Thumb-well mockup

[wolfv]

Have any of you knowledgeable keyboard enthusiast seen a thumb well like this one?
I made this mockup from cardboard, coat-hanger wire, and hot glue:

There are twelve 3/4-inch square cardboard squares in the thumb well, some of the keys are upside down.
All twelve squares are reachable without moving the hand.
There is enough room inside the thumb well to allow some hand movement without accidentally hitting a thumb key.

Here is the same mockup with three keys omitted so the thumb can come out quickly for mousing.




Has someone else already developed a thumb well similar to this?
Do you see any potential problems with this thumb-well concept?

The last two pictures also show a row of upside-down keys (3/4 inch strip of cardboard) above the finger nails.  Has that been done?

Thank you for taking a look.

[philpirj]

Check this thread http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/an-other-diy-keyboard-project-t4560.html

[hoggy]

The closest production keyboard is the datahand (I'm sure you knew that already).

Looks nice, but won't the switches on the left (where the thumb extends away from the rest of the hand) be tiring to use?

Please don't get me wrong, I'm nitpicking only because you asked.

[wolfv]

Thanks philpirj,
That's an interesting DIY keyboard project.

Hi hoggy,
Ya, looks like a giant datahand finger hole, but for the thumb.

There would be no switches on the left end of the cardboard.  Sorry the picture is misleading there.
The keyboard under the fingers represents the plane of a keyboard surface, but the keyboard would not extend to the left edge of the cardboard.
The thumb well is where the space bar normally is, occupying the space under the B-N-M keys (QWERTY).

The thumb is rather slow to reach most of the 12 thumb keys.
I think a smaller well in the shape of a hexagon with 6 keys would be faster, where any of the six keys can be quickly and easily whacked by the thumb.  Kinesis and ErgoDox have six-key thumbclusters, but the hexagon well is faster and easier for reaching all six keys.

[suka]

I tested something similar but with only 5 keys in one of my early prototypes. In the end I never fully assembled the two halves: I found them too bulky and thus was limiting the possibilities of tenting/angling them around by giving the thumb such a fixed position.

If the main 3 thumbkeys on the bottom row in my other designs had not turned out to be quite sufficient and much more conveniently incorporated,I would have thought about trying out a well again.

Pictures and detailed descriptions cab be found in my DIY thread over at DT.

[wolfv]

Thanks suka.

I see the picture of the thumb well you made:
http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/my-diy-keyboard-collection-or-how-i-became-a-kb-geek-t2534.html > 26 Apr 2012, 00:16
That's some nice sculpting on the mount plate and case.  I am very interested in your experience with the thumb well.

Does "tenting/angling" refer to hand movements?  In which case a larger thumb well would allow more hand movement.

What switches did you use in the thumb well?  I am thinking of using a Cherry ML switch for the up-side down key so it doesn't get too bulky and doesn't get in the way of the hand movement (Cherry ML is 9.6 mm thick, MX is 17.5 mm thick).  Is that what you mean by "bulky"?

Thank you for posting your design.  It speeds up the development of my design.