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Handhelds Hardware

One-Thumb Keyboard 310

Posted by timothy from the thumbs-don't-clap dept.
pagercam2 writes "As Japanese teens are so used to typing one another messages on their cellphones, they are now more comfortable with one thumb typing than the old two handed QWERTY. So a Japanese company has come out with a one-thumb keypad that allows a user to enter alphanumberic text and control the mouse with only one thumb. Sort of a cross between a TV remote and a phone keypad, with a USB connection, although wireless seems to be an obvious next step. Maybe not a revolution for the desktop, but this could advance data input on handhelds." Pictures transcend language barriers.
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One-Thumb Keyboard More

One-Thumb Keyboard

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  • Heh (Score:5, Funny)

    by Exiler ( 589908 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @04:58PM (#6175312)
    [insert one handed typing joke here]

    Only in japan...

    • Re:Heh (Score:2, Funny)

      by blurfus ( 606535 )
      I would have had the FP but I don't type fast with my thumbs...

      This is harder than it seems, I made a LOT of mistakes on my first try. This is my original typed message:

      i Wolud have fad the FO but i don't type fsad with my tuhmbs


    • This just in, a recent study in Japan shows that 30% of all cell phones sold in Japan get lost within the first week a customer purchases them.

      In other news, many Japanese school girls have been having random orgasms, usually at the times of peak cell phone usage. Scientists believe it has something to do with the radiation cell phones give off.
  • Gives a wholly new meaning to "thumbs up" or "all thumbs"...

  • Well.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Brainboy ( 310252 ) <iamchillin@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @04:59PM (#6175323) Journal
    It'll make porn surfing a lot easier.

  • Oh God. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @04:59PM (#6175324)
    Now those shortened abbreviations for everyday common words is going to become more widespread. 2 L8 - U WILL B ASSIM8D!

  • Nice... (Score:5, Funny)

    by justMichael ( 606509 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @04:59PM (#6175326) Homepage
    alphanumberic

    And this is the type of output you get when you only type with your thumbs.
    • And at all of 10 wpm too.
      • There is a thousand odd characters in the japanese alphabet, so I'm sure that 10 wpm would be lucky. I couldn't imagine touch typing that kind of keyboard.

    • Re:Nice... (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Great, the new disability will be carpalthumbal.

      Thankyou, I'll be here all week.

    • Re:Nice... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Blondie-Wan ( 559212 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:30PM (#6175672) Homepage
      So that's the secret of Slashdot spelling. I guess there are even more early adopters of tech here than I thought.

      ;)

    • Actually, the reason that people can type fast isnt because of the thumb-input, it seems to be from the word completion algorithms in use.

      For instance, you hit 2-7 it autofills in the word 'at'. Then as you type in more '3 Letter' keys, it will automatically fill in the most common words. When you are done and its not the word you want, you hit # or * or whatever and loop through all the words in the dictionary. So in the example above, you hit '*' then 'at' becomes 'as' and you keep typing away.

      Which isn
    • you also get things like

      keiboard

      or is that just engrish [engrish.com]?

  • bad joke (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:00PM (#6175338)
    so if a user types "my nose" in AIM, they've thumbed their nose at you? :]

  • Japanese buy anything... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dtldl ( 644451 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:00PM (#6175341)
    as long as it has a usb connection, I'm sure I've seen a usb powered coffee warmer and I'm pretty sure I didn't dream up that usb ladies pleasure accesorry.

  • Medical Applications (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Merlin_1102 ( 594400 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:01PM (#6175352)
    I wounder if they have considered marketing this to the handicaps.. I know a few people who have lost a hand or two in one way or another and they have often found it difficult to use a regular reybaord.. I known one guy who simply won't use a computer now and one other who simply uses a mouse with a on screen keyboard.. not as quick, but he says its more conformatable.

  • Evolution (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hayzeus ( 596826 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:02PM (#6175362) Homepage
    Over the next few hundred millenia, expect the fingers and left thumb to wither and disappear, while the right thumb advances in dexterity, utlimately develops it's own intelligence, detaches from the human "host", and finally becomes the dominant species on the planet.

  • It has to be said... (Score:4, Funny)

    by AvantLegion ( 595806 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:02PM (#6175364) Journal
    Kawaii!!

    • I would go along, but I'm afraid I'm not a Japanese 13 y/o old schoolgirl.

  • Why limit usage to one's thumb? (Score:3, Funny)

    by macshune ( 628296 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:02PM (#6175370) Journal
    Males, anyhow, can use another appendage that is at least mildly opposable with this keyboard. This would allow your hands to remain free to, say, conduct an orchestra or do pull-ups....all while chatting with your friends!!! Incredible!!!
  • says, "Aaaaaayyyyy"
  • Although they didn't say much more about it...

    Wired blurb [wired.com]
    • Book reports on one of these keyboards? These kids have nothing to do. Wait until they write a couple of reports and then find out their thumb has RSI. Probably wouldn't think it's cool when they have their thumb in a splint. Do they make such a keyboard operated by the middle finger?

  • So what... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Dark Paladin ( 116525 ) * <jhummel.johnhummel@net> on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:04PM (#6175401) Homepage
    So what do I do with my other hand when I'm surfing the Internet?

    Oh - wait. Um, nevermind.

  • Ouch (Score:2, Funny)

    by gregbaker ( 22648 ) *
    The page hasn't even finished loading and I think I have RSI [unl.edu] already.

    Seriously... that can't be good for your hands.

  • Typing speed? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by GoatEnigma ( 586728 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:07PM (#6175426) Homepage
    I wonder how proficient anyone could ever get on this thing. It clearly is not a solution for desktop, but it seems doubtful as a handheld replacement either. Typing speed is the major problem with handhelds these days anyway - Graffitti for Palm lets me do about 15 wpm and that's after 3 years of practice.

    I would bet on voice recognition or blackberry-style data input for handhelds before I bet on thumb-only input.

    [aside]It kind of reminds me of those old Colecovision controllers....[/aside]

    • Re:Typing speed? (Score:3, Informative)

      by dhovis ( 303725 ) *
      Graffitti for Palm lets me do about 15 wpm and that's after 3 years of practice.

      There are other options out there. One is the fitaly [fitaly.com] keyboard, which is supposed to be optimized for use with a stylus. They claim you can get 50 wpm. I've never tried it, but it certainly looks easier than Graffitti to me. Anybody out there tried it?

    • Re:Typing speed? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 ) <judgmentalist@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @06:10PM (#6175977) Journal
      Japanese makes just as much sense with 10 buttons as it does on a qwerty keyboard. Some Japanese cell phone users can get up to 200 wpm in SMS messages (supposedly). I always thought they used two thumbs simultaneously, but I don't know for sure.
    • I had a cortisone shot in my wrist before, but I remember my doctor told me that it should not hurt at all. That area felt numb for the first hour or two then subsiding quickly after that. There should not be any pain. If there is, then the doctor has probably injected the cortisone into the nerve, which is wrong--the trick is to get the needle as close to the nerve without touching it then releasing the medicine.

  • Pictures? (Score:3, Funny)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:07PM (#6175437) Homepage
    Pictures transcend language barriers.

    ...and one slashdotting is worth a thousand "AAAAAAGH! MY SERVER!"'s...

  • Uh-huh (Score:3, Funny)

    by PinkStainlessTail ( 469560 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:08PM (#6175440) Homepage
    And this will coincidentally be available at ThinkGeek when?

  • Missing option... (Score:3, Funny)

    by nother_nix_hacker ( 596961 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:10PM (#6175472)
    but I don't have a thumb you insensitive clod!... oh hold on..
  • While traditional chording keyboards [tifaq.com] have never really caught on, this thumb "keyboard" seems to have great potential in this area. Chording keyboards, as we all know, have fewer keys and allow people to type faster if they know the combinations very well. Unfortunately, the combinations are somewhat more difficult to memorize than the locations of keys on a regular keyboard. But if you could have a dual-thumb apparatus, like a set of two joysticks or a pair of sensor-embedded gloves (a la Minority Repor

  • Thumb dexterity (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ikewillis ( 586793 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:12PM (#6175494) Homepage
    British university researchers, after studying hundreds of children in Beijing, Tokyo and other big cities, say today's youngsters have become the 'thumb generation'.

    By regularly using mobile phones, especially to send text messages and by playing hand-held computer games, a physical mutation had developed in the under-25s, the researchers have found.

    The thumbs of today's electronic-gadget generation of children have become more muscled, more dextrous and often more used than fingers.

    This is because modern youngsters grow up using hand-held gadgets where the devices are cupped in the hand and held firm by fingers, giving thumbs the pivotal role of pushing buttons.

    This has caused a significant physical alteration in the way the digits of the hand are used - with thumbs being given the thumbs-up and an increasingly important role in youngsters' lives.

    The researchers found that gadget-age children were now using their thumbs for tasks such as pointing at things and ringing doorbells - traditionally the job of the forefinger.

    Whereas the forefinger was also previously used to clean an ear opening, mobile-phone using, text-messaging children will instinctively use their thumbs.

    Even when they want to pick their noses, more and more boys and girls are tending to use a thumb, instead of a finger.

    Whereas mothers and fathers would push the buttons on a telephone with their forefinger, many children would use their thumbs instead.

    And when they type a message on the keyboard of a desktop computer, children hit more keys with their thumbs than adults.

    Though most older people use their forefingers to operate remote controls for television sets and video recorders, many children tend to use their thumbs.

    The findings have been revealed by the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit of Warwick University, one of Britain's top research institutions.

    Experts spent six months studying the habits of thousands of children in countries around the world.

    The researchers included youngsters in Beijing and Tokyo in their survey, in order to ensure that their findings were globally relevant, and did not apply to just a couple of countries.

    The experts found that in fact, the trend of children using their thumbs more and more was particularly marked in Japan.
    • Could you please post your source (URL, bibliography, ect)? While I can't say this is totally impossible, it sound, well, a bit exagerated. If this is true, I'm much interrested in the actual paper.

    • Re:Thumb dexterity (Score:5, Funny)

      by jetkust ( 596906 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:38PM (#6175736)
      Even when they want to pick their noses, more and more boys and girls are tending to use a thumb, instead of a finger.

      This is all cool until they use their thumb to fire a gun and shoot themselves in the face.

    • Re:Thumb dexterity (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Trick ( 3648 )
      "..a physical mutation had developed in the under-25s, the researchers have found ... The thumbs of today's electronic-gadget generation of children have become more muscled, more dextrous and often more used than fingers."

      Since when is increasing musculature and dexterity through exercise a "mutation?"

      To most Slahdot readers the concept may be alien, but it's hardly a mutation.
      • I was giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming that he meant "physical mutation" in contrast to a genetic mutation. In that regard, it is true, though stated in an overly dramatic fashion.

    • Whereas the forefinger was also previously used to clean an ear opening ... Even when they want to pick their noses

      So are the next generation of kids gonna have large nostrils and ear canals? Because I tried cleaning my ear and picking my nose with my thumb and didn't get very far (both figuratively and literally). So I'm thinking the current crop of thumb-using, small-ear canaled, small nostriled kids will die off from not being able to breath or hear due to, uh, buildup.

    • The thumbs of today's electronic-gadget generation of children have become more muscled, more dextrous and often more used than fingers.

      Last time I checked, the thumb already was used more often than fingers. The thumb was one of the great feats of human evolution wasn't it? To get a feel for how important the thumb already is, tape your thumb to the palm of your hand and try to do just about any daily activity. I don't think the average person says, "Hey, I will use 8 fingers for this task instead of

    • I didn't really realize how often I used my thumb until recently when I hurt it (by dropping a couple hundred pounds of boards on top of it) and then finding out that it's hard to do just about everything you do with your hands if your thumb is injured.

      I can't see my thumb replacing my forefinger as my main finger simply because it's shorter and pointed more inward than the forefinger. I do use my thumbs quite a lot but the forefinger is just better suited for some tasks. I've grown up using the thumbs for
  • Finally my other hand is free to do *ahem* other things :D

  • What is the market for this... really. Not mobile phone users as anyone who uses SMS with predictive text is pretty swift on a small keypad, and women aged 15-30 appear to be able to type at 100wpm.

    Really in Japan and Europe the SMS speed people get is gobsmacking and technologies like predictive text are probably more effective than keyboard design especially as the software improves.
  • This just looks like the kind of alphanumeric pad you get on cellphones, just on a wired USB dongle.
    You can already [remotecentral.com] get IR remote controls with these built in!

  • Thumb Size an Issue? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kc0dxh ( 115594 )
    Has any American sized thumb tried to use these? I don't mean to be crude, but since there is a general hight difference, can't one assume a slight, but in this case important, size difference in thumbs too? I suppose if this were manufactured in the US I could file a discrimination lawsuit.

    PrairieNights [blogspot.com]

    • It's a reasonable enough concern, most of japan is made for people who are 5'8" or less.. I've whacked my head on so many doors/ceilings it's not funny.

      Thumb imput devices like this are no different to the way many westerners (Australia + Europe anyway) write text messages with mobile phones.. it's a bit of a pain, but once you get to know how many times to press a number to make a specific letter, it's not too bad.

  • how long before . . . (Score:3, Funny)

    by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:21PM (#6175591)
    we see somebody on the highway writing email with one hand, eating with the other hand, and using their shoulder to hold onto a cell phone and using their feet to steer?
  • Yeah these japanese teens might do some IMing and write a few essays, but how about cutting some serious Atari 2600 BASIC code [atariage.com] with a numeric keypad [atariage.com] (circa 1978).

  • Oh no! (Score:2, Funny)

    by d3faultus3r ( 668799 )
    How am I supposed to type ctrl alt del when using Windows now.

  • Coming Soon... (Score:5, Funny)

    by jetkust ( 596906 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:25PM (#6175629)
    1.5" monitors. As Japanese teens are so used to reading messages on their cellphones, they are now more comfortable with monitors closer to the size of their cellphone screen which...

  • not cordless.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Suppafly ( 179830 ) <slashdot@sup p a f l y .net> on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @05:27PM (#6175646)
    It would seem like this would go over better if it were cordless, much like a tv remote control. If you look at the pictures, it looks corded, this decreases the utility for me, if I have to be that close to the computer, I might as well use my regular corded keyboard and mouse.

  • pr0n (Score:2, Redundant)

    by psyconaut ( 228947 )
    I guess another application is that this keyboard allows you to easily type while the other hand is occupied ;-)

    -psy
  • Can anyone perchance tell me why the colors in the pictures are in katakana?
    • Ummm, its on a Japanese website :P
      • Yes, but katakana is the equivalent of writing japanese words using the english alphabet.. katakana is used to write foreign words.. you'll probably find japanese already had words for those colours when the bastard admiral perry came along and introduced them to the west. (summary of the 1800s in japanese war memorial)

        All I can think of is it's to make it look more exotic, or because japanese people don't like the colour white, and maybe don't even like writing the hiragana or kanji for it :)
        • Katakana colour model names would be used where we would put objects that we associate with the colour e.g. "Sky", "Forest", "Sand") Kanji for colours would be used to describe the actual colour of the unit.

          For example: Buruu-gata keiboardo wa aoi-iro desu.

          (The "Blue" model is blue-coloured)
        • Katakana is the equivalent of italics. Sometimes we italicize foreign words in English as well. This practice is simply more codified in the Japanese language: Hors d'oevres are so damn bourgeois. Sometimes katakana or italics are simply used for emphasis. (Any native speakers want to correct me?)
  • I have been looking for a remote control that incorporates an SMS type thumb keyboard and a pointing device (mini trackball?). I've seen one with a trackball and a slew of buttons, but no keyboard.

    Living room computers really need something like this. Buttons are great, but for typing a URL, you need a keyboard.
  • Yaaaay for over-seas slashdotting!
  • ...the gadget-hype not withstanding, in Japanese they don't have an alphabet in the same way as we do in the Western world. I imagine they must "build" symbols in a way, which makes as much or little sense on a one-hand as a two-hand keyboard really.

    Personally I'd find this very awkward because I'm used to a one press = one character keyboard, and even on my cell phone it is mostly so because of the dictionary, despite some characters "sharing" a button.

    But, I suppose it would work for some of the people
  • Ok...I'm in a room, and OH CRAP, someone tracked the buffest mob in the entire friggen game....Gotta get that thumb moving...by the time I get to fully type recall with my thumb, the monster has proceeded to kill me, eat my corpse, and sacrifice all of the equipment on it...and I just completed getting all that L33t eq!!

    For some things, there will always be your handy-dandy QWERTY keyboard.
  • This site [thumbscript.com] features a goos system for one handed data imput. It makes more sense to me than the pictures from the japanese sight did anyway.
  • OH man, this is a bad idea. Touch-typing, no matter how much experience you have with those damned numberpads, is ALWAYS going to be faster. Seriously. get an instructional course in touchtyping, get some skillz built up with 'The Typing of the Dead' and frickin end your damned love-affairs with doing everything like its SMS. You'll be happier in the long run.

  • Unfortunately I can. And already do. It's bad enough that way too many of us who are "computer professionals" have the fun of carpal tunnel and/or tendonitis from using all of our fingers for typing. I can only imagine what the concentrated repetitive motion injury will be for thumb-only typing. Ugh. It already hurts like hell to type on my Blackberry.

  • This seems like it would be an almost perfect car mp3 PC controller.

  • with a USB base to boot.
  • Just because we have opposing thumbs doesn't mean we should use them in silly ways. Can you imagine writting a term paper using only your thumbs? Spreading the task across 10 fingers/thumbs seems to be easier on the body then putting all the task onto one thumb....

    This might be good for mobile phone use but beyond that it seems to be of dubious use. IMO.

    LoB

  • Old News, It's Called a Vibroplex, Invented 1890s (Score:5, Interesting)

    by n9fzx ( 128488 ) on Wednesday June 11, 2003 @08:25PM (#6176936) Homepage Journal
    One-thumb keying devices have been around for more than a century; the Vibroplex [vibroplex.com] company still sells them to ham radio operators.

    Note that the minimum speed on these puppies is 20 words per minute, and trained ops have hit speeds of over 70 wpm. Sometimes with a ham sandwich in the other fist...

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