I'm interesting in getting some feedback on an interesting new keyboard that Lifesapity found on youtube and that I looked further into

The FrogPad Solution

FrogPad is a portable one-handed keyboard. It's practical, simple, and intuitive, 20-key text/numeric data entry design uses patented algorithms and ergonomic optimization providing all of the functionality of a standard keyboard. The full-size keys ensure accuracy, ease of use, and speed for all desktop and mobile computing applications.

FrogPad is available in left-hand and right-hand configurations for optimal efficiency. USB models can replace any standard USB keyboard. Bluetooth models use standard HID drivers and work with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and all PDA's running Windows Mobile 5 or 6.

http://www.frogpad.com/index.html
That and more information is avaliable at the FrogPad website, onto a picture and a quick description of how it works



Hand intended to rest on the keys DTHE
The Black Letters are the default setting requiring no extra button press
The Black Symbols require the use of the Symbol button
The Green Letters require a simultaneous press of the Space button and the letter (hence the green square)
The Green Symbols require you to press the Symbol button, then a simultaneous press of the Space button ( the . and the , at the bottom do not require the Symbol button first, only Space)
The Numbers are active by pressing the Number button, similar to Num Lock
The Orange keys on the bottom edge require you to a Simultaneous press of the Number button (hence the orange square)
The Orange keys on the side edge require you to press the Symbol button, then a Simultaneous press of the Number button
To use ALT or CTRL you press the command for that button first, the follow it up with the button you wished to combine with it.
For example, to select all (CTRL + A), you need to use the Number button to activate CTRL, then you simply press A afterward.
All of this and more is again all available on the official website

The lettering arrangement is surprisingly intuitive, you can quickly see this from the picture above. The 3 dominant fingers type THE with no movement or additional keys, in this manner, the index finger has access to all 5 vowels. The 15 keys ready to go ( PWRAF ; DTHEO ; YSNIU ) make up 86% of the english language's most used words. FrogPad comes with a tutorial to get you used to the device and they claim quite confidently that it is easy to learn and use. Personally it has my interest, though I don't really feel like paying quite the $140 they want for it, especially seeing as I would not gain any space thanks to my laptops attached keyboard, I still like the idea.

Yes I'm well aware that it screws up the whole WASD settings that just about every game uses, but most of them let you customize every key anyway, I know, I know it could be a pain, but I reckon it still has good potential for allowing you to keep one hand on the mouse at all times.

Finally, a demonstration.



Feedback?

I doubt this will catch on. There was another keyboard made to rival the QWERTY called the DVORAK (after the guy, not key layout) I think. It was designed for efficiency but never caught on because people were used to their qwerty (it might be AZERTY in europe, not sure).

This is an interesting idea and it might catch on for smaller devices such as mobile phones and iPads but I doubt it would replace a standard QWERTY keyboard for computers.

It's also a good idea for people who have had to have one hand/arm amputated or people with only one good side of their body (like people who have had a stroke or who have cerebral palsy).

I would never use it though.

Yeah. I agree with Emily.

Plus, if you can use both of your hands, wouldn't using two be quicker than one?

I heard about this other keyboard layout once as well, which may be DVORAK, which is apparently much faster and easier to use for touch typing than the normal QWERTY layout because the letters are organised in a better way to allow for faster touch typing.

What I was told is this other better layout actually existed before QWERTY, but the problem was that people could type so fast on typewriters that it jammed the mechanical parts of a typewriter a lot, so QWERTY was made so that people would type slower and not jam the typewriter and so QWERTY had always existed right up to now. I guess because people are lazy and cbb switching to the better layout.

I also heard that you could apparently get a hold of this faster keyboard layout by downloading some driver or program off the internet which switched a normal QWERTY keyboard for you.

I would try using this better layout if I could, but I wouldn't know how to get hold of it and the fact that every computer uses QWERTY would just make things more complicated if you have to go to work or university to do typing as well.

The FrogPad looks cool, I would use it, but there is no way that I am going to spend $140 on that. I could easily play any computer game on the FrogPad, just reassign the keys for whatever game you are playing, so that WASD becomes WDTH. I would like the FrogPad because it would take up much less space than the keyboard that im using now and the FrogPad looks easy to use. I could probably type as fast as the person did in that video fairly quickly.

Well I just had an interesting time of reading about the Dvorak keyboard, very interesting.

I don't think FrogPad would catch on either. With the majority of games these days using voice chat over typed chat, the advantage of having a keyboard in one hand and the mouse on the other is diminished.

Its more like something I would like to try...

there's a thought, if say I did buy one, who of you would want to give it a try for a while?

Blackberry has been useing a simular system on there phones for a while now. It's called Suretype.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tLckOmkJa4

I'm not so sure that's similar... the Blackberry uses a program to smartly guess what word you want to type, the FrogPad does no such thing ...

Yeah, its sorta close. Instead of pushing the space bar then the key for the level2 letter, on phone you just double tap.

...but I guess that is more of the multi-tap system than suretype...

I use SWYPE on my phone, it works like a dream. Can type near as fast as full sized keyboard.