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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: engicoder on Wed, 23 January 2013, 13:32:02

Title: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: engicoder on Wed, 23 January 2013, 13:32:02
http://www.in10did.com/

Ergonomics look terrible (doesn't look like you can use it one handed).
Switches seem terrible.

BTW, can anyone identify the all tan keyboards in the background.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Wopian on Wed, 23 January 2013, 14:39:24
That...you'll need to remember where over 50 characters are just to type out a simple sentence.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: cobraj on Wed, 23 January 2013, 15:43:56
That...you'll need to remember where over 50 characters are just to type out a simple sentence.

LOL. I agree haha.
I love how he goes "you don't need to look when you type, and walk into a fountain" (or something similar :P).
Pretty sure it would take me a few months of continuous typing on that, dare we call it, "keyboard" to remember the keys haha.

And using two fingers for one letter is pretty ridiculous. It's the same notion of using your function key for every single letter on your keyboard.

However, I do like how he mentions it can be helpful for those with a disability. BUT, pretty sure that those who are disabled don't have the co-ordination, let alone the patience, to learn that device.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Wopian on Wed, 23 January 2013, 16:15:25
That...you'll need to remember where over 50 characters are just to type out a simple sentence.

LOL. I agree haha.
I love how he goes "you don't need to look when you type, and walk into a fountain" (or something similar :P).
Pretty sure it would take me a few months of continuous typing on that, dare we call it, "keyboard" to remember the keys haha.

And using two fingers for one letter is pretty ridiculous. It's the same notion of using your function key for every single letter on your keyboard.

However, I do like how he mentions it can be helpful for those with a disability. BUT, pretty sure that those who are disabled don't have the co-ordination, let alone the patience, to learn that device.


Let alone talking to someone while typing on that thing.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Glod on Wed, 23 January 2013, 16:46:32
id actually try this out if it was dirt cheap. and i mean really cheap.

it doesn't even look like a finished product, its also ugly. too ugly to be seen in public with it.

Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: verbhal on Wed, 23 January 2013, 16:49:04
Haha!  Absolutely, not to be seen in public with.  Doesn't look like it would be any faster at all.  I'm ok with pressing the actual number or letter I need on its own key or location.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: alaricljs on Wed, 23 January 2013, 16:49:08
While small can be good, this looks too small to be comfortable for very long.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Glod on Wed, 23 January 2013, 16:53:58
just realized what this reminded me of!

the alpha grip
http://www.alphagrips.com/features.html

i am amazed that they are still being made
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Wopian on Wed, 23 January 2013, 17:04:33
just realized what this reminded me of!

the alpha grip
http://www.alphagrips.com/features.html

i am amazed that they are still being made

Those buttons on the back :P
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: link_tree on Wed, 23 January 2013, 17:45:55
stupid idea is stupid.
the even more ridiculous part about this is that the presenter seems to actually believe hes own words and is so serious about it.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Glod on Wed, 23 January 2013, 17:52:35
stupid idea is stupid.
the even more ridiculous part about this is that the presenter seems to actually believe is own words and is so serious about it.

he actually gets a bit emotional about it lol
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: sth on Wed, 23 January 2013, 18:02:53
'fruity' is a really lame word dude
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Halverson on Wed, 23 January 2013, 18:04:36
'fruity' is a really lame word dude

Unless you're describing a tropical drink
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Wopian on Wed, 23 January 2013, 18:06:38
stupid idea is stupid.
the even more ridiculous part about this is that the presenter seems to actually believe is own words and is so serious about it.

he actually gets a bit emotional about it lol

To me, he was just mashing random buttons.

//Should've had a function section in the video to see it in play.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: NikoGasm on Wed, 23 January 2013, 18:14:04
My phone has a fully QWERTY keyboard. I use it all the time without looking. I've never walked into a fountain while using it. It doesn't require me to learn a whole new system for typing. And it's smaller than that. It also doesn't use stickers to identify which character belongs to each key.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Wopian on Wed, 23 January 2013, 18:17:29
My phone has a fully QWERTY keyboard. I use it all the time without looking. I've never walked into a fountain while using it. It doesn't require me to learn a whole new system for typing. And it's smaller than that. It also doesn't use stickers to identify which character belongs to each key.

This pretty much.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Leslieann on Wed, 23 January 2013, 18:32:02
These things always fail to reach big sales numbers, they are just too difficult to get the hang of. They show up quite often though.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: fohat.digs on Wed, 23 January 2013, 18:38:25
Not an entirely worthless concept.

I think it needs a better shape or some kind of strap or something so that you don't have to totally hold it all the time.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: cobraj on Wed, 23 January 2013, 21:24:03
id actually try this out if it was dirt cheap. and i mean really cheap.

it doesn't even look like a finished product, its also ugly. too ugly to be seen in public with it.



$5 shipped and I would buy it.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: darksakul on Wed, 23 January 2013, 21:59:45
I think I will skip this and stick to my trusty old 104 key Mechanical keyboard.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: PointyFox on Wed, 23 January 2013, 22:31:21
Will it blend?  Wait, how the heck do you use that?  Do you chew on it?
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Lanx on Wed, 23 January 2013, 23:59:12
omg in that video he basically advocates that you can text while driving with it and he does it on camera in a car! wth is wrong with this guy. first off it's a dumb idea, the reason a keyboard works, and works well is because, we're not holding anything, there's no grip involved. The instant you start trying to throw in using a grip and you're finger the whole thing falls apart. Just look at the basic gamepad controller the nes controller of 85, up until recently the side buttons (called bumpers) were just barely used, and now we have 2 bumpers and 2 triggers as basically standard on the three major consoles in the world. We need a lot of buttons to play games! but we can only really do it with our advanced monkey thumbs, we need the rest of the fingers and the palm to hold the damn thing in place. This guy just invented a noise clicker

this is the only working thing in that youtube channel, and it's 6 years old and the device is so protype, looks more like a bad alphagrip

so this guy has been on a crusade to make a horribad controller keyboard for at least that long, someone invite him into this post!

it looks as bad as the frogpad, BUT i do agree could be good for disabled, but all that shifting...wth...
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Wopian on Thu, 24 January 2013, 01:39:31
Oh dear...He really hasn't got a grip on how everyone uses a keyboard and the reason why we still use them.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: LollyWater on Thu, 24 January 2013, 01:45:31
That...you'll need to remember where over 50 characters are just to type out a simple sentence.

"It's that simple"
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Glod on Thu, 24 January 2013, 02:12:46
omg in that video he basically advocates that you can text while driving with it and he does it on camera in a car! wth is wrong with this guy. first off it's a dumb idea, the reason a keyboard works, and works well is because, we're not holding anything, there's no grip involved. The instant you start trying to throw in using a grip and you're finger the whole thing falls apart. Just look at the basic gamepad controller the nes controller of 85, up until recently the side buttons (called bumpers) were just barely used, and now we have 2 bumpers and 2 triggers as basically standard on the three major consoles in the world. We need a lot of buttons to play games! but we can only really do it with our advanced monkey thumbs, we need the rest of the fingers and the palm to hold the damn thing in place. This guy just invented a noise clicker

this is the only working thing in that youtube channel, and it's 6 years old and the device is so protype, looks more like a bad alphagrip

so this guy has been on a crusade to make a horribad controller keyboard for at least that long, someone invite him into this post!

it looks as bad as the frogpad, BUT i do agree could be good for disabled, but all that shifting...wth...

omg the guy is a nutjob, i can't believe he was able to get a booth at CES.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: link_tree on Thu, 24 January 2013, 02:38:42
if this thing was to go into massive production and sale(no way this would happen) I am foreseeing a lot of complains and law suits following them for damage caused by hand strain. the concept of using so many shift keys for your day to day typing is extremely wrong. I am not one to dis new technology and I love new gadgets but they gotta make sense!
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Germiphene on Thu, 24 January 2013, 18:07:16
Why would I want to hold in another button to type a regular letter  ;D!  Sorry, it looks very slow and cumbersome.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: PointyFox on Sat, 26 January 2013, 02:19:24
So, to type a capital Y would require 3 buttons being pressed simultaneously?
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: tp4tissue on Sat, 26 January 2013, 02:51:08
This would be great if they chopped one of everyone's arms off somehow.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: cobraj on Sat, 26 January 2013, 02:54:11
Hey, you never know. This could be the new Rubik's cube.
But a lot harder than a megaminx.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Larken on Sat, 26 January 2013, 04:13:10
I was literally frowning the whole time while watching the video. It's basically a 7 layered 10 button 'keyboard' device, pre-programmed, and it looks like it'll worsen any RSI symptoms. If I'm going to ditch the traditional keyboard, I'll get a mic and go voice-typing instead. Faster, painless, and the algorithms are improving by leaps and bounds every year.

On the other hand, I bet he'd be really good at guitar hero :D
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: Wopian on Sat, 26 January 2013, 10:45:18
Hey, you never know. This could be the new Rubik's cube.
But a lot harder than a megaminx.

Haha yes! But what would the goal be? Type a paragraph in the quickest time?
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: cobraj on Sat, 26 January 2013, 20:12:41
Hey, you never know. This could be the new Rubik's cube.
But a lot harder than a megaminx.

Haha yes! But what would the goal be? Type a paragraph in the quickest time?

Hmm.
Type with greater than 20% accuracy?
I reckon if you could do that.. it would be pretty impressive.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: BucklingSpring on Sat, 26 January 2013, 21:00:54
I think guitar players players will love this keyboard.

Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: SmallFry on Sat, 26 January 2013, 21:30:19
AHA! I know the board for the "Guess the Keyboard" now!
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: in10did on Wed, 30 January 2013, 01:52:06
Too bad some are so quick to go negative, I tried to get feedback from this group regarding this keyboard several months ago.  The product you are seeing is an attempt to get the concept into the hands of people to explore the possibilities of using a simple chord keyboard for mobile use, such as on the back of a cell phone.  It was never intended to replace your desktop keyboard, (creative license by CNET) but to help make it easier to touch type on mobile devices using no more presses than you currently use for some characters now(!@#$%^&*_+{}:"<>?).  It is alphabetic, like the Twiddler 2 or BAT, to make it easier to learn.  If letter frequency were king, we would all be using Dvorak, not QWERTY.  As far as colors go, yes it's ugly, but that was the only way to make the key map comprehensive, by color code.  The one I use is just plain black and white and does look good in public.  I'm working on something more ergonomic but it won't be quite as universal as the DecaTxt.  It is only one handed but the skin wrapped around an Xbox 360 controller
had nice ergonomics for two hands.  Clearly the concept isn't for everyone but rather an additional tool for those who want or need options.  It may well fail like so many others before it but at least I'm willing to try and open minded people will learn something from it.  Only when you explore something new do you discover.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: TheGreatAmphibianPling on Wed, 30 January 2013, 02:13:58
Too bad some are so quick to go negative, I tried to get feedback from this group regarding this keyboard several months ago.

This hasn't been a great thread. Let me be as constructive as I can:

What I admire about your design is that you have an abstract concept that could work in many different forms.

But the bad news... well, the way that your current design has to be held looks like it pushes the wrists into a position where carpal tunnel is much more likely. I wouldn't use one, and I would encourage any friend who bought one to throw it away.

I don't like chording devices of this design in general btw - they replace relatively safe generalized arm movement using the large muscles with fiddly precise finger movements. My understanding, based on quite a lot of reading, is that that is a risk factor for RSI.

As for cellphones, even ignoring the RSI factors:

- I think there are answers that the market has already shown it prefers - those based around predictive text entry. This will only get better with improved screens and better cpus

- No one is going to want to enter text on a cellphone unless they see the screen while entering that text. Given your design, phones would need a big change in form factor - that would probably reduce pocketability - to do this.

- Few, very, very, very few people indeed, will be willing to learn chording to send phone texts. Because phone texts are short, very short - it just doesn't make sense to learn chording to write them faster. This isn't really a possible market - nor are online gamers. You only get this level of effort out of people if something is a job skill or a hobby in itself.


Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: davkol on Wed, 30 January 2013, 06:42:27
I love the idea of a chorded keyboard. However, this device looks ugly and uncomfortable, and there has to be some research behind the "layout".
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: baldgye on Wed, 30 January 2013, 16:50:58
Possibly the single worst peice of kit I've ever seen developed to 'help' inprove typing.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: cobraj on Wed, 30 January 2013, 17:10:11
I actually really want to try it now.
Just for lolz.
Hopefully i don't get carpal tunnel from the 10 seconds of use.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: poxeclipse on Wed, 30 January 2013, 17:26:52
So, how fast one can type on this thing ? I'd like to see a video with a fast typist.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: baldgye on Wed, 30 January 2013, 18:11:16
So, how fast one can type on this thing ? I'd like to see a video with a fast typist.


Pretty sure the guy in the video is the fastest typer with that thing... and I'm pretty sure I'm faster on my iphone's horrible on screen keyboard...
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: uJalled on Wed, 30 January 2013, 19:35:18
This looks like my toy piano keyboard with colored keys from preschool
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: TheGreatAmphibianPling on Fri, 01 February 2013, 15:52:28
This looks like my toy piano keyboard with colored keys from preschool

Although I have doubts about this design on ergonomic grounds - Hey, this guy is trying to innovate and make the world better (while making a buck too, but so what?) Maybe those people who feel compelled to judge on appearance could come up with more mature and tactful language than "fruity" and "pre-school"?
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: f1shf3ast on Fri, 01 February 2013, 17:06:14
Hey also says its ideal for typing with your hand in your pocket. Wouldn't want to be caught 'texting' while in public...
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: cobraj on Fri, 01 February 2013, 18:54:37
Hey also says its ideal for typing with your hand in your pocket. Wouldn't want to be caught 'texting' while in public...

LOL.
That reminds me of someone who was playing his air guitar whilst listening to music, sitting on the bus, almost groaning to how awesome he thought his music was.. needless to say, he copped some weird looks.
Title: Re: Fruity looking chorded keyboard
Post by: davkol on Sat, 02 February 2013, 11:12:02
This looks like my toy piano keyboard with colored keys from preschool

Although I have doubts about this design on ergonomic grounds - Hey, this guy is trying to innovate and make the world better (while making a buck too, but so what?) Maybe those people who feel compelled to judge on appearance could come up with more mature and tactful language than "fruity" and "pre-school"?

What exactly is innovative about this design? I've already seen quite a few chorded keyboards (from GKOS to just some research on layout optimization), and almost everything has been miles better than this. Only good thing might be availability, but the layout doesn't seem reprogrammable.