I am building a one handed chorded keyboard, which is exactly what it sounds like.  It is a keyboard, but instead of using the qwerty layout, it uses chords of keys as input.

The main reason I want to build a one handed chorded keyboard is because it would be convenient.  A few of the advantages I see are that it will be smaller, cheaper, and will reduce the amount of devices that I use to interact with my computer.

Lets look at a typical interaction with my laptop, which is my primary computer (my other computer is my phone).  I have 6 input devices to choose from.  They are:

• built-in trackpad
• built-in nub mouse
• built in nub mouse keys
• built in trackpad mouse keys
• tray-style keyboard
• logitech mouse (wireless)

my laptop interface

This is already looking bad.  First off, there is a triple redundancy in the pointer category.  second, the nub is useless as a normal pointer, because its left button is underneath my left thumb when my left hand is on the home row.  the nub mouse buttons are also extra-super-hard to push, so you don’t accidentally push them with your thumb.  The trackpad has a similar problem in that it is crammed in there near the spacebar, and sometimes it gets pressed by my thumb and does weird stuff.  To add insult to injury, the keys are huge dust collectors, and can jam if they get a big enough piece of stuff in there, which happens frequently with little pieces of 26 gauge wire insulation which is just big enough to slip into the gaps.

On the other hand, the logitech mouse is a joy to use, provided you have a large flat surface to work on.  However, I prefer the logitech trackball mouse (m570), because you don’t need to move it at all and it is larger and more comfortable for my hand.  That said, the build quality of the m570 is sub par, and it feels kind of cheap-o.

So lets look at a pretty common workflow for solidworks.  I start out left hand on the keyboard, right hand on the mouse.  Thats great for clicking around, but eventually I need to enter a number.  Then the dreaded top-row numbers come into play.  lets say I need to enter “23.43”.  The “.” button is way over by my right hand, with the arrow keys, enter, and backspace.  So in order to enter something, I have to move my left hand across my body to those keys, which my left hand does not normally type on.  So instead, I end up moving my right hand to the keyboard, and then back to the mouse, and back and forth, and there are numkeys, and shifts and lot of moving.  it is particularly annoying because I need to do this over and over again in my workflow.

Now lets think about writing code.  Alpha characters are pretty awesome on the querty layout, but { } [ ] | : ; ” ‘ ( ) = + -* all require a lot of right-hand movement, and a lot of them involve holding down shift.  While this has become second nature to me now, I would gladly swap a few alpha characters for those keys.  Or even have a querty[]{};:'” keyboard, with more keys!  QUERTY was designed for typists on typewriters, not computers.

Crazy busy desk.  This is a real picture of what my desk looks like.

This is my final whiney paragraph for this post, but take a look at this picture.  This is a real, in-use picture of my desk.  Look how many keyboards are on this desk.  There are THREE.  two laptops, and an external keyboard because the netbook kb is too small, and too far away, but there is barely room for the external keyboard because of all the crap!  To mouse on either of these machines is also a pain, and it means I have my wrist unsupported on the right, or I have to reach over a tangle of wires on the left.  On top of it all, I was barely even using the computers- they were mainly just for datasheets or running scripts.

With a chorded keyboard, I will be able to put my laptop veeeery far away and control everything through a chorded keyboard and mouse combo.  Even if the keyboard is utterly crappy, and can only type 2 wpm, it will be plenty good for looking at datasheets, or goggling something while I am at the bench.