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From: landauer@morocco.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Really: Chord Keyboards
Message-ID: <12090@sun.uucp>
Date: Mon, 26-Jan-87 14:06:22 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.12090
Posted: Mon Jan 26 14:06:22 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Jan-87 06:23:06 EST
References: <275@netxcom.UUCP> <540@atari.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: landauer@sun.UUCP (Doug Landauer)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 33

In article <540@atari.UUCP> dyer@atari.UUCP (Landon Dyer) writes:
>
>IBM has some patents on a rather spiffy chord keyboard.  You can type
>words like "THE" and "AND" (with appropriate case-shifting) in a
>single stroke.  They tried it on some rather bright MIT students and
>found that after three or four weeks the subjects were typing as fast
>as (or faster than) they were on normal keyboards.
>
>IBM's chord keyboard had 14 keys.  It left one hand free for
>schlepping a mouse around, shuffling papers, or fondling members of
>the opposite sex.
>
>Because of the learning-curve, it would probably be a dismal failure
>in today's marketplace.  Besides, IBM has the patents.

I read about the chord keyboard a few years ago and it seemed like a
wonderful idea.  It seems like it would sell well in a few specialized
markets.  Fewer keys == fewer moving parts, so they ought to be a little
more reliable than 96-key keyboards.  I wonder why they aren't being sold
into the same sort of manufacturing situations that are supposed to be good
applications for speech recognition.

Also, I've always (well, for a few years anyway) wanted to build one that
has a built-in mouse.  One of the biggest complaints about mice that we
touch-typers have is the time it takes to move your hand from the keyboard
over to the mouse and back.  With a chord keyboard with a built-in mouse,
this complaint disappears.  An alternative would be to get a chord keyboard
for one hand and a mouse for the other hand -- does anyone know if IBM sells
or licenses these things?  I want one.
--
	Doug Landauer		    Sun's Net:		 landauer@morocco
	Phone:   415 691-7655	    ARPANET (aka DDN):   landauer@sun.com
	UUCP:  {amdahl, decwrl, hplabs, seismo, ...}!sun!landauer