Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#31

Post by justin_oaks » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:24 PM UTC

cies wrote: post #7

I miss the pipe character :) How can I use this for SSH?

You might need to use the six finger version

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#32

Post by MivLives » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

Would be curious if it'd be worth it to add either a sixth button on the side to be pressed by the thumb, or to add something like a 5-way switch [1] to the top. You wouldn't have to use all 5 ways, and it'd greatly increase the amount of characters possible, potentially allowing whole words (and, the, patient etc) to be hit by buttons.

[1] https://www.adafruit.com/product/504

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#33

Post by forinti » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

A long long time ago there was something similar for the BBC Micro: Quinkey.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwriter

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#34

Post by nemo1618 » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

ljoshua wrote: post #12

Reminds me a bit of this really cool project I saw the other day: https://there.oughta.be/a/macro-keyboard Difference is one is generic for typing anything, and the link there is purpose-built on a per-application basis, but the idea of having a small amount of keys for a precise job is very interesting. (Side note, anyone remember the Optimus Maximus, where each key was an LED screen? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O…

Oh I vividly remember watching a guy eat the world's largest Cheeto over the world's most expensive keyboard: https://vimeo.com/4294567

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#35

Post by bikamonki » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:28 PM UTC

Nice, but, why not speech to text solution?

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#36

Post by mromanuk » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

I was disappointed at the end of the article, because there was no video of they using the keyboard. I love the project!

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#37

Post by HPsquared » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

jnwatson wrote: post #11

This is called a chorded keyboard [1]. Like seemingly everything invented in the following 40 years, it was introduced by Douglas Englebart in the Mother of all Demos in 1968. Englebart had a iOS app that allowed you to chord type as well. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard

The original version, used for stenography, was a kind of chorded typewriter:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#38

Post by mcphage » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:38 PM UTC

Wouldn't a paramedic also need to type numbers? 31 is more than the number of letters, but not more than the number of letters + 10 digits.

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#39

Post by bryanrasmussen » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:39 PM UTC

If on Windows lots of chording solutions using AutoHotkey https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/6489-11032-chording-keybo...

Re: Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard

#40

Post by herodoturtle » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:40 PM UTC

"How to get shot in the airport."

Damn I had a good laugh at that.