Author Topic: one-handed computer input devices  (Read 4562 times)

Listener

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on: August 05, 2010, 07:16:54 PM
I sit in the car for at least an hour every day on the way home. More if it's raining, or if someone got into an accident. At least 40 minutes of it is spent in traffic, moving at 5mph. (There are no valid mass-transit options that would save time or money. Trust me. I've done the math. Mass transit in Atlanta blows.)

That's more than three hours a week I could be writing.

So I've been thinking: why not buy a one-handed input device, such as a Frogpad or Twiddler, Bluetooth it to my phone (or plug it into my laptop), set the computer down on the seat (facedown or lid closed), and just type while I drive. Don't care about errors, don't care about punctuation, just want to get words down without having to look at the screen. (I have an iPhone, and the lack of tactile feedback makes it almost impossible to type without looking. My next phone won't have a keyboard either, though it'll probably be an Android of some kind.)

http://24.79.92.176/handykey/
http://www.frogpad.com/

And then I read this article on XKCD: http://blog.xkcd.com/2007/08/14/mirrorboard-a-one-handed-keyboard-layout-for-the-lazy/

And I tried it.

et trrvs wrt e ttqe faerst qrecdst rsevg wvst bt seft gabd *

my uihjuy h;nk ilny yoo n;k iiyhiu **

I don't care about punctuation. I don't care about capitalization. I can fix all that when I'm not sitting in the car.

If I can do that, why NOT try a one-handed input device.

Has anyone tried one? Recommendations? What about building my own out of an existing keyboard, and somehow writing a dictionary algorithm that makes best-guesses as to what I'm trying to type?

* It turns out i type fairly quickly using only my left hand.

** My right hand isn't too bad either.

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