I can't imagine another cocktail party where my own one handed keyboard would be relevant, so here it is:<p><a href="https://github.com/trevorjay/Handler">https://github.com/trevorjay/Handler</a><p>It's chorded, (based on the <a href="https://ardux.io/" rel="nofollow">https://ardux.io/</a> layout), but I don't think chorded is really that hard to learn if you're actually willing to give it a week or two (which you have in any situation where you <i>need</i> a one hander).<p>The key (ha) I've found is that you want the keys to be as easy to press as possible while providing feedback. The Twiddler, <a href="https://twiddler.tekgear.com/" rel="nofollow">https://twiddler.tekgear.com/</a> , is great for this as it uses light tact switches, but it has reliability issues.<p>This is a great project. Of all my one-handed experience, I never got to try a FrogPad because of the expense. Having a software implementation of the FrogPad is awesome.
I have experience with both the FrogPad and the Matias Half Keyboard (I paid $95; now $595). The Frogpad never caught on with me.<p><a href="https://matias.store/products/half-keyboard" rel="nofollow">https://matias.store/products/half-keyboard</a><p>The Matias Half Keyboard is based on a theory that our minds mirror each hand, so by holding the space bar to access the missing half keyboard, we already know what to do. I was skeptical. Recognizing that we're modal (do we even recognize that telephone keypads and numeric keypads are different, or do we just use them without thinking?) I decided to learn Dvorak on the half keyboard while continuing to use QWERTY on my full keyboards.<p>One day, on a lark, I tried Dvorak on a full keyboard. I could, easily. The mirror theory holds.
A couple of years ago I had to undergo some serious wrist surgery and the recovery period was going to be several months as well. I was worried and didn't want to be out recovering without working, so I started looking into all sorts of alternative ways to type with my left hand. I looked into FrogPad, chorded keyboards, custom keyboards, etc.<p>In the end, I found a blog post about someone who just built a customized Karabiner-Elements bindings, where the keyboard layout is all the same for the "left-handed keys", but if you hold the spacebar the "right-handed keys" get mirrored to the left making it acessible to your left hand. Releasing the spacebar without a second key just inputs the spacebar as usual.<p>I customized that a little bit more to get some other keys in the places I wanted and set out to practice. Within a week I was typing at 60wpm comfortably when measuring at Type Racer. I normally type at around 120wpm, so I was pretty happy with the result. In my IDE I also have been using VIM bindings since a decade, so moving around it wasn't any trouble. I adapted myself to use the mouse with my left hand which wasn't also too difficult.<p>It cost literally zero and I only needed to "re-learn" typing the mirrored letters, and even then, it wasn't as hard because it's just mirrored and your brain quickly adjusts. No need to learn a complete new layout.<p>Edit: Here's the Karabiner-Elements customized binding I used as a base: <a href="https://github.com/qubist/mirrorboard-mac?tab=readme-ov-file">https://github.com/qubist/mirrorboard-mac?tab=readme-ov-file</a>
A nice hack for building a small keyboard/macro pad that is 80% of the way there is to buy one of those cherry mx key testers, a microcontroller dev board of your choice, and a small lipo. All together it might cost you something like $40 depending on how many keys your key tester has and you should only need a soldering iron and some wire to put it together.
I really hate chords. I just don't have the mental memory for it. Besides shift for capitals, things just need their own buttons. I always hate fighting games with 20 different combos on the gamepad to remember.<p>So 80% and less keyboards also don't work. I use a huge keyboard with numpad, the keys of which I remap to very common functions so I don't have to use combos for them :)<p>I wonder if I'm just weird or if this is a common thing.
This is excellent. I had a frogpad and got reasonably comfortable with it, my use case was mostly messaging so not a heavy use of special characters like {}/|Etc. Given my experience with it, I agree that using it as a model for this project was a good choice. An acquaintance, Steve Roberts, had a really clever keyboard that attached to the handlebars of his recumbent bicycle so that he could type while riding.
The hardware is one half of the DIY split ergo-mech Lily58.
It is open source and kits are widely available. <<a href="https://github.com/kata0510/Lily58">https://github.com/kata0510/Lily58</a>><p>The FrogPad-inspired part is the firmware/layout for only one hand and the labels in the relegendable keycaps.
There is no better keyboard and mouse than no keyboard and mouse. Does anyone knows a solution that allows to provide input without the need to move your arms and/or fingers? I have heard about brainwave detection but apparently it's hard to learn, slow and have a high latency. Any ideas?
Are there similar projects that focus on the software aspects? Would love to read about that. For English text, you could probably get away with just typing half the letters and having the rest predicted, no?
Optimized voice typing?<p>A special voice-code. Like Thufir Hawat did in Dune (the old one).<p>Because I can talk way faster than type. And if we could just iron out the bumps. Remove ambiguities and such.<p>Surely that's been done.<p>(Or even more specialized, for writing java...)
I created a one-hand layout, similar to the FrogPad, for my Ergodox, and then wound up never bothering to use it seriously, at which point the muscle memory I spent a few weeks training up fell away