From: hawk@eyry.econ.iastate.edu (Richard E. Hawkins Esq.) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Chording keyboards [waRe: What's Wrong With Modes?a] Date: 26 Mar 1999 11:44:09 -0600 Organization: House of Hawkins Lines: 30 Message-ID: <7dgh19$ef$1@eyry.econ> References: <7bui6h$l34$1@news.seed.net.tw> <7cmtob$7l1$1@nusku.cts.c NNTP-Posting-Host: eyry.econ.iastate.edu Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.indiana.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!newsrelay.iastate.edu!news.iastate.edu!not-for-mail In article , J. Chris Hausler wrote: > writes: >>Someone made a one-handed keyboard. I don't know if they're still >>available or not. It had three keys for the thumb and one for each finger. >>You used chording to produce every possible key on a normal keyboard. I >>never used one but The Ads Said(tm) that you could learn to use one in >>about 2-3 weeks. I imagine that that would be a very convenient way to run >>a GUI with only two hands. >The one I recall from the late 70's just directly encoded >ASCII the fingers picked the low four bits and the thumb >picked the upper three, one pattern per button. IIRC it >was limited to upper case and some punctuation and numbers. >Upper codes 3, 4 and 5 would do it. I think they remapped >some of the punctuation though (like SPACE would be >important to have :-) One of the things I want out of life is a PDA with a chording keyboard built in, so that it could actually be operated with one hand. With it sitting in my palm, my fingers and thumb should be wrapped against the sensors. ONce this happens, I'll buy one. Until then, i don't have any use for one. Also, if small enough, it could also be the keyboard for my desktop . . -- These opinions will not be those of ISU until it pays my retainer. ###### From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Chording keyboards [waRe: What's Wrong With Modes?a] Date: 26 Mar 1999 10:04:11 -0800 Organization: Wheeler&Wheeler Lines: 12 Message-ID: References: <7bui6h$l34$1@news.seed.net.tw> <7cmtob$7l1$1@nusku.cts.c <7dgh19$ef$1@eyry.econ> Reply-To: Anne & Lynn Wheeler NNTP-Posting-Host: lynn-19.garlic.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii User-Agent: Gnus/5.07008 (Pterodactyl Gnus v0.80) Emacs/20.3 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.new-york.net!uunet!ffx.uu.net!in3.uu.net!bulb.garlic.com!not-for-mail also from the late 70s there was a oval shaped device with depressions for fingers ... that the hand wrapped around ... under the fingertips were things similar to rocker-switches ... providing multi-state input per fingertip -- -- Anne & Lynn Wheeler | lynn@garlic.com, finger for pgp key http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/ ###### From: null@lycosmail.com (Fred Wedemeier) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Chording keyboards [waRe: What's Wrong With Modes?a] Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 04:10:25 GMT Organization: Airnews.net! at Internet America Lines: 28 Message-ID: <1ACB25D108E2F14E.3B8A4247C00C9C5F.2BF3D889221D24B8@library-proxy.airnews.net> X-Orig-Message-ID: <7dhllj$u2f@library2.airnews.net> References: <7bui6h$l34$1@news.seed.net.tw> <7cmtob$7l1$1@nusku.cts.c <7dgh19$ef$1@eyry.econ> Abuse-Reports-To: abuse at airmail.net to report improper postings NNTP-Proxy-Relay: library2.iadfw.net NNTP-Posting-Time: Fri Mar 26 22:09:23 1999 NNTP-Posting-Host: !dIKd1k-Xc\.M]5 (Encoded at Airnews!) X-Newsreader: News Xpress 2.01 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!erols.nntp.gte.net.MISMATCH!worldfeed.news.gte.net!news.airnews.net!cabal11.airnews.net!cabal1.airnews.net!news-f.iadfw.net!byteme In article <7dgh19$ef$1@eyry.econ>, hawk@eyry.econ.iastate.edu (Richard E. Hawkins Esq.) wrote: >In article , >J. Chris Hausler wrote: >> writes: > It would be interesting to hear from someone who's trained themselves to use one of these. It shouldn't be any harder to train your brain/ fingers to use one of these vs. a standard keyboard. But I wonder what kind of data rate you could get? It's kind of hard to perceive what my fingers are doing as they're typing, but I _think_ several fingers and a thumb are simultaneously in motion towards their next target, and whichever one gets to a key first is the next keystroke that gets recorded - sort of multitasking fingers. In the case of a chorded keyboard, the number of fingers in action is divided by two, and all the fingers have to work on each keystroke in sequence, thus losing the "multitasking" capability. Also, the keypad would have to have some make/break delay time so it could decide which set of keypresses really represented a character. -- --------------------------------------------------- best regards, Fred Wedemeier null@lycosmail.con ###### From: J. Chris Hausler Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Chording keyboards [waRe: What's Wrong With Modes?a] Date: Sat, 27 Mar 99 14:15:45 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Lines: 15 Message-ID: References: <7bui6h$l34$1@news.seed.net.tw> <7cmtob$7l1$1@nusku.cts.c <7dgh19$ef$1@eyry.econ> NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.93.4.2 X-To: Richard E. Hawkins Esq. Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.delphi.com!news Richard E. Hawkins Esq. writes: >One of the things I want out of life is a PDA with a chording keyboard >built in, so that it could actually be operated with one hand. With >it sitting in my palm, my fingers and thumb should be wrapped against >the sensors. ONce this happens, I'll buy one. Until then, i don't >have any use for one. Also, if small enough, it could also >be the keyboard for my desktop . . I've wondered about some kind of data glove with accelerometers (sp?) in the finger/thumb tips so one could wiggle one's fingers to type. Another "shorthand" possibility would be recognising sign language, finger spelling and the like by measuring relative movement... Chris ###### From: Michael Davies Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Chording keyboards [waRe: What's Wrong With Modes?a] Date: 28 Mar 1999 02:35:49 +0100 Message-ID: References: <7bui6h$l34$1@news.seed.net.tw> <7cmtob$7l1$1@nusku.cts.c <7dgh19$ef$1@eyry.econ> NNTP-Posting-Host: mykd.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: mykd.demon.co.uk:158.152.136.118 X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 922727533 nnrp-07:15148 NO-IDENT mykd.demon.co.uk:158.152.136.118 X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.2 Lines: 20 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.ecrc.net!newsfeed.nacamar.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!mykd.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail hawk@eyry.econ.iastate.edu (Richard E. Hawkins Esq.) writes: > One of the things I want out of life is a PDA with a chording keyboard > built in, so that it could actually be operated with one hand. It's a pity you missed the Microwriter AgendA (sic) then. As mentioned previously it had a chord keyboard spread around a tiny standard keyboard. The chording system used by Microwriter was designed to be easily remembered: a, e, i, o, u were thumb, index, middle, ring, little, and the chords for the other letters could be seen as distorted forms of those letters (if you search for "Microwriter Agenda", you'll find a site that has a bit more info on this). Of course, it *did* use modes for numbers etc... -- Michael Davies mike@mykd.demon.co.uk or @lammas.com ###### From: Mike Swaim Subject: Re: Chording keyboards [waRe: What's Wrong With Modes?a] Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers References: <7bui6h$l34$1@news.seed.net.tw> <7dgh19$ef$1@eyry.econ> Organization: PointeCom User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980818 ("Laura") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/2.2.8-RELEASE (i386)) Lines: 13 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 09:03:55 CDT X-Trace: sv1-4LfO9ZG+IXsFbMi33TMEgGZOExgRKEM4N3T36nyeJmdqtKswHsJBtZfV1+PTZKPVebQ3r08aNIo3tkm!a72Z80X2z9c= X-Complaints-To: abuse@GigaNews.Com X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 15:03:55 GMT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newspeer.monmouth.com!nntp.giganews.com!news2.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail J. Chris Hausler wrote: : I've wondered about some kind of data glove with : accelerometers (sp?) in the finger/thumb tips so one : could wiggle one's fingers to type. And with VR glasses, you could wander around as you wiggle your fingers to type. One of the Dilbert books explored this concept. -- Mike Swaim, Avatar of Chaos: Disclaimer:I sometimes lie. Home: swaim@c-com.net Alum: swaim@alumni.rice.edu Quote: "Boingie"^4 Y,W&D "Are you a programmer, too?" "No. I'm an idiot."