Matias Half-QWERTY Keyboard (ALPS)

[ricercar]

Anyone try one of these? Didn't come up in search.



Click image for web page

• Using the Half-QWERTY Keyboard with the right hand
• The Half-QWERTY typing technique is very similar to the standard two-handed touch-typing technique. You place your hand where it would normally be if you were touch-typing - that takes care of that half of the keyboard.
• To type the letters of the other half, you hold down the space bar with your thumb and do the same finger movement that you would normally do with the other hand. It's that easy!
• Tapping the space bar still types a space.

[Guardian]

I've never even considered a half-QWERTY keyboard until two days ago, and this is the second time i've seen it!

http://hackaday.com/2010/05/26/one-armed-coding-using-a-half-qwerty-hack/

P.S. Tried the demo on the Matias site, it's surprisingly easy to pick up. Could be useful for not taking your hand off the mouse.

[hyperlinked]

The Half-QWERTY is a really interesting way to type. It's sort of like writing in cursive backwards. It's really not as hard as you might think. You really just have to control your impulse to over think what you're doing and let your muscle memory take over.

I seriously considered one of these a couple of years ago when my left wrist was acting up in a big way, but I've never actually put my hands on a real one. I went as far as to put some real practice time into the typing demo that they have online that Guardian refered to and I agree with him that it's amazingly easy to pick up for touch typists. For people who can't touch type 100%, it might not be so easy though.

What makes it interesting and easy to pick up is that it relies on the concept that you intrinsically have the muscle memory to execute left hand typing movements with your right hand and vice versa, and a huge part of the difficulty comes from thinking too hard. This is why it might not work for people who aren't pure touch typists. It's all about motor memory. After you get comfortable with it, you just have to let yourself go and you can probably achieve anywhere from 25% to 50% of your usual typing speed.

I ultimately opted not to try one because I was expecting my wrist problems to be temporary and as bad as it was at the time, it was indeed temporary. A combination of speech recognition, mouse shortcuts, and regular one handed typing was enough to get me through. If I permanently lost function in one hand, I'd get one of these in a heartbeat.

They used to also have a much cheaper version of the Half-QWERTY called the 508, named after Section 508 of an American disabilities law. (Kinda odd naming considering Matias is a Canadian company.) You can't find the 508 on their website anymore, but they still have this one page site for it here:
http://www.508keyboard.com/

It looks like the Half-QWERTY in a rubber dome format. I'm not sure if the 508 actually exists anymore. It seems that you end up ordering a Half-QWERTY if you click on the buy button. You can tell that the keyboard on the 508 page is different than the one ricer embedded. The proper 508 photo shows a keyboard body that's identical to their Matias Optimizer and various enhanced standard rubber dome keyboards.

Rumor has it that you used to be able to get a software emulator that would allow you to turn any keyboard into a Half-QWERTY board, but Matias sued to stop that product. I suppose you could just use a key remapper to achieve the same results though.

[Viett]

I really like the Half-QWERTY format. One could easily set up an AHK script and run this layout on a regular keyboard.

Problem is, though, many keyboards have NKRO issues with space + shift + letters. On my laptop keyboard, I can't get shift + space +  E, T, D, C, meaning all of those capital letter's half-QWERTY counterparts are untypeable.

Edit: Seems shift is a dead-key on the Half-QWERTY layout, so this is actually not a problem.

[JBert]

Matias' half-keyboard is sure interesting, but it has one flaw: normal touch-typing doesn't involve pressing the spacebar key to switch halves, hence you sometimes need to think whether you want the left or right half's characters.
It is also possible to trigger the wrong keys accidentally if you were still holding the spacebar while going on to the next character - something you wont' notice when you touch-type (on a keyboard with no particular ghosting issues).

I've seen a variant on Matias' patent which might have more success: the keyboard could measures the force put on the key where right half characters take more force.
This makes you bottom out though, and it would be hard to implement on a mechanical keyboard.

[hyperlinked]

Matias' half-keyboard is sure interesting, but it has one flaw: normal touch-typing doesn't involve pressing the spacebar key to switch halves, hence you sometimes need to think whether you want the left or right half's characters.

It's a ***** at first, but once you get used to it and stop trying to think about it so much, it's not as hard as it might seem. Since I was seriously considering going one handed to let my left wrist heal, I put some real practice into the simulators. It becomes automatic much as touch typing does. If you have to think about it, then you slow down whether you're tying one handed or two.

It is also possible to trigger the wrong keys accidentally if you were still holding the spacebar while going on to the next character - something you wont' notice when you touch-type (on a keyboard with no particular ghosting issues).

Practice practice practice. It's possible to type keys out of order with two handed typing because you're going so fast, but I don't think anyone cites that as a problem of touch typing.

I've seen a variant on Matias' patent which might have more success: the keyboard could measures the force put on the key where right half characters take more force.

Besides the problem with bottoming out hard, the other possible flaw with pressure influenced typing is that it seriously changes the motor habits you adopt. The idea behind the half-QWERTY is that you tap into motor patterns that you're already familiar with. Hitting with really sharp strokes to invoke the other side of the keyboard is a considerably different motion than just tapping a key and mixing sharp strikes with regular taps turns the exercise of typing into something different all together.

[Phaedrus2129]

It's certainly interesting. Not *too* difficult to get used to, though my WPM is in the basement. Hardest part is getting used to holding down space when you have several right-side letters to hit at once.

[hyperlinked]

It's certainly interesting. Not *too* difficult to get used to, though my WPM is in the basement. Hardest part is getting used to holding down space when you have several right-side letters to hit at once.

After some practice, I was able to do around 20-25wpm on it which is less than 25% of my speed on short typing tests. I felt pretty confident that I could get up to the 50+wpm range with daily practice, but since I didn't think I'd need to be using a Half-QWERTY 100% of the time, a 35-40wpm max speed seemed more realistic and it's not that hard to do 35wpm hunt and peck typing one handed on a normal keyboard so the upside wasn't enough for me to go for it.

I found the hardest part to get used to was when you needed to hit the same key twice in a row, but once with the space held down and once normally. That would cause me to stop and think every time and once you start second guessing what you're doing, the errors multiply.

[pkamb]

Matias' half-keyboard is sure interesting, but it has one flaw: normal touch-typing doesn't involve pressing the spacebar key to switch halves, hence you sometimes need to think whether you want the left or right half's characters.
It is also possible to trigger the wrong keys accidentally if you were still holding the spacebar while going on to the next character - something you wont' notice when you touch-type (on a keyboard with no particular ghosting issues).

I've seen a variant on Matias' patent which might have more success: the keyboard could measures the force put on the key where right half characters take more force.
This makes you bottom out though, and it would be hard to implement on a mechanical keyboard.

 
I've posted this elsewhere on Geekhack, but I'm the developer of a software-based one-hand keyboard layout that uses this same concept for one-hand typing. You're right that the "spacebar as a modifier key" is a major flaw with the system that isn't at all like normal typing. Thus my software doesn't use the spacebar to switch halves, it predicts which word you want. Much faster and more natural.

A few benefits of the app:
-All software, so you can use it with any hardware clicky keyboard you like.
-Uses predictive text, so no more using spacebar as a modifier key. Just type "tges" (left hand) and it will figure out you meant the word "this".
-Much cheaper! Free unlimited-time trial that should be sufficient for most people here. Or buy a license if it will be your full-time input method.
-Dvorak, Colemak, and Qwerty layouts.

http://onehandkeyboard.org

Let me know if anyone has any questions.

P.S. I'm not trying to spam or anything, I'm a keyboard geek myself. Type in Dvorak. Just think this might be useful to some people here.

[F u r u y á]

o_O
The muscular memory indeed easily tranfers from one hand to the other!

It's very weird noticing your finger moving to the correct place almost by itself.

Very interesting.

[F u r u y á]

I've posted this elsewhere on Geekhack, but I'm the developer of a software-based one-hand keyboard layout that uses this same concept for one-hand typing. You're right that the "spacebar as a modifier key" is a major flaw with the system that isn't at all like normal typing. Thus my software doesn't use the spacebar to switch halves, it predicts which word you want. Much faster and more natural.

A few benefits of the app:
-All software, so you can use it with any hardware clicky keyboard you like.
-Uses predictive text, so no more using spacebar as a modifier key. Just type "tges" (left hand) and it will figure out you meant the word "this".
-Much cheaper! Free unlimited-time trial that should be sufficient for most people here. Or buy a license if it will be your full-time input method.
-Dvorak, Colemak, and Qwerty layouts.

http://onehandkeyboard.org

Let me know if anyone has any questions.

P.S. I'm not trying to spam or anything, I'm a keyboard geek myself. Type in Dvorak. Just think this might be useful to some people here.

Hi, I installed it but it's not working properly. I'm using a Filco Majestouch NKRO over USB.

For instance, when I activate it and hold the "s" key (should output "llllllllll...") it outputs "sllssllssllssllssl...". Also, I lose the ability to select text through Shift+Arrows (in any mode).

Here is the test for every key

1st row
pppppppppppppppp
woowoowoowoowoow
ieeieeieeieeieeie
rurrurrurrurrurr
tytytytytytytyty

2nd row
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
sllssllssllssllssl
ddddddddddddddddddd
ffffffffffffffffff
ghghghghghghghghgh

3rd row
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ccccccccccccccccc
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

Is someone willing to make an Autohotkey script that emulates either the Half-QWERTY or the One-Hand Keyboard Layout behaviour? I don't know whether it's too hard to make it, so for now I won't even bother trying, besides I've never used Autohotkey.

[pkamb]

Hi, I installed it but it's not working properly. I'm using a Filco Majestouch NKRO over USB.

For instance, when I activate it and hold the "s" key (should output "llllllllll...") it outputs "sllssllssllssllssl...". Also, I lose the ability to select text through Shift+Arrows (in any mode).

Here is the test for every key



Is someone willing to make an Autohotkey script that emulates either the Half-QWERTY or the One-Hand Keyboard Layout behaviour? I don't know whether it's too hard to make it, so for now I won't even bother trying, besides I've never used Autohotkey.

Arg, sorry, just noticed that someone replied to this thread now. I thought I had an email subscription...

You're seeing those letters because One-Hand Keyboard matches what you type to actual dictionary words. The "ssslllllssssllllssss" is the "best guess" according to the algorithm that tries to find real words in what you're typing.

For better results, try typing real words, rather than just holding down a key. For example, type "tges" and it will change it to "this".

Let me know if you get it working or if you need more help.

I've also recently released a Mac version of One-Hand Keyboard, and a Mac app with no predictive text called Mirror-QWERTY. Here they are.

One-Hand Keyboard [Practice Version]:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/one-hand-keyboard-practice/id501185004?mt=12

Mirror-QWERTY:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mirror-qwerty/id496021762?mt=12