Unusual keyboards

[masraum]

I've been using ergonomic keyboards for many years. I've never had any sort of RSI, but they made sense to me and were comfortable.

Right now, not only do I have my keyboard set to a Dvorak layout, but I'm using a Kinesis Advantage which is very unusual.


But it's not the most unusual keyboard out there.

In the past, the "data hands" was probably what I considered the most unusual, and it's still up there at the top of the list.



But there are some new contenders.
The Characorder is probably the top of the list now. I've seen some chorded keyboards before, but this one seems to combine some of the ideas from chorded keyboards and the datahands and a little of their own thought.

Each of the "buttons" is actually a joystick that can be pushed north, south, east, west, or down (like a regular button). A quick scan tells me that using all of the buttons and those 5 actions for each will allow you to type all of the necessary characters or perform the various actions of a regular keyboard. Or you can "chord" inputs which has the software perform a predictive input. I think the example that I saw enabled you to type h-e-l-o, and the computer would input "hello." The CEO of the company that makes it, has apparently typed 250-500wpm on it which is usually disqualified as cheating in most competitions, websites or softwares that measure typing speed.


This seems to be similar to the two previous, and is apparently, designed for gaming.


This is one that's actually been around many years.


There's another company, Maltron, that makes a keyboard very similar to mine. In addition to the one like mine, they also make one handed keyboards (for folks with one functional hand), which is very cool.



and in case anyone is curious about the difference between QWERTY and Dvorak...

[flatbutt]

Seems to me there's more to gain from perfecting voice recognition as opposed to the keyboard.

[stevej37]

My Kindle Fire tablet has voice rec. for emails.....It works great.
I can speak at a normal rate and it hardly ever misses a spelling.

I imagine a lot of cell phones have it also.

[flatbutt]

The version I used needed absolute silence to work well. I haven't tried any updated versions.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by stevej37

My Kindle Fire tablet has voice rec. for emails.....It works great.
I can speak at a normal rate and it hardly ever misses a spelling.

I imagine a lot of cell phones have it also.

Yep, anything Apple works surprisingly well, although I suspect for folks with accents it may require some learning.

Originally Posted by flatbutt

The version I used needed absolute silence to work well. I haven't tried any updated versions.

Things have gotten much better these days now that almost everything has it and has the computing power to do it. Back in the day with Dragon Naturally Speaking, it required training and a lot of work. It was great for then but not really ready for prime time.

[Superman]

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by Superman

Thats what I thought this was about.

[Superman]

Me too. Probably Gogar also.

[Superman]

[JackDidley]

My cheap android phone has great voice recognition. Doubt my laptop even has it, its pretty old. I do use a Portugese keyboard on the laptop though. Sort of different. It was cheap.

[Bill Douglas]

I can't be bothered leaning anything stupid like that.

[HardDrive]

Senior software engineer. I type a lot. All good with a standard keyboard with mechanical switches. I like loud MX brown clacky switches, but more subtle mechanicals are nice as well. I actually don't mind super minimal laptop keyboard as well. It just those nasty 'bubble' mass produced keyboards that give me hives.

Current workhorse: https://www.amazon.com/Das-Keyboard-Professional-Mechanical-DASK3MKPROSIL/dp/B008PFDUW2?th=1

[GH85Carrera]

Back in the very early 1980s at the office I worked at the boss bought a new IBM Selectric, electric typewriter. We used it to fill out a triplicate work order form. Most of the guys could hunt and peck their way through the basics. The lady that ran the front desk and dealt with the clients was pretty good at at. The day the Selectric arrived one of the guys that works there had his wife show up to go to lunch together.

She was a professional legal sectary, and one of the people that can type at insane speeds. She sat down and smoked through the old Quick brown fox lines several times. She stopped, and said I like that IBM quality feel. It is astonishing what a pro level typist can type.