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geekhack Community => Ergonomics => Topic started by: ashort on Mon, 10 March 2008, 11:45:36

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: ashort on Mon, 10 March 2008, 11:45:36

Matias has one of these at:

http://matias.ca/halfkeyboard/index.php

But holy crap, it's $149!!!  

I may need one of these for one to two months because I am going in for "Carpal Tunnel Release" surgery.  Pretty simple stuff, but painful enough for a Vicodin prescription (yeah!).

Sounds like they cut open your wrist and slice the smaller tendon in two, opening up the carpal tunnel (everyone has a carpal tunnel, one in each wrist, but not everyone has the "syndrome") and giving the nerve that runs through it more room to do what nerves do.

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: IBI on Mon, 10 March 2008, 12:14:22

There's also the frogpad which is very similar:

http://www.frogpad.com/

Although if you're going to go for the mac version it's no cheaper, although it looks like it's wireless.

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: ashort on Mon, 10 March 2008, 12:24:52

I'll stumble one-handed over my Matias TP2 for the duration of recovery.

I am more worried about maintaining my schedule at work, so I am looking for a one-handed solution to my Thinkpad T60, rather than the iMac.

Thanks I'll check out that Frogpad.

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: ashort on Mon, 10 March 2008, 12:38:44

Ouch.  That's priced and designed for someone with one hand, not someone with a hand that's out of commission for a month.  =-D  Good find, but I am going to pass.  Totally relearning the keyboard would take about as long as my recovery.  

I had considered taking the full "Frogpad Leap!"   Get one for the Mac, one for the Thinkpad, and sell out.  =-D  That's the kind of committment this product needs.

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: ashort on Mon, 10 March 2008, 12:46:34

I think I'll have a look at this for now:  

http://www.aboutonehandtyping.com/samplesfolder/onepracsample.pdf

Or something like it...there are alot of resources out there, not all of them looking to make a buck.

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: ashort on Mon, 10 March 2008, 12:50:28

Daggum.  I should quit my job and start making one handed keyboards:

http://www.hallogram.com/bat/index.html

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: bhtooefr on Mon, 10 March 2008, 14:14:29

Wondering if you could just write a driver to use a regular keyboard in the same way as a Matias half-keyboard. It doesn't use any special keys, so you could use ANY keyboard, if you did everything in software instead of hardware...

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: ashort on Mon, 10 March 2008, 14:20:41

Sounds very reasonable.  Simple bulk remapping of of the keyboard when you hold down the space bar.

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: Whiskey in the Jar-o on Mon, 10 March 2008, 16:23:29

Why not an ergonomic keyboard then?

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: xsphat on Mon, 10 March 2008, 16:24:05

Get a Maltron. Hell, what were you gonna do with the $600 it probably costs?

Damn, why are those things so expensive?

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: zillidot on Mon, 10 March 2008, 18:39:24

You may also want to take a look at the one-handed Dvorak layouts.

No hardware investment required, but it'll take a bit of time to learn so it's probably not the best option for you.

Title: One handed keyboards
Post by: Whiskey in the Jar-o on Tue, 11 March 2008, 05:43:20

Interesting keyboard (http://www.akor.fr/indexe.htm) with extra punctuation keys.