005. Over 11 months ago.
It looks kind of interesting, and being so small it would be very convenient to carry around.
But...
It looks like it'd be an absolute bitch to learn to type on. And I've never been a fan of curved/angled "ergonomic" keyboard layouts. I was raised on straight keyboards, those are what I'm most comfortable using. And this thing looks a fair bit like a cheap toy.
So. Realistically, I'd probably only buy this keyboard if having the smallest possible keyboard is the highest priority. I'm having a bit of trouble picturing circumstances where the external laptop keyboard I have would be too large, though.
I have a macally iceKEY which has almost the exact same tactile response as an Apple laptop keyboard, but it's full sized and USB http://www.macally.com/spec/usb/input_device/iceke y.html. It has working eject, volume up/down, and mute keys, too.
I actually just purchased one of these: http://www.pckeyboard.com/customizer.html in a custom Mac and Dvorak layout and it's an awesome experience to type on. These people hold the rights from Lexmark and manufacture the modern day IBM Model M that is so coveted nowadays.
What I'd like to see is a keyboard with an UNDO key instead of backspace and keys for copy&paste.
Here are two that I am familiar with:
Microwriter
I remember seeing advertisements in the back of Byte magazine in the late 80s for a device called the Microwriter. It was a one-handed keyboard with only five keys and you 'played' chords in order to enter the desired character.
It's no longer manufactured, but here are some pictures and an image of the chords for the characters a to z.
A successor to the Microwriter exists and is called the CYKEY. The web site claims compatibility with some PDAs.
DataHand
The DataHand consisted of two banks of multi-switches (for want of a better word) one for each hand. The multi-switches were essentially little cups in which you rested your fingers. Each multi-switch could be activated in five directions: down, north, south, east, west. Down was a 'normal' key press, and the compass directions involved pressing a switch to the side of your finger tip. Basically your fingers remained still and you merely moved you finger tips. I believe you could also get pedals to act as shift keys.
Have a look here to learn more about it.
I friend of mine actually had one of these, he was a translator and had to do massive amounts of typing. He claimed it was 'somewhat' more efficient but rather difficult to get used to. I think he gave it up in the end.
---- It won't be as bad as you fear or as good as you hope, but it will take twice as long as you plan.
I'm still waiting for the Optimus Keyboard to come out! For me, that's the definition of innovation! :)
Yet another futile keyboard redesign attempt. Messing with the entire layout isn't likely to work. I suppose more subtle changes might have a higher chance of getting adopted by the broad public.
Nice. So now do I have to rewire my BIOS to accept some key combination other than Control-Alt-Delete? It seems like they've squandered the use of so many of these keys! On a keyboard of only 53 keys, WHO needs two Sym keys next to each other? My 105-key keyboard doesn't even have ONE Sym key! This layout MIGHT work if they got over the Qwerty bigotry and simply offered us a super-compact solution, with a Del key...but I guess that's been done before.
...just look at where the WSAD keys are! How would you ever play a FPS on it?
I once visited a control room at a chemical plant here in Texas (this was the mid 70's) and the control board had a qwerty keyboard and also a generally squarish one with the letters in alpha order, and the digits 0-9 in a column.
The purpose was to make ANYONE in the plant able to enter the command "SHUT DOWN BEFORE YOU BLOW UP" (so to speak) reasonably quickly.
So it occurs to me this might be useful in a setting with total non-typists needing to type relatively quickly... But in the year 2005, really, where would that be?
Fifty three keys is still too many. I read of a Swedish keyboard with only two keys:
http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/hurdieho.htm
Somehow the keybord design makes me think back to the good old ZX Spectrum. With nice things like CAPS-schift, Symbol-Shift, small SPACE-key and lots of symbols on every key.
Nyh
Er, wait. My fingers are already cold and dead. Nevermind.
"The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come." - Peter Ustinov Or, perhaps... "Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos. Before a brilliant person begins something great, they must look foolish in the crowd." - From the I Ching
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
Intelligent Design... Isn't
http://www.cafepress.com/idsnot
Spanish? Binary all the way!
My new language uses less words and...
Fewer words! 'Less' is for analogue, 'fewer' for digital!
Ohhh the irony...
We Build Beautiful Websites
the new QWE standard!
Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
A standard QWERTY keyboard with all the right keys in all the right places with all the right functions.
I don't want the cursor keys in some other wacky configuration than up on its own and left/down/right below. I want them at the same level as the spacebar. I don't want function keys to default to some weird application keys and resist all efforts to set them back to function keys *COUGH*Logitech*COUGH*. I don't want Insert/Delete/Home/End/PgUp/PgDn in some other combination than 3x2 or anywhere other than directly above the cursor keys, with 1/2" gaps between the main keys, those 10 and the number pad. I don't want it to be wireless. I don't want it to use batteries. I don't want a built in mouse. I don't want it to cost a fortune. I don't want it to be a piece of shit. *EVERY* keyboard in PC World fails the above spec on at least one count, and Maplin who you'd have thought would know better are just as bad.
All the right keys. All the right places. Good quality and price. Why can I only get such keyboards with new computers, and why don't places that supply them with new computers also stock them on their own?
I need a folding keyboard...
No.
And it's a right bit of cheek calling your keyboard the 'New Standard Keyboard'.
"These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined" --Homer re:
This keyboard reminds me of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum I used to have. Every key had 4 functions and could even conjure a complete BASIC command. So push p and the magic machine wrote PRINT on the television. Despite its magic rubbery keyboard it was no match against the C64. It only had 48K. Ah, sweet nostalgia
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!
I mean isn't this beginning to start a move towards the point where we are typing like we do on our cell phones? Seriously, I don't think these great advantages he talks about are really that advantageous. The fewer keys to learn is nice, but you have to remember twice a many shift options. I have a hard enough times remembering some of the symbols on the number row.
Who is to say this keyboard is easier for the hunt and peck typist? What if the person thinks keys should be arranged ABCD EFGH instead of ABCD NOPQ? Also why make the space bar so small? It has to be one of the most used keys on a keyboard and very easy to find. The keys on the bottom is also a bit disturbing to me. I have a tendancy to user the lower portion of a keyboard and/or the desk for "lowering" my hands while typing and my thumb often rests there or on the space bar (as is evident by the wearing of the plastic wear my thumb constantly rubs and presses).
And who made this guy the delete nazi? Where is my damn delete key or insert for that matter? There are times for using both. Two caps and num lock buttons? What a waste of space! Those are buttons you either turn on and leave on or you never turn on. The lack of the 10-key numpad also means this keyboard will find a lack of acceptance with people who type a lot of numbers. When I worked doing order entry, it was faster entering product numbers and credit card numbers with the 10-digit pad. The same is true for people working on accounting spreadsheets and programs, I am sure. If you are not typing text it is easier to move over to there, but if you have to type a balanced mix of both having it is also nice and anyone with a laptop can tell you how annoying it can be to have the number pad as part of the regular keypad.
This is a great idea if the mentality of people really is to get reduced size keyboards at the expensive of having to learn a ton of shift inputs. Work on improving the exist model to a point where people would like and still use it for a smaller size. I mean with a bit of effort you can probably make a very functional keyboard with about the same size (look at laptops). I don't think re-inventing the wheel is really necessary.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
It doesn't cost a lot to rearrange the letters on your keyboard, and it's trivial to change the keyboard setting in most operating systems.
While we're at it, let's have everyone switch to Mac. Windows is just too buggy.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
Alphabetical layouts have been evaluated again and again, and they just don't work very well: they completely screw up experienced typists, and they don't help novices one bit. There is a reason why even thumb keyboards are laid out in QWERTY.
Claiming that this keyboard has been dsigned with "ergonomics in mind" is bogus; the designers of this keyboard just don't know what they are doing.
It's a dupe.
No thanks.
I don't it's worth spending the time relearning how to type when there's 50 million other things to keep me busy.
...why all the spanish radio stations in the deep south interject english randomly in the middle of their spanish sensibility.
401 - Attention span not found
Probably not.
You can read my Ph.D-dissertation (PDF, big) (abstract) (PDF, small) for more information, but frankly it is very hard to beat the QWERTY keyboard, as it is very very efficient at the task it is used for. Please note that the dissertation does not focus on QWERTY per se, but rather on various alternatives to QWERTY, and the factors involved in attaining good usability, ergonomics and performance in diverse text input scenarios.
The only question is, will everyone be willing to relearn how to type?
No.
Simple answer, simple reason: people resist change. There have been many new kinds of keyboards styles and layouts that have been discussed on Slashdot over the years. All of them claim to have advantages, and most have been tested as being "more efficient" than QWERTY keyboards. But the QWERTY layout has been around since the manual typewriter, meaning that we have generations of people who have been trained on its layout. A new layout may be more efficient in the long run, but if it was adopted, millions of people would have to re-learn how to type. Can you really see companies endorsing a change that is effectively going to slow down their business, even if there is a potential future payoff? Have you ever tried to get a company to adopt a new piece of software, let alone hardware?
QWERTY is also a standard; you can sit down at just about anything with a keyboard and touch-type. Have you ever sat down at a computer that was set up for a French keyboard without knowing it? Isn't it a pain in the ass to try and figure out where everything is? Now, imagine what it would be like if every third computer used a different keyboard layout.
For what?
So people who can't type, can type 1-2 wpm faster? BUT... oh shit. They'll have to deal with a regular qwerty keyboard at work, and will just get even more confused?!
Like it or lump it, keyboards are here to stay, either dvorak or qwerty - they'll be around (mostly in qwerty layout) until voice recognition or mind control takes off.
smash
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Human side: what you say boils down to: "we want a keyboard with not too many and not too few keys". Fair enough.
The only question is, will everyone be willing to relearn how to type? I just think back to when I was in elementary school and we were learning the metric system...yeah, that didn't come to pass since we were already so entrenced with the old way. Regardless of the benefits I would expect a new keyboard layout to go the same way.
fak3r.com
if it came with the 'Any' key.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
I just bought a new keyboard.
Ok the article appears to be slashdotted. Perhaps later I can get a look at this keyboard.
I would welcome a trend to smaller keyboards with fewer keys. The growth of specialized keys on keyboards has really gotten out of hand in my opinion. What reason is there for 100+ keys on the keyboard?
How about a new survey question of "How many keys does your keyboard have that you have NEVER used?"
Think Deeply.
The only question is, will everyone be willing to relearn how to type?
:p
The answer is, no.
So, I'd RTFA if the site wasn't slashdotted, but my initial reaction is this: Why would you design a keyboard that caters to the hunt-and-peck crowd? I mean, even with bicycle training wheels, you can remove them and then you've got a real bike. But if you ever want to type on the majority of computers, you'd have to learn to type with qwerty (or dvorak, or another common input method) eventually anyway.
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/001 9242&from=rss
Posted by samzenpus on Monday January 24, @11:06PM
from the learn-to-type-again dept.
An anonymous reader writes "There are two keyboard standards today - QWERTY and DVORAK. QWERTY, the one we usually have, was used on the first commercially produced typewriter in 1873. Ironically, QWERTY was actually designed to slow down the typist to prevent jamming the keys, and we've been stuck with that layout since. New Standard Keyboards offers new "alphabetical" keyboard. This keyboard has just 53-keys (instead of 101) and offers user-friendly benefits and quick data entry."
The only question is, will everyone be willing to relearn how to type? Hell No!
Exactly. So this guy claiming it's ergonomic is full of crap. Alphabetical layouts are terrible for getting common keys under the home row because they have to use that fixed (arbitrary actually) order. I think QWERTY is bad too, but if we're going to change, lets at least put some letter frequency information into the design.
...than the original IBM Model-M clicky keyboard. It is the keyboard I make the fewest typos with.
Someone mentions the ZX Spectrum. For non-Britishers, or those under 30, this was an ingenius £100 home computer of the early 80s. It was particularly famouse for having 40 rubber keys and two (as I recall) shift keys (symbol shift and cap shift) and a context-sensitive sort-of-auto-shift-mode which meant keys would generate whole words when it expected you to enter a command/programming keyword. Some keys did indeed have, I think, up to 5 different functions It was impossible to touch type; more a sort of rubbery squish - but it was surprisingly easy to get good speed with the two shifts, once you;d got used to the modes. I think the 53-keyer may be great; but there's no need to make adaptation harder by going for alpha layout. The world is so familiar with qwerty (or azerty, or..) that anything else really is asking for trouble. Fewer keys though... I'm all up for it...
You can see it from another site at http://www.everythingusb.com/news/index/6039.htm
Warning: Teh poster of this messaeg is lysdexic
I actually thought this was kind of a neat idea until I saw the picture. No one serious is going to use a keyboard that looks like it was rejected by Playmobil.
"It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work." -- Tad Danielewski
...I was able to read that. Weird.
Isn't this what Esperanto was invented for?
It's an engineered language, in the Klingon tradition, but lots easier to learn and pronounce.
Then again, we could all just learn Klingon and wear lots of leather.
"Das Keyboard" from thinkgeek has all the keys, but no lettering on them. That will force you to think.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/7727/
Max M - IT's Mad Science
Disclaimer: the article is /.-ed, so all I've seen is one blurry image and one scathing review by someone at lowendmac who really, really didn't get it.
I'm a programmer who never learned to touch type. I've gone through a couple of courses (both QWERTY and Dvorak) but never found enough advantage to stick with it: I can type about as fast as I can emit C++ by every method I've ever used. The big problem is symbols: most typing courses treat them as an afterthought, but learning where they are (on different key boards!) is hard and is usually where I've given up and gone back to "free form."
I might actually like this thing. 99% of the objections I hear are (understandably) from touch typists. I have no such preconceptions, and I've tried lots of input devices (never found anything better than a regular old QWERTY + mouse; I'm not coordinated enough for chord keyboards or they didn't do C++ well; I'm using an Apple keyboard on a Dell to type this.) It's worth a try, or at least some respect.
It's good to know that Tech Zone is on the leading edge of reviewing year old news.
And that Slashdot editors continue to not bother checking for dupes.
Nothing new to see here. Move along.
This truly is the worst keyboard I've ever seen, but there are many awful keyboards in laptops these days. It seems fashionable in laptops to push space to half of its needed size to make room for windows keys and windows menu keys. Bizzare as it seems, my own keyboard has eaten up half of the left shift key to make room for a key that has both ">" and "" symbols although these symbols can also be found in their natural places in the bottom right side as well.
But now we have a truly consumer keyboard. Consumers don't need a lot of keys after all. They don't need a large space bar, they aren't going to write lots of text anyways so who cares? Space key go home and make room for "menu" keys and "windows" keys.
Is there anyone who makes keyboards as good as the heavy old IBM ones, with the soft clicking sound ?
Sorry, Patent Denied, Fisher Price claims prior art:
Fisher Price Baby Smartronics Computer Learning System
Another
In my opinion, this is a far more innovative keyboard:
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
This way I can set the keyboard any way I choose, whether it be QWERTY, Dvorak, or any other way that fits my needs. And I can also program it for specific functions, in gaming for example. The best part is that the keys reflect those changes.
There are already a few novel keyboards like this one on the market and laptop keys already allow for added functionality in a limited space. I never liked multiple keystrokes to perform functions and I never will.
I'd like a Morse code interface to my computer, so I could attach my iambic paddles. What better way to enhance your CW skills than to have to use it for everything!
No matter where you go... there you are.
Not too sure this is true. Most keyboards have removable keys you can rearrange. The key assignments are in software if I'm not mistaken. Just pull the keys and rearrange them, or better yet just learn to touch type in dvorak. (Not that I've done this, I'm just suggesting it for those of you who insist on this form of masochism.)
So if I understand this correctly, we put numlock and caps lock on either side of the space key and they are of equal size. The enter key is way off to the side, also equal size. So how long would it take to type a document and how many errors would you end up with trying to use that thing? My guess is that I never want to try it.
From TFA :-
The keyboard can be learned at a glance
Well, I glanced but failed to learn it.
Why is it assumed that the keys being in alphabetical is more ergononomic? Like many things, what seems easier for a complete newbie is rarely the best layout for an experienced user, especially after the stage when controls are operated by reflex action, which is how people get to type
I hit the Horn button on my car without needing to think where it is; there is no need to place it alphabetically between the Brake and the Throttle. A raw beginner might appreciate it alphabetically placed, but only on the first driving lesson.
TFA says it "will" ship in April 2005. It's had 8 months to catch on, but I have not seen one yet. Revolution - I don't think so. Anyway, it's patented so other keyboard makers are hardly likely to encourage it.
Considering that XP has a Fisher Price GUI by default, this will complement it quite well (but perhaps not complIment it so well.) :)
You gotta be shittin me!
There will be ppl who like it. Even though a 101 key I/F to a comptuer is pretty standard - most ppl use a mouse and it has how many buttons?
Imagine you're a child learning how to type.
You're learning on an alphabetic keyboard, and you're typing faster and faster. Now you're being told that to continue typing faster you have to change the keymap to qwerty, dvorak, whatever.
Question is simple : NOW, are you willing to learn typing with a really stupid keymap (speed-wise, comfort-wise) ?
Answer is no because it's just some kind of regression.
So, don't even think on giving such keyboard to your children, because they'll just hate you afterwards for not having learnt on a correct (qwerty, dvorak...) keyboard.
For your info, check the TABLES which help comparing QWERTY, DVORAK and ALPHABETIC keyboards on
http://www.shiar.org/happy/txts/dvorak.php
The tables just show how many words you can type with only some set of fingers.
You can see that with main fingers and home-row only keys, you can type far less words with alphabetic keyboard than with dvorak (or even qwerty) keyboards...
A bon entendeur...
My first thought from a letter frequency stand point was that the even division of the alphabet was bound to be off on a frequency stand point, but oddly enough, if you believe this chart (which I did only on a quick Google... first table I could paste into a spreadsheet :) ), it's more balanced than the QWERTY layout. (The alpha layout is 47.55% on the left hand with the QWERTY as 60.23%)
Of course the enter key and all the punctuation throw a wrench in there, but interesting for a several minute assessment. (Karma wh0r3s are left with Dvorak as an exercise.) Personally, I'm lost on those damn alpha-layout labelers. There has to be some secret QWERTY cabal out there somewhere that will put a stop to this.
Mirror of image
And in case THAT goes down, too, it looks like the layout is roughly like this:
ABCD.^.NOPQ
EFGH.<>.RSTU
IJKLM.v.VWXYZ
Color me not impressed. It looks like a crappy "infant's first keyboard" that Sesame Street would put on a toy computer that barks when you press the "Dog" key.
Education is the silver bullet.
While we're on the topic of keyboards, does anyone have experience with the Lenovo/IBM ThinkPlus USB Travel Keyboard with UltraNav?
Does it work with Linux and BSD systems?
"The only question is, will everyone be willing to relearn how to type?"
Happy to help! The answer is: No.
Next patient please!
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
If it means a short learning curve for better and more accurate typing in a smaller space, you'd better believe I'd be willing to re-learn.
Random rants about technology: http://technorants.blogspot.com
"Learning where the keys are spacially so that you hit a key and not inbetween them, or dead air is the hardest thing about learning how to type"
There's that, but there's also the time to learn. It takes about a year to become good on a Qwerty keyboard and that's assuming you're starting at birth. An older person will take much longer and be more frustrated, especially in light of their already capable hunt and peck methods.* Of course everyone needs keyboarding skills even if they never plan on being a programmer, and if they do plan on being a programmer? They'll be functionaly a cripple without it.
*Throw in inadequate training methods, and whoo whee!
It's needed when reading email.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
The only question is, will anyone be willing to relearn how to type?
Nasty typo there, corrected that for you.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Even if this new keyboard were way better than the old one, and I were willing to learn it, I know that I would still have to deal with old-style keyboards. And I'm not so sure my fingers can transition from old-style to new-style and back again as circumstances required. Pretty sure it would mess me up just proper.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
What clown modded this as "off-topic"? It is very relevant - not least because if this thing has been on sale for a year and no-one here seems to have seen one yet, it is clearly not going to revolutionise keyboard design. The idea has already bombed.
move on people
There isn't a windows button! Which key am I going to use to open the start menu now? ha
If you treat it as an engineering problem the keyboard gets optimized with 10 keys, chorded to match American Sign Language for the most used letters. Really.
But, all this ignores that fact that almost nobody has all ten fingers working all the time. Some of us, like the late Jerry Garcia, don't have ten typing fingers at all.
When I slipped whilst climbing down a rope and burned my right palm down to the bones, I lost the use of three fingers for several months. But my typing didn't slow down much, because I'm not a touch typist in the traditional sense of the word (I use all my available fingers, but whichever one is closest at the moment) and I like BIG keyboards (keeps bandages from blocking so many keys).
QWERTY is very fault-tolerant if you consider finger incapacitation a fault. You can type on QWERTY with a single finger, or even a stick in your mouth. If you are ever partially incapacitated you'll have enough worries without having to buy a new keyboard and relearn the key positions!
Say goodbye to WASD (not very manly-sounding on those frag-fests, is it?)
Behold: BeFG
Am I the only person who doesn't actually want a smaller keyboard? I mean I don't have particularly huge hands, but I know I have a hell of a time typing on laptop keyboards, why would I want one even smaller. This would be great for laptops or PDA's I suppose, but for 98% of users those devices are essentially just toys and most people how use one seriously plug it into a docking station and use a regular keyboard before they do any serious work with it.
If Cervantes had written Don Quixote today, the erstwhile knight-errant would be designing alternative keyboard layouts instead of tilting at windmills.
What amazes me is that real people continue to invest gobs of real money in actually manufacturing products that are essentially doomed from the start. Yes, the standard QWERTY keyboard sucks, but for a variety of reasons anything that replaces it has to be a lot better than the marginal improvement offered by mere variations on the theme. If it were otherwise, we'd all be using Dvorak keyboards now.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Difficult to figure out, not based on the formation of words in the english language (which was the premise behind Dvorak and Qwerty). No digg. ;)
....and just how will this raise grammar skills for the average slashdotter?
.. See?
It's quite obvious that even a normal keyboard is out of their hands.
What we need is a keyboard that shocks you every time you type something worng*bzzzt!* OUCH!
Defining Statistics and Social Research
12.5 inches wide x 5 inches deep x 1 inch thick and is arranged in alphabetical order.
I use a keyboard like this at work, and it's living hell.
It's all caps, has a numeric keypad, 26 letter keys and two modifiers; control & function. There is no hell worse than an alphabetical keyboard.
You can have my QWERTY keyboard when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
Just for the record, my horrible keyboard is attached to a forklift.
I'm not sure where the utility in this new keyboard is, but there is already a portable "twiddler"-style keyboard that uses three rows of five keys, plus (from what I can tell) three shift keys, , and . Find it here.
-- Let him who is without spelling error ignite the first flame --
Sucks, I mean really learning to type on it all over again, uh ya thx ill pass.
On the Spanish keyboard in my library and in Mexico they are THIRD symbols on the keys. I always forget which control sequence triggers. Its a pain to use email or windows software if either of these symbols is missing.
I have a really OLD keyboard that only has 40 keys!!
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000813025740/ not that they had this story up almost a year ago Slashdot.org, your source for up to the date news!
53 keys is too way many to interest me in relearning to type. If I was going to relearn typing I'd want a big gain from it - the only way I see that happening is with an 8 key cording keyboard.
We're all using this site with a keyboard that was designed to make you type slow, i.e., prevent mechanical ribbon striker jams.
We're all using this site over an internet protocol that probably isn't perfectly suited our hardware, OS, or connection speed.
In fact, the ONLY real reason we'd have a difficult time using this site together is differences in browser, or device.
The point is that by using common, royalty-free technologies, we can all interact without operational encumbrances, even though there are some drawbacks. This keyboard solves problems less significant than the benefit of a common interface.
I would further predict that the only point something like this will take off is when lcd-faced or e-paper keyboards are introduced. At that point, I can be guaranteed that when I walk up to a foreign keyboard, and my (presumably secure) keyboard preference is read by the RFID reader, that my personal layout goes wherever I do. Until then, this is a worse idea than any other disparate, proprietary format.
Could not get to the linked article, but if it is the same as this one:
http://lowendmac.com/musings/05/0127.html
then that thing is positively Romper Room!
It might be amusing to have one on your desk as an amusement if you were already known as a quirky engineer, but otherwise it's just embarassing.
Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
http://www.datahand.com/products/proii.htm
I think everything else is just half-baked, still narrow arm positioning, carpal-tunnel- or shoulder-tendon-killing, unergonomic non-innovation.
And still this thing (in the chair mounted version) is just the most basic thing i would accept as an innovation. More sophisicated systems should read the signals straight from nerve ends (preferably where the nerves are directly below the skin, so you don't have to change your body) or read the changes of the electromagnetic field in our brain (some kind of "telepatic" amplifier with an a/d-converter and a normal usb-connection, using a neuronal network for mattern matching on the driver layer)
Am i the only one who wonders why this isn't avaliabe yet, because all this is already possible for years...?
BTW: If anyone has venture capital: I'm willing to make it reality ASAP!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
http://colemak.com/
/.?
What's the deal? Is this alternative keyboard week on
-- Boycott Shell
The only "standardisation" of a keyboard that has any appeal to me, is one that solves the problem of the migratory backslash - the one key that simply can't stay put. There are at least seven different locations that I have found the backslash key on various PC keyboards I have used over the years, and that excludes laptops and other types of computer! If they would just pick one spot and leave it alone, I would be happy.
1. Between '=' and Backspace.
2. To the right of ']', above (half-height) Enter.
3. Between 'single-quote' and Enter.
4. Between '/' and Shift.
5. Between Shift and 'Z'.
6. Between Ctrl and Alt (before the advent of the Win key).
7. Between Tab and 'Q'.
Can anyone add to this list?
Spanish is almost completely regular in its spelling. French... not so much. There are so many letters that you just don't pronounce.
With Spanish, there are a couple of situations where you could choose between, say, an "s" and a "z," but there's nothing like the hodge-podge you get with English. Generally speaking, if you can pronounce the word, you can spell it, and vice versa.
Its only real drawback over English is that you need an extra 8 or so characters: the upside-down exclamation point and question mark to indicate the beginning of a phrase (surprisingly useful when reading written Spanish), the five vowels with accent marks to indicate the stressed syllable, and (rarely used) a u with an umlaut to indicate how to pronounce "gui" as in guitarra and pingüino (guitar and penguin, pronounced similarly to the English words).
That's one advantage English has for keyboard design: we don't use diacritical marks very often (generally only on recent loan words), and when we do, they're always optional. Really, who still spells role with a carat over the o, or naive with two dots over the i?
That, and the fact DVORAK, for all its goodness, may be overrated. The article above notes how economists "Liebowitz and Margolis cited ergonomic studies that conclude that the Dvorak keyboard offers at most only a two to six percent efficiency advantage over QWERTY."
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Programmers type characters like { } $ ( ) = + more often than the general population. It would be an awesome geek-toy to have a keyboard which promoted these characters to their own keys and relegated those useless squiggles like vowels to Shift-Ctrl combinations ;-).
Your awesome geek-toy already exists! It is the French "azerty" keyboard! :-) Check the layout: azerty.png
{, (, $, etc are accessible by single key-presses, but to type numbers you have to use shift (who uses numbers anyway)
It's like a monopoly, the QWERTY monopoly, and one could say "You don't get fired for buying QWERTY", because absolutly everybody uses it.
You just got troll'd!
There's two things that are very important to qualify your tables there....
First, the person who compiled them isn't actually using *real* typing tests. He's basing it solely on frequency of letters appearing on the home row, and he's making the assumption that everybody's fingers rest on the home row. When my thumbs are resting on the spacebar, my pinky fingers are on the homerow... everything else is on the row above the home row.
Second, the person is talking about English-language typing. Dvorak simply isn't optimized for languages other than English, and neither is the one mentionned in TFA. I type in 4 languages, 5 if you count Japanese. If I were to switch between keyboards every time I switch languages, it would eat up *way* too much of my time, let alone learning a different layout for each language. Qwerty may not be the best-optimized for any single language, but it *is* very good for people who have to switch between languages.
I realize that I'm not even close to representing a majority there. But it is a very good reason that I won't be switching away from Qwerty. Until you can show me a keyboard that's better optimized for multilingual use, I'm not going to switch. I'll even make it easy for you: you can restrict yourself to European languages, but I won't consider it if you don't cover more than one family of languages....
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
I use a TouchStream keyboard which allows me to fully customise the layout. More than that, it allows me to use three separate modifier keys to temporarily switch to alternative layouts.
/ \ != > : _ == %
, . )
Naturally I spent some time experimenting to find the best layout for heavy typing and programming. In the end I settled on a system which eliminates reaches completely: I never have to reach outside 5x3 keys that fall naturally under each hand. (Except backspace, space, enter and delete, which are pressed with the thumbs on a Touchstream; and a few useless ones like F keys, print screen, pause).
So in fact I use a 34 key keyboard.
Never having to reach for symbols is very nice indeed for a programmer...
Anyway, here's the layout. The main layout approximates to a Dvorak layout:
*1 *2 *3 P Y F G C R L
A O E U I D H T N S
Tab Q J K X B M W V Z
The tab key is the only special or symbol key I can hit without using one of the modifiers. (Shift, ctrl and alt are done using chords, a TouchStream feature... four fingers at once in a particular row of the keyboard).
*1 to *3 are the modifiers, and they change all the keys under the right hand. *1 is the "number pad":
5 6 7 8 9
0 1 2 3 4
+ - * £ $
*2 is the "programming pad":
<
# & | ^ ~
;
And *3 is the "punctuation pad":
{ ` " @ }
( '
[ = ? ! ]
And that's it. It took a while to learn, but on the whole the switch to Dvorak was harder. It makes typing very comfortable indeed, as my wrists are completely stationary and I'm never reaching for keys. As for speed... well, I'm a programmer by profession, and it certainly doesn't slow me down.
I think there's definitely a case for reducing the number of keys people use. But it's going to be very hard to get right. TouchStream keyboards are vastly superior to normal keyboards... but they're no longer being made. Too different from normal, too expensive. It may be that nobody gets it right for tens of years... which is a shame. There's a lot of room for improvement.
...the 'New Standard Keyboard' designed by John Parkinson...
:(
That's a really bad last name for a keyboard designer
My first thought from a letter frequency stand point was that the even division of the alphabet was bound to be off on a frequency stand point, but .. it's more balanced than the QWERTY layout. (The alpha layout is 47.55% on the left hand with the QWERTY as 60.23%)
Just a thought triggered by your post, but it seems that if the most common letter SEQUENCES go back-and-forth between the two sides of the keyboard (so typed letters more often alternate to left-hand, right-hand, left-hand, right-hand...) , this will result in faster typing than if more sequences are to be typed by the fingers of one hand.
There might be an argument for duplicating the most commonly repeated keys (such as ee, tt and mm, as used in the above paragraph) on both sides of the keyboard so the back-and-forth rhythm could be kept going for longer sequences. But this has diminishing returns, as at the limit each hand has to fly over a separate keyboard containing all the alphabet.
Having the letter frequencies balanced may help somewhat with balancing the sequences as well, but I presume it would be best to optimize both.
Surely this isn't an original idea with me. Sure enough, Web-research (google typing alternative keyboard layout "letter sequences") brings up the 'D' layout, with vowels on one side and consonants on the other, supposedly increasing use of alternating hands for consecutive letters:
http://www.theworldofstuff.com/dvorak/
Oops, sorry for the Webinfomercial. I have no doubt about that page's claimes of Dvorak being better than Qwerty, but how close is Dvorak to an optimum layout? It's a lot easier now to do original research in this area than it was in Dvorak's time (1930's according to that webpage), and anyone who wants to develop and test new keyboard layouts for, say, a Master's thesis, could really do a bang-up job.
Tag lost or not installed.
Does it have an ANY key?
You can't get more spare than this one:
http://www.got.net/wlonk/
I still cannot figure out why it should not work.
and a Vibroplex sure has a smaller footprint than a standard computer keyboard. And since the computer will use the speaker to send screen contents back to you, you won't need a monitor either.
This brings up an interesting cross-skills learning exercise, receiving Morse while typing on Dvorak.
Another random thought: If you send Morse-over-IP, will the FCC start regulating it?
Tag lost or not installed.
It sure is nifty when you can make keyboards that have a smaller desk footprint, but are they forgetting that human hands have to use this thing? Chording shouldn't require the same finger to touch two different keys at once, nor two adjacent fingers on the same hand. If you need to place your hands too close together, you're going to increase wrist injury.
A big reason why wristwatch calculators didn't take off is because the buttons were too small to touch individually. Celphone and built-in PDA keyboards are failing for the same reason. I believe the pre-Java Blackberry pagers are about as small as you can get -- and that requires two-finger (or two-thumb) typing anyways.
Why aren't we using the chording keyboard that court stenographers use?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype
I started my digital communications "career" as a licensed ham radio operator in 1958. In the early 60's I had a model 15 teletype machine connected to my transmitter and receiver through a home built "Terminal Unit", AKA modem, using tubes. Anyway, the teletype keyboard had a grand total of 32 keys, including the space bar, and used the venerable 5-bit Baudot code. Only upper case letters were availble with numbers and punctuation being available with the carriage shifted up by hitting the "figs" key. To return to alphabetical characters, you had to hit the "ltrs" key or there was an optional feature called "unshift on space" that returned to lower case upon receiving a space character.
Since it was printing using a mechanical printer somewhat like a typewriter, at the end of a line, the carriage took a finite amount of time to return and I quickly learned to send two carriage returns followed by a line feed so that the next character didn't try to print while the carriage was still in motion back to the left. The keyboard was strictly mechanical so you could not type faster than the distributor was sending the bits and you learned to pace yourself to the speed of the machine to get as close to the limit of 60 WPM as possible.
Picture of Model 15 Teletype keyboard here .
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
No
And then there was E
will anyone be willing to relearn how to type.
Sure, qwerty has it's issues. Sure, there has to be a better way. But, sometimes the best technology isn't the answer. In the case of human interfaces with computers, what we have now may not be the best, but it's more than adequate for the majority of those using computers. I don't think a new keyboard will take off, not because it's better or worse, but because no one really cares. People are used to the qwerty layout and it serves well enough.
Just like there isn't going to be any major paradigm shift in GUI interaction (i.e. "3D" interfaces) anytime soon because people are used to interacting in a certain way and, lets face it, it works. If anything, the keyboard and mouse will get augmented by other inputs (touch screen, voice) over the next decade or so, but neither will be outright replaced by any radical new design.
Any major shift will likely only occur as part of a platform change, not as a replacement of an existing setup. I.e., I could see this keyboard taking off if it were embedded with, say, a set-top box where someone was already willing to learn a new method of interaction. No one balks at learning a new Play Station controller with each release, but if your Dell shipped with this New Standard Keyboard I guarantee it'd be the first thing replaced by a trip to Best Buy.
There's also the issue of people sticking with what they use at work. Many people have Windows machines at home because they have Windows machines at work, even if they have no need of "100% compatability" with their office equipment. I can't see the average user choosing to have this keyboard at home if the office computer stays qwerty.
I've always wanted to try hooking up a MIDI keyboard and to write some software that would take notes or chords as input and output letters or phrases. Tie it to Emacs skeleton-mode, and you could create a whole function/method/subroutine with two chords and a scale!
Transcript show: self sigs atRandom.
I can type about as fast as I can emit C++ by every method I've ever used. The big problem is symbols: most typing courses treat them as an afterthought,
Excellent point, Mod Parent Up.
And it's not just the typing, it's the keyboard and how the "special" symbols are accessed. A good programming layout needs to be developed, though it's likely to be language-specific and require a different layout for each type of language. Parentheses and curly-brackets are VERY commonly used in modern C-like languages, but one has to press Shift to get to them. Likewise, HTML (as in making the quoted portion above italic) makes extensive use of < > and " but they are also on shifted keys. Perhaps it would be enough to have the most commonly used symbols be UNshifted, and one has to press shift to access the digits keys along the top and rectangular brackets.
APL has/had its own keyboard layout and Selectric typeball, and it wasn't too bad (APL is quite a compact, "dense" language with many single-character functions, each with lots of meaning).
A better alhpabetic keyboard layout would only substantially benefit COBOL programmers, and they all code with the CAPS-LOCK key on...
Tag lost or not installed.
I mean, a keyboard is a keyboard...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Oh, that will be available as an add-on product, as will a separate "control key" pad for the insert/home... gouping, an "arrow key" pad which will be expanded to at least 9 keys (8 directional and a central enter), plus the "legacy user" pad which will give you the Escape and Function keys which you can set above your main key pad. After the success of the add-ons is proven, the "internet enabled" pad, with hot keys for your mail, browser, shopping, search, and gopher, and the "power user" pad which can have 10-12 custom application start up keys.
Eventually they'll sell the whole kit, then finally an "integrated" master keyboard, with all the above functions integrated into one place. It may be a few years down the road, but that's the one I'm going to wait for. It'll be awesome. I promise.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Qwerty keyboards are a bit entrenched. I tried playing around with Dvorak, as my kids were just learning to type and I thought it might be a good alternative. Well, since the school computers weren't going to be dvorak, you can't effectively not learn qwerty. At least with dvorak, you can just switch the layout in software and use a qwerty keyboard for dvorak input. I'd guess that 1% of users likely use Dvorak. With the 53 key keyboard (or any other non-standard keyboard) requiring different hardware (unless you can do a software switch and just ignore half of the keys on a standard keyboard), I'd guess you're going to get maybe 1 user in 10,000 rather than 1 in 100.I think I can assure you that everyone will not be switching. Now, get a jack installed in your head that just inputs whatever you think (in words rather than letters, so that it does the spelling) and then you'll get a good number of users. Nothing less of an improvement over the current keyboard will kill qwerty. Andrew
This is totally obvious but why aren't schools instructing people how to use Dvorak keyboards? It was designed for efficiency and it reduces stressful hand movements.
Trying to standardize anything less is a bad move when it would be much more intelligent to standardize the proven best.
I seem to remember reading once that early typewriters had keys in alphabetical order, but that was too easy. People were typing too fast and the keys were jamming.
If this is true, this is really a retro keyboard, not new.
I hope the keys are fat and far apart. I hate using laptop keyboards and will not because I feel like I have to squish my fingers together.
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
This offends me!
Once you are fully habituated on this wonderous gadget, it'll be absolutely impossible to get back to QWERTY.
Would time be better spent perfecting voice recognition. Seems like re-inventing the keyboard is a total waste.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=15064 7&cid=12636161
The Fujitsu 4726 is the One True Keyboard. No others compare. No others should waste their time applying to compare, until they get the ergonomics and quality of construction down pat.
http://www.fcai.fujitsu.com/pdf/FKB4726.pdf
Buy one, and you'll never buy another keyboard again.
Something that I've never really understood in these debates about different keyboard layouts: when do people actually type at their maximum typing speed anyway? I can type at about 50-60 words per minute, which is probably not very impressive by Slashdot standards. But I almost never get to actually type that fast - I have to stop to think about what I'm doing, whether it's composing a document or writing code. Even if switching to another layout allowed me to type at 80 words/minute, I don't think it would ever really increase my productivity.
This keyboard is small, yes, but that's because it has no numbers on it. Is this for real? It can't be for real... it's purported to have been designed by a professional in ergonomics, but four of the five vowels are under the two pinky fingers.
This looks like a joke to me.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Technically, you could have a 7-key keyboard that emulates a 101-key keyboard, since 2^8 = 256, and each key rarely takes on more than one function and almost never more than 2 (except for laptops). Unfortunately, pressing 7 or 8 keys at one instant to represent a single character can probably be difficult at best. On the plus side, keyboards such as these would be great for mobile devices such as phones with just 0-9 keys.
So, it's a good thing that they put the letters A, E, I and U on my weakest fingers????
--JLockard - "Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps." - Emo Phillips
Unless I can type the word typewriter on the one row... ;-)
The answer is no. If people aren't even willing to learn Dvorak which is, by all accounts, a superior layout, then why would they bother with a new keyboard and and a new layout?
While this proves a lot of spelling mistakes can also be made in Spanish, it is A LOT easier to write than English, French or Dutch, believe me...
My first disagreement is that you should always have the option of locking into a given mode of "1 keypress only". However, you could do that by tap-and-holding the first key, and then tap-and-holding it to release.
My second disagreement is that one hand does not do two keys quickly and well. But we can relegate the awkward combos to rare chars.
So that aside, how could such a combo work by memory?
Well, let's see. 18 keys. That would be a numeric keypad under each hand, wouldn't it? So one of the keys is always like a shift of some sort. Let's see:
Shift 1: All vowels and near vowels and common characters: aeiouythsl.,"';
Shift 2: The caps of Shift 1, with the punctuation being replaced by ?:#%&
Shift 3: Less common letters: bcdfgjkmnpqrvwxz@
Shift4: The caps of Sh3, with the @ replaced by the !
Shift5: The numbers, plus mathematical stuff:
1234567890+-=*/.$
Shift6: The Fkeys 1..12, plus _\|
Shift7: Control keys arrows 1...9, Tab, BTAB, Ins, Del, BKSP, Enter,CapsLock,Start
Shift8: Ctrl-chars of Shift1, plus {}[]()
Shift9: Ctrl-chars of Shift3, plus Escape
Shift10: Alt-chars of Shift1, plus Scrollock, "Show me reminder of where my keys are on the screen", Print Screen, Enter, compose-character, plus `
Shift11: Alt-chars of Shift3, plus ^
Shift 12: Accent keys of Shift1, as appropriate, plus tilde and lots of unknowns
Shift 13: Accent keys of Shift3, as appropriate, plus lots of unknowns.
Shift 14: Pseudo mouse behavior, including 3-button clicks.
Shift 15,16,17: All unknown.
The unknowns can be relegated to common key combos, such as the word "the", or the spanish double ll.
If I do, this, though, I don't have to write the numbers -- they'll be pretty obvious. I do have to write the letters, and the "shift" character of each key. I have to write any special punctuation, perhaps, in order; it looks like I need 3 punctuation marks per key. I also have to write control codes. So I need about 5 symbols per key: 2 on (say the control code and the letter) and 3 off (say, on the front face of the key).
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I've always wondered why people count in words per minute instead of characters. I mean, 50 or 60 times the word a is somewhat slower typing then 50 or 60 times the word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
a horrible place
Looks like typing on a graphing calculator.
See? Prior art.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I'm sorry but any keyboard that doesn't have easy to use number keys is going to fail.
I doubt that there are many business documents without numbers in them, so who the hell is this aimed at?
----- I refuse to have an argument with an unarmed person
I'm using dvorak for english, spanish, and french. It is really obvious that dvorak CAN'T be optimized for EVERY European language, but if you want 1 keymap for European languages, I don't think QWERTY is the best choice, unless you can prove it to me. For my part, there is no need to switch between keymaps because I use ALT-GR to cumulate accents and chars. You can nearly build everything you want, let apart the use of Unicode.
:D
For other families of languages, you can't type japanese/korean/chinese with dvorak, thus, switching from DVORAK to 2bul or 3bul or Yetgul (example for korean) is IMHO as hard as switching from QWERTY to [2bul | 3bul | Yetgul].
Like you said for QWERTY, DVORAK may not be best-optimized to any single language, but I prefer NOT switching at all for latin-based (mostly European) languages, that's my (personal) advantage of using DVORAK... apart from not getting RSI in some years
(I really find dvorak more comfortable than azerty/qwerty).
The point is not to replace QWERTY with DVORAK, but to replace QWERTY with DVORAK(en), AZERTY w/ DVORAK(fr), [...]
I totally agree with the fact that replacing QWERTY with DVORAK while using multiple european keymaps is really not comfortable... I chose to use only standard DVORAK, which isn't a problem for me.
As someone who works with unix all day, this thing would drive me absolutely mental. Can you imagine trying to program on this thing? Regular expressions? SED?! The image of this thing will haunt me in my dreams.
http://cubemonkey.net/quotes -- fortune-mod quote generator
We should be teaching children their "QWE"'s not their "ABC"'s
http://newsdesigner.com/blog/images/pirate.jpg
I would gladly pay $200 for a keyboard with this layout, and all the other features of the touchstream combined justify its $339 price-tag. Unfortunately, it's not available anymore, not even on ebay. Oh well.
Psi Xi
You can't do Ctl Alt Delete on it.
this has to be a joke. this thing looks like a reject from fisher-price.
http://www.npcgaming.com Dedicated Gaming Servers
I think the adoption politics of new keyboard layouts is analygous to changing the world over to linux. The alternative has to be significally better and even then you still need to be patient. After all, these issues are *tightly* tied into our culture. It *is* possible, however. This keyboard layout tackles one of the most difficult issues of introducing new standards by reducing the difficulty in learning how to use it. Unlike keyboard layouts designed for efficiency (or inefficiency) this keyboard's layout is completely logical...to everyone who uses a computer. [Aside: Imagine for example if toddlers were playing around on their parents [alphbetical] keyboards how much ready they'd be for learning the alphabet.] We're all already familiar with this order. I'll admit to feeling a little uneasy with the keyboard's multiple meanings for each key, but if schools/states/nation-states were to simply take a chance and adopt this standard it would open up the possibility of many more variations on this keyboard. Variations on the "New Standard Keyboard" that also used an alphabetical layout would be similarly easy to learn...and that's the point.