I new a guy in school with only one hand. He used the same keyboard at home as everyone else. Like most of us, he had taught himself to type as a kid and felt no need for special adaptations. Just like 99% of two-handed people, he would not want to invest the time re-learning how to type for a bespoke keyboard layout that won't always be available.
I actually got pretty proficient at typing on a standard keyboard with one hand. It really spoked my keyboard teacher in middle school. It was mostly about keeping my other hand on the mouse for video games.
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
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.
> You have to break a lot of ingrained 'finger memory'
That seems obvious but it's not true:
Your brain can easily learn different habits. For example, look at musicians playing and switching on various similar music instruments (between keyboards, different guitars like banjos or bass, kalimba (Thumb-Pianos) with 8 or 12 keys and different tuning, etc.).
Don't forget also that you can learn something fast when it gives you a quick benefit. For example, learning the french alternative keyboard layout "Bépo", takes only 2 or 3 weeks, because after one or two hours of exercises you are already typing frequent words easier and faster. I learned at the same time, the ergonomic Typematrix keyboard, and frankly the ergonomic part of the layout was easy to learn. Of course I didn't forget the other layouts, and I can type on classical Azerty or Qwerty keyboards without much thinking.
It's always been crazy to me how adamant people are that they can't learn things like this. I know not everyone is the same, and yes it will be harder for some than others, but I have 3 different keyboards in use with slightly different layouts, and it did not take me that long at all to start using them, or to get back up to full typing speed (for the record I code so having symbols easier to access is so so nice). Further I rarely have issues switching back to a normal layout (my only problem is i remap capslock to control on everything and will sometimes hit that instead).
The two things i've seen that prevent people is, first, an expectation of instant success, which just isn't realistic. It'll take a few days, but once you've done it once it's quite trivial to swap back and forth as needed.
Second, there's a shocking amount of people who just cannot touch type? Even in IT/Dev environments I've seen hunt and peck or other strange forms. Not blaming them but I really think it's a major failure on our society that with tech so integral we don't do a better job teaching these skills.
It's also counterintuitive in that learning a new skill will not override your learned muscle memory. Your brain is awesome at incorporating context, so you won't lose any proficiency with regular keyboards. You might actually get better, if there are any mutually beneficial motions that are reinforced.
> You have to break a lot of ingrained 'finger memory'
I'm a full ten finger touch typist, having learnt it in high school. In November last year I accidentally nicked the tip of my left index finger with a power saw - which then required a lot of swearing and a minor surgery to repair the nail bed.
All to say while the finger was out of commission due to being heavily bandaged or too painful to type with, I quickly became adept as a nine finger touch typist. Wasn't as fast but had to pay less attention to my typing than I thought I would have to.
(Finger is mostly pretty good now, if a little lop-sided. Still some numbness in the very end but overall I was very lucky.)
Welcome to the world of ergo niche keyboards. Basically everything that isn't a Microsoft Ergo or clone is $200+ and it only gets more expensive as you get further from that. An alternative to this is building one yourself.
Looks like the combined up/down arrow key is here to stay :/ though this is at least one product where I can actually see the logic, even if I don't like it.
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.
I would say that the thriving of the (mechanical) keyboard community is exactly a counterexample of the problem you pose. There's clearly a sizeable and well funded market segment for all kinds of keyboards, both traditional and unorthodox.
Even in the custom keyboard community the vast, vast majority don't require relearning typing. Whether it's 60%, 75%, split, ortholinear, typing is still basically the same.
This product is uniquely appealing to me because as a kid, I actually used to type almost completely with one hand at 40 wpm using my right hand solely for the backspace, enter, shift, and space keys. The only reason I stopped and learned how to use both hands to type was that my left hand started getting arthritis-like symptoms as a 10th grader.
Unfortunately, my hand hurts just looking at the example in the promotional video I found. I don't see how you could hold your hand up at that angle like that and not end up straining it. However, I'd love to be wrong.
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.
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.
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I didn't find this device appealing.
Dead Comment
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
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.
That seems obvious but it's not true:
Your brain can easily learn different habits. For example, look at musicians playing and switching on various similar music instruments (between keyboards, different guitars like banjos or bass, kalimba (Thumb-Pianos) with 8 or 12 keys and different tuning, etc.).
Don't forget also that you can learn something fast when it gives you a quick benefit. For example, learning the french alternative keyboard layout "Bépo", takes only 2 or 3 weeks, because after one or two hours of exercises you are already typing frequent words easier and faster. I learned at the same time, the ergonomic Typematrix keyboard, and frankly the ergonomic part of the layout was easy to learn. Of course I didn't forget the other layouts, and I can type on classical Azerty or Qwerty keyboards without much thinking.
Human brain plasticity is very high.
The two things i've seen that prevent people is, first, an expectation of instant success, which just isn't realistic. It'll take a few days, but once you've done it once it's quite trivial to swap back and forth as needed.
Second, there's a shocking amount of people who just cannot touch type? Even in IT/Dev environments I've seen hunt and peck or other strange forms. Not blaming them but I really think it's a major failure on our society that with tech so integral we don't do a better job teaching these skills.
I'm a full ten finger touch typist, having learnt it in high school. In November last year I accidentally nicked the tip of my left index finger with a power saw - which then required a lot of swearing and a minor surgery to repair the nail bed.
All to say while the finger was out of commission due to being heavily bandaged or too painful to type with, I quickly became adept as a nine finger touch typist. Wasn't as fast but had to pay less attention to my typing than I thought I would have to.
(Finger is mostly pretty good now, if a little lop-sided. Still some numbness in the very end but overall I was very lucky.)
- https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9Smm_od1hHU - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=q4OEKKMPH48
350 EUR???? WTF ????
Excluding VAT and shipping ??
Who the fuck would want to fork 500 EUR for a damn keyboard ?
What size is the market at that price ? This is ridiculous.
Is there any cheaper alternative to this ?
No fucking way that I spend that much cash for an unproven keyboard
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.
Unfortunately, my hand hurts just looking at the example in the promotional video I found. I don't see how you could hold your hand up at that angle like that and not end up straining it. However, I'd love to be wrong.
Deleted Comment
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.
Deleted Comment
For example in an electronic music context.