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Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!uflorida!ukma!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!lanl!unm-la!unmvax!nmtsun!dieter@nmt.edu
From: dieter@nmt.edu (The Demented Teddy Bear)
Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.periphs
Subject: Re: Want information on "odd" keyboard.
Message-ID: <1379@nmtsun.nmt.edu>
Date: 4 Nov 88 11:46:46 GMT
References: <1553@gmu90x.UUCP> <272@sssinc.COM>
Sender: dieter@nmtsun.nmt.edu
Reply-To: dieter@nmt.edu (The Demented Teddy Bear)
Followup-To: comp.misc
Organization: New Mexico Tech
Lines: 45
In-reply-to: clark@sssinc.COM (G. Clark Brown)

In article <272@sssinc.COM>, clark@sssinc (G. Clark Brown) writes:
>In article <1553@gmu90x.UUCP>, dana@gmu90x.UUCP (J Dana Eckart) writes:
>> Some number of years ago (8?) I remember seeing an announcement for a
>> keyboard that consisted of two separate hemi-spherical parts, one for
>> the left hand and one for the right.  The idea seemed to be that the
>
>I saw a keyboard made for one hand called the "One-hander", I think.  It
>was a sphere with four thumb keys and two rows of four keys for the fingers.

Buried deep in my files somewhere, I have a photocopy from an issue of
Interface Age (may have been Byte, but I don't think so) describing the
"Write-Hander".  This is similar to the above, except that each finger
had one switch, corresponding to one of the four lower bits in the
ASCII sequence.  The thumb had two circular rows of four switches each,
covering the remaining three bits of the ASCII code.

If you're really interested, I can go searching for the article.  It was
a do-it-yourself sort of thing, so it has all the information you need
(modulo the photocopier problems; there was a coloured table which doesn't
come out real well).

A quick synopsis:  get a rubber ball that comfortably fits your hand.
Cut it in half.  Insert all the above-mentioned switches into the hemi-
sphere you decide to use, trying to place them comfortably.  Switches
with short bodies work best, as you don't want them all hitting in the
center of the ball.  Get a key debouncing chip (can't remember the
number, but there are several TTL types out there), run its output
into a latch, and voila'!  A Write- (or Left-) Hander.

You'll probably need to come up with some logic to detect when any of
the thumb switches have been pressed, to provide a character-ready
strobe to the latch.  Most parallel keyboards also provide a similar
signal on the output, so using an eight-bit, resettable latch with the
MSB tied high would be a good idea.  When the receiving end reads from
this beast, it should send you a read strobe, which (after a small
delay), should clear the latch.

Have fun.

Dieter
-- 
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