On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 6:48 PM, Jeremy List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm think a one-handed keyboard on the back of a freerunner would be a > great thing. Frogpad has the disadvantage that it needs a different > model depending on what hand you plan to use to type on it: I'm pretty > sure I could design something similar that doesn't have that limitation.
Several buttons along the edges would be enough - one for each finger and 2 or 3 thumb-buttons, or a rocker for the thumb. You can still come up with enough chords to type, or, just use them as menu-buttons to select word ranges, kindof analogous to Dasher. A long time ago I read about a research project along these lines at Xerox Parc (which actually occurred even longer ago). They were using big round infrared blasters on the ceiling as uplinks into a network, and people were carrying around these pager-sized devices with buttons along the edge (and simple 2-line LCD displays), and you could do 2-way messaging anywhere on campus when one of the IR gateways was within range. But I thought the text input method was the most interesting aspect of it. You only need several buttons to do it, so it can be ergonomic if the buttons are shaped nicely and are kindof firm (your fingers stay on the same buttons all the time, you just press them in different patterns). And it would be very cheap to implement. The thumb buttons could be used for something else in the word-entry mode, but there could also be an alphanumeric chording mode (like the Bat keyboard). I think this was done long enough ago that if there were any patents, they probably expired by now. If there were a keyboard on the back, how could you hold the phone and at the same time press keys on the back? But you could hold it by the edges and push buttons along the edges at the same time. _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community