Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

kianryan.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 61 posts

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#21

Post by gtrevorjay »

stavros wrote: post #15
gtrevorjay wrote: post #13

I can't imagine another cocktail party where my own one handed keyboard would be relevant, so here it is: https://github.com/trevorjay/Handler It's chorded, (based on the https://ardux.io/ layout), but I don't think chorded is really that hard to learn if you're actually willing to give it a week or two (which you have in any situation where you need a one hander). The key (ha) I've found is that you want the keys to…

Here's mine: https://www.stavros.io/posts/keyyyyyyyys/ Wildly impractical, but super easy to build.

Super cool project. The siren song of binary input is strong: https://youtu.be/hansx2Bzxa0

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#22

Post by samatman »

Symbiote wrote: post #9
carom wrote: post #8

I have dreamed of one of these for driving. Touch typing would make responding to something while keeping eyes on the road much much easier.

It's necessary to keep your brain on the road, as well as your eyes — and your hands on the wheel.

If it were built into the steering wheel and used a HUD to display the text it might not be criminally irresponsible..

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#23

Post by gtrevorjay »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #19
gtrevorjay wrote: post #13

I can't imagine another cocktail party where my own one handed keyboard would be relevant, so here it is: https://github.com/trevorjay/Handler It's chorded, (based on the https://ardux.io/ layout), but I don't think chorded is really that hard to learn if you're actually willing to give it a week or two (which you have in any situation where you need a one hander). The key (ha) I've found is that you want the keys to…

> I am a heavy user of a proprietary one-handed keyboard system. Recent maintenance issues and the lack of user serviceability have turned my attention to creating a more reliable solution. Oh no! That's so sad to hear. I was overjoyed when the new BT model came out; I was finally going to get to do the thing & get good at this. A couple years latter I actually made an effort to really learn it & get a little compete…

One-handed daily drivers are out there. We're nuts, but at least it's not Dvorak (kidding).

TBH, the the Twiddler layout is probably superior (though not by much). I went with eight traditional keys because it could be hand wired. The Twiddler approach is basically limited to soldering directly to a board, with all the issues therein. After about six months or so I would get debris caught under one switch or another and the Twiddler is basically welded shut. :/

Speaking of design issues (and talking about the BT). I highly recommend using a Nice! or other wireless/BT microcontroller. Not only is it more convenient but cable strain is a real issue on most microcontrollers. If the Handler has a design flaw, that's the biggie.

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#24

Post by TylerE »

s_m_t wrote: post #4

A nice hack for building a small keyboard/macro pad that is 80% of the way there is to buy one of those cherry mx key testers, a microcontroller dev board of your choice, and a small lipo. All together it might cost you something like $40 depending on how many keys your key tester has and you should only need a soldering iron and some wire to put it together.

Those are handy to have anyway. I have a tester that originally had 64 keys that is down to 56 or so… I normally like really light keys, like 30-40g, but it’s nice to have much heavier action on a few keys like backspace and numpad enter so you can give em a really satisfying thwack without bottoming out.

Sure there are places that will sell switches in lots of 5 or 10, but it’s really nice to be able to swap out and experiment and see just how much heavier works for a given key.

My actual ideal would probably be something more like a layout that aimed for equal perceived (instead of actual) force. So basically heavier towards the middle and lighter towards the outside, but done mindfully of kinematics and ergonomics.

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#25

Post by IggleSniggle »

sobkas wrote: post #17

There is no better keyboard and mouse than no keyboard and mouse. Does anyone knows a solution that allows to provide input without the need to move your arms and/or fingers? I have heard about brainwave detection but apparently it's hard to learn, slow and have a high latency. Any ideas?

If you don't mind using other limbs, there's a whole ton of products aimed at musicians who have their hands full but still want to be able to manipulate another device. For example, the organ, guitar pedals, and much, much more. Big variety of pedal setups generally, but musicians have been dealing with the "no hands" input problem for a very long time.

There are also a number of existing eye tracking input systems, but I think that kinda sucks / is limiting.

I'm aware of tongue-activated joysticks for people that are unable to move their bodies. Maybe look into assistive devices of that variety.

https://youtu.be/MtvpXr9O0J4?si=S8tJJm08_J5bzWMb

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#26

Post by alchemist1e9 »

gtrevorjay wrote: post #13

I can't imagine another cocktail party where my own one handed keyboard would be relevant, so here it is: https://github.com/trevorjay/Handler It's chorded, (based on the https://ardux.io/ layout), but I don't think chorded is really that hard to learn if you're actually willing to give it a week or two (which you have in any situation where you need a one hander). The key (ha) I've found is that you want the keys to…

Thank you so much for sharing this!

I’m curious if you have ever looked into the Tap Strap 2? I recently got one and it looks promising with preliminary testing but I haven’t invested much time learning and configuring it yet.

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#27

Post by loloquwowndueo »

swayvil wrote: post #5

Optimized voice typing? A special voice-code. Like Thufir Hawat did in Dune (the old one). Because I can talk way faster than type. And if we could just iron out the bumps. Remove ambiguities and such. Surely that's been done. (Or even more specialized, for writing java...)

Cusorless and Talon!

https://xeiaso.net/notes/cursorless-alien-magic/

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#28

Post by loloquwowndueo »

samatman wrote: post #22
Symbiote wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's necessary to keep your brain on the road, as well as your eyes — and your hands on the wheel.

If it were built into the steering wheel and used a HUD to display the text it might not be criminally irresponsible..

No. If you’re focusing on text on the windshield 50cm in front of you you are NOT focusing on the road.

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#29

Post by al_borland »

samatman wrote: post #22
Symbiote wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's necessary to keep your brain on the road, as well as your eyes — and your hands on the wheel.

If it were built into the steering wheel and used a HUD to display the text it might not be criminally irresponsible..

This would only give the illusion of paying attention to the road, without paying attention to the road. It might actually be worse.

Re: An accessible one-handed keyboard, inspired by FrogPad

#30

Post by throwup238 »

gtrevorjay wrote: post #13

I can't imagine another cocktail party where my own one handed keyboard would be relevant, so here it is: https://github.com/trevorjay/Handler It's chorded, (based on the https://ardux.io/ layout), but I don't think chorded is really that hard to learn if you're actually willing to give it a week or two (which you have in any situation where you need a one hander). The key (ha) I've found is that you want the keys to…

What’s your max WPM with the one handed setup?
Post reply on HN