I was over at my friend Leo's web site where he answers tech questions. In an article about malfunctioning keyboards, I found a link to an article he wrote about the Dvorak keyboard layout, and in the related links on that, he linked to my friend Randy's Dvorak keyboard primer.
Now I am a very proficient two-fingered typist. I have a double-jointed pinky where the central knuckle just pops out the other side if I try to straighten it, and it makes the standard touch typing hand stance a little difficult. If I'm reaching out with my right pinky (which covers a lot of keys used in coding), the knuckle is popping in and out, which is uncomfortable at best. So I've learned to two-fingered type at 50-60 words a minute.
I thought I might consider a Dvorak keyboard, especially if it could double my typing speed, like it did for Randy, and did a quick search. There were none at Newegg (shame on them) and only a handful of very expensive ones at Amazon.
But it made me think of another keyboard I'd stumbled on through either Slashdot or Gizmodo, the Optimus keyboard. This one is tres cool, even if you're not trying to switch from QWERTY to Dvorak and back. Each key contains a programmable OLED matrix, so you can program the keys to display whatever you want. The image below is a portion of the keyboard with a Photoshop-optimized layout.
Pretty cool, huh? They say they'll announce pricing on 12/12/2006 and that it will be around the price of a mobile phone, but since they're in Russia, who knows what that will be? As well, I personally like a big, wide backslash key over my carriage return (which it doesn't have), and I wonder what the feel will be like (I like a good, solid feel to my keys with a good springback). I'm just hoping a local store will start carrying them or a friend will get one, so I can try it out for feel. I couldn't gamble $200 on a keyboard I'd never tried, then find out I didn't really enjoy it, then have to sell it on eBay.
But for pure coolness factor... Very nice. The high-end MacBook Pro laptop has an illuminated keyboard for low-light situations, but when each key is a programmable LED matrix, how cool will that be? OTOH it will be a drain on battery life, but what isn't?
Update
My friend Chuck just turned me on to the virtual laser keyboard.
Connecting to your palmtop, smartphone, or laptop, it uses lasers to project a simulated keyboard on just about any flat surface, then uses optical tracking to detect which of the projected keys you're tapping. And the projector itself is "about the size of a disposable lighter".
Sort of reminds me of the air guitar shirt, but still very cool.
UPDATE 2:
Just checked over at the Optimus site and now they're saying the keyboard is due out in late 2007. Cool concept, vapor product.
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