landauer@morocco.UUCP (01/26/87)
In article <540@atari.UUCP> dyer@atari.UUCP (Landon Dyer) writes: > >IBM has some patents on a rather spiffy chord keyboard. You can type >words like "THE" and "AND" (with appropriate case-shifting) in a >single stroke. They tried it on some rather bright MIT students and >found that after three or four weeks the subjects were typing as fast >as (or faster than) they were on normal keyboards. > >IBM's chord keyboard had 14 keys. It left one hand free for >schlepping a mouse around, shuffling papers, or fondling members of >the opposite sex. > >Because of the learning-curve, it would probably be a dismal failure >in today's marketplace. Besides, IBM has the patents. I read about the chord keyboard a few years ago and it seemed like a wonderful idea. It seems like it would sell well in a few specialized markets. Fewer keys == fewer moving parts, so they ought to be a little more reliable than 96-key keyboards. I wonder why they aren't being sold into the same sort of manufacturing situations that are supposed to be good applications for speech recognition. Also, I've always (well, for a few years anyway) wanted to build one that has a built-in mouse. One of the biggest complaints about mice that we touch-typers have is the time it takes to move your hand from the keyboard over to the mouse and back. With a chord keyboard with a built-in mouse, this complaint disappears. An alternative would be to get a chord keyboard for one hand and a mouse for the other hand -- does anyone know if IBM sells or licenses these things? I want one. -- Doug Landauer Sun's Net: landauer@morocco Phone: 415 691-7655 ARPANET (aka DDN): landauer@sun.com UUCP: {amdahl, decwrl, hplabs, seismo, ...}!sun!landauer
capshaw@milano.UUCP (01/27/87)
Another use for one-handed keyboards would be in cars, etc. It would probably take a simple keyboard layout (maybe combined with multiple keystrokes) to ensure that it could reliably be used as the car, keyboard and hand bounced around. Perhaps making the keyboard more like a glove would solve the alignment problem. -- Dave Capshaw
janssen@milano.UUCP (01/27/87)
In article <12090@sun.uucp>, landauer%morocco@Sun.COM (Doug Landauer) writes: > this complaint disappears. An alternative would be to get a chord keyboard > for one hand and a mouse for the other hand -- does anyone know if IBM sells This setup was invented in the 60's by SRI. Try SRI International in Menlo Park, CA. -- Bill Janssen, MCC Software Technology 9390 Research Blvd, Austin, Texas 78759 ARPA: janssen@sw.mcc.com PHONE: (512) 338-3682 UUCP: {seismo,harvard,gatech,pyramid}!ut-sally!im4u!milano!janssen
mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (01/29/87)
>> this complaint disappears. An alternative would be to get a chord keyboard >> for one hand and a mouse for the other hand -- does anyone know if IBM sells > >This setup was invented in the 60's by SRI. Try SRI International in >Menlo Park, CA. Perhaps the mouse part, but chord keyboards are older. I know that Ferranti Electric in Toronto was experimenting with them in the early or mid-50's (Joe Kates and Herb Ratz were the people in question). There are several chord keyboards on the market now, I believe. -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsri!dciem!mmt