Tipy – One Hand Keyboard • Hacker News Board

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#21

Post by powerbroker » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 3:21 PM UTC

I did some patent research on alternative keyboards about 30 years ago. Frankly, even then, there was an unusual density of innovation in this technology. To be clear, there was about 5X more variants on the keyboard than I would have expected prior to my deep research.

As a former patent attorney, working in various industries, a good rule of thumb is that only 1 in 3 inventions ever get implemented commercially. Back in the 1990's, in the keyboard field, it was about 1 in 10. The chief problem with keyboard innovations, even ones that are demonstrably more efficient, is that its a little like asking people to reverse driving on the right-hand-side (here in N. America), and go to left-side-of-the-road driving. You have to break a lot of ingrained 'finger memory' -- and, to some extent, be sure that your peers are doing the same.

I think, then, for that reason, such keyboards never amounted, as a whole, to be more than 1-2% of the entire market. Literally, 100 different keyboards (than QWERTTY) are outsold, by a factor of 100X by QWERTY

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#22

Post by bsima » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 3:58 PM UTC

rco8786 wrote: post #18

3 (at least?) product “demo” videos and not a single shot or image of someone actually using it.

Here are two videos:

- https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9Smm_od1hHU - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=q4OEKKMPH48

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#23

Post by smoldesu » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 4:10 PM UTC

Looks neat, but why does it need to have a keyboard on two sides? They could probably sell it for a lot less if they simply sold a left-handed and right-handed model separately...

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#24

Post by johnqian » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

Is this product strictly for people missing a hand? I can’t see any other market. Sure it looks and feels cooler to type with one hand, but that is not nearly enough benefit to cut your typing speed in half.

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#25

Post by traceroute66 » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

These one handed keyboards come and go like the seasons but they never catch on.

FrogPad[1] was another example from recent history.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrogPad

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#26

Post by feifan » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 4:48 PM UTC

johnqian wrote: post #24

Is this product strictly for people missing a hand? I can’t see any other market. Sure it looks and feels cooler to type with one hand, but that is not nearly enough benefit to cut your typing speed in half.

I could see myself using this in Lightroom where most features can be triggered by a keyboard shortcut but then manipulated (i.e. dragging sliders) with the mouse. It would be faster to have one hand on a full keyboard and the other on my mouse, rather than moving my mouse hand back and forth or using the mouse to invoke all the features.

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#27

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 4:49 PM UTC

johnqian wrote: post #24

Is this product strictly for people missing a hand? I can’t see any other market. Sure it looks and feels cooler to type with one hand, but that is not nearly enough benefit to cut your typing speed in half.

[deleted]

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#28

Post by thomastjeffery » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

powerbroker wrote: post #21

I did some patent research on alternative keyboards about 30 years ago. Frankly, even then, there was an unusual density of innovation in this technology. To be clear, there was about 5X more variants on the keyboard than I would have expected prior to my deep research. As a former patent attorney, working in various industries, a good rule of thumb is that only 1 in 3 inventions ever get implemented commercially. Ba…

The compounding factor of that problem is that in order to get a more novel design, you have to spend anywhere from $60 to $500 or more, and potentially do your own assembly and soldering.

That means the only people who are getting novel designs to use are those who can both afford one in the first place, and are motivated enough to spend roughly 10-200 times the usual keyboard cost.

This is especially prohibitive for children, who are the group most likely to accommodate the learning curve of a novel design.

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#29

Post by throw10920 » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 5:00 PM UTC

johnqian wrote: post #24

Is this product strictly for people missing a hand? I can’t see any other market. Sure it looks and feels cooler to type with one hand, but that is not nearly enough benefit to cut your typing speed in half.

I, personally, would find this useful for doing work with a photo editor, 3D modelling tool, or some other program where I would otherwise be rapidly switching between keyboard and mouse.

In terms of raw typing speed, I don't think that it can ever come close to the performance of someone using a machine-optimized keyboard layout with two hands, but I very much like the idea of not needing my right hand to dance back and forth between the mouse and the right side of my keyboard.

Re: Tipy – One Hand Keyboard

#30

Post by thomastjeffery » Sat, Apr 16, 2022, 5:04 PM UTC

It's really tricky to find an audience of people willing to spend a lot of money and spend the time to relearn typing.

By going for a one-handed design, you constrain your audience even farther.

This problem is then exasperated by the thriving community of keyboard design enthusiasts that have recently had a huge burst of productivity, thanks to cheap accessible 3D printing.

I wish this company the best of luck. They have a step hill ahead of them. Even so, I'm always excited to see new companies expanding the keyboard market. The more novel designs that exist generally, the more likely it is that we can overcome the hurdle that is status quo.