I've been giving a lot of thought to alternate input mechanisms. I personally think that even a twiddler is too obtrusive (I know, that's a bold statement) since it needs to be held just so and takes up one hand - not useful if something needs to be quickly entered or checked. Ideally, an input device would be 'always there' and ready for action with a minimum of effort and set-up time. An idea I'd like to put into effect is a chording keyboard built into gloves. I'm sure this idea is not new, but I'd be interested in hearing thoughts about it or, if someone has tried this, I'd appreciate hearing about what pitfalls you hit, what worked and what didn't, and so on. As to the actual design... If you fold your hands together lightly (fingers interlocking), you will notice your fingertips rest quite comfortably in pretty much the same place all the time. Now, take 10 buttons (low-profile snap-action ones - I know Omron makes them) that are thin, durable, and require a small pressure to 'click', but enough so that it won't click by accident, and place them where your fingertips lay. Wires for the buttons can be threaded up the arms, leading to a port on the system running a custom driver of some kind. Simple connecters could even be made at the wrist-area to make the gloves completely detachable. For interface, I was thinking of using the parallel port. I also made a rudimentary keymap - basic idea is that my right hand buttons are for the characters, the wrong hand buttons are the "shift" keys to shift which characters the right-hand buttons represent. I have no real experience with chording-style keyboards, but I think this would work reasonably well. You could flip it if one hand is stronger than the other (since the 'shift' side does less work) or if you're cripp^H^H^H^H left-handed. Advantages: - Nearly instant access to a typing interface. (The new twiddler would provide this too, to an extent, as it is supposed to be wireless) - Low low low cost - Leaves both hands nearly free. You can be typing, and be doing something with both hands the next second, and vice versa. - Socially unobtrusive, especially if you color the buttons to match the gloves. Unless someone looks closely, it's isn't apparent you are typing or even wearing anything out of the ordinary. Possible Problems: - Possible comfort problem: keeping hands together to type with for longer periods of time may lead to perspiration making your gloved hands uncomfortable- especially in hot wheather. Might be alleviated by using some kind of very light & thin breathable material for the gloves? - Wires are required to run along your arms - which may or may not be a problem depending on your design. - Typing like this may not in fact turn out to be comfortable for extended periods. (Though I doubt it) If anyone has any comments, I'd be very interested in hearing them; especially if you've dealt with these kinds of pitfalls before. | Donald Papp |
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