Re: [ba-unrev-talk] one handed chord keyboards
[Sensor] Thumb Typing ... product available by year-end? (01)
July/August 2002 - MIT Technology Review
"As computers blend into our environment and even our clothing, entering data
into them gets tricky. Carsten Mehring <
http://www.eng.uci.edu/~cmehring/index.html >, a mechanical engineer at the
University of California, Irvine, has come up with a device that turns your
hands into a qwerty-style keyboard. Mehring’s device uses six conductive
contacts on each thumb—three on the front and three on the back—to represent a
keyboard’s three lettered rows. Contacts on the tips of the remaining eight
fingers represent its columns. Touching the right index finger to the middle
contact on the front of the rightthumb, for instance, generates a j. The top
contact on the thumb yields a u, while the middle contact on the back of the
thumb would produce an h. Mehring says the similarity to typing makes his input
device easier to master than others that require an entirely different set of
motions. He has applied for a patent and hopes to market a product by
year-end." (02)
See javascript demo
< http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/prototype0702.asp?p=8 > (03)
cdent@burningchrome.com wrote: (04)
> I'm sure this has come up on here before but I have an itch I'd
> like to scratch: one handed, chorded keyboards. Where can I buy
> one or try one to see if I like it. It seems ideal for me.
>
> I found Paul Fernhout's posting on the original unrev-ii list
> about the Twiddler. I have one of those and after the first
> couple of weeks of "oh, this is neato" set it down in
> frustration: it's not well designed for the task I wanted: fast
> one-handed data entry. It's pretty good for, as Paul says,
> petting the dog while you type. I was able to get up to a
> reasonable rate of typing, but my goal here is to go _faster_
> than I touch type (and I type quickly) and have one hand for
> typing and one for mousing, never leaving devices. I intend to
> use it at a desk, not in a wearable situation.
>
> The most noted one handed chord system on the web appears to be
> the Bat, but it looks a bit clunky. CyKey is another. Anyone have
> experience with either of these?
>
> I've seen pictures of the chord keyset made at SRI. Simple, to
> the point. I can't seem to find anything like that.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions or comments.
>
> --
> Chris Dent <cdent@burningchrome.com> http://www.burningchrome.com/~cdent/
> "Mediocrities everywhere--now and to come--I absolve you all! Amen!"
> -Salieri, in Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (05)