Keyboards Options

[Da_Blitz]

i am intrested in what you would like to see in the keyboard

some things i would like:
lots of shortcut keys: i do alot of VT switching and have them bound for that
Backlit: with one or two colors
Laptop like keys: keys simmilar to a laptop rather than the hard button cxx00 or membrane
dvorak layout as well as qwerty: perhaps printed on the same keyboard layout to reduce variations

one idea that i have had )not sure how much you will like it) is to use a corded aproch where a letter is made up of 1 or more button pushes (common keys are one button, less common are two or more buttons pushed at the same time)

the advantage is that you could have full sized keys and it should help with some anoying key combos (try doing a ctrl+c without sticky keys on a cxx00), the problems however are that you would need to learn a new keyboard, maximum typing speed is slowed down slightly

i will of course not be shiping it unless its specified but i belive that one or two people may be intrested, mainly those who are into wearable computers, with a screen rotation it would allow you to have your computer and your keyer in one

any other proposals, normal or otherwise, for the keyboard

[Da_Blitz]

i think you seem to be missing the point about the alternate key input method, its an item you have to order seperatlly, so i am not looking for "its a not good/good idea" i am looking more for "i want one" its an opt in system not an opt out, secondlly the erason qwerty is so common is beacuse of that attitude, it dosent bother me as i just pop the keys on a keyboard and rearange them for DVORAK (thats why some of my spelling mistakes are wierd)

the hpx200 is a mebrane keyboard, the diffrence between that and the cxx00 is that the cxx00 has plastic caps on top and has less travel

for overlays that would mean that we would have to keep the buttons the same size as on the cxx00, i would rather silkscreen the Caps with the qwerty layout and the dveorak layout. nice and simple and ALOT cheaper, i dont think that i will have the resources or the plastic overlay thing

the alpha numeric is mainly a software thing, its not that hard to set up on a Z, it wouldnt be hard to add to the silkscreen ethier, considering the button will be larger thanon most Z's (ie less of a gap between buttons)

for the wearables, there is a reason for the keyboards they use, you dont have acsess to two hands when you have a keyboard strapped to one. there are one or two people here that will be using this as a wearable computer (i know i will be) and alternative input methods are a must, they can be connected via USB but having an optional board avalible would be the better choice

the psion keyboard is the one i am aiming for with this opitnol keyboard, larger buttons with a better tactile feedback, with the current Z i have trouble typing when its cold as i cant feel the feedback as well, this is a problem mainly with my password which is more than 20 characters and i cant see what i am typing

for alternative languages i could make room on each key to put your own, i belive with the larger buttons that 4 diffrent icons could be placed per key (not ideal) each in a diffrent color, i would be tempted to fit as many diffrent languges on the keys as posible (mix the extra keys across the keyboard) so that you wouldnt have to get them engraved but i guess it depends on how many languges i would have to support (no asian ones please, that would take up all the keys)

Actually, we can scrap the whole idea of the keyboard. We could have a neurowave receiver and read the thought signals received directly from the brain. Authentication would be an issue - you don't want your device to read somebody else's thoughts. Privacy concerns would also abound.

due 2014

[Drake01]

i think you seem to be missing the point about the alternate key input method, its an item you have to order seperatlly, so i am not looking for "its a not good/good idea" i am looking more for "i want one" its an opt in system not an opt out

Assuming that the chorded keyboard would be a reasonably priced accessory (probably USB, as you suggest), I would consider one. I've never tried one, but I've heard about them often enough and I can envision a number of situations where it could be very convenient if I can learn to use it effectively.

I was going to suggest that chorded keyboards are already available on the market, but a quick search revealed the prices for these. (High.) There's some interesting stuff on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard

Do you intend to invest the time and research to develop an ergonomic design? Or were you planning to find some unit that's already in production?