Propose Chorded Keyboard For Bottom Of Case

[daffy]

I would pay serious money ($100, say) for an effective chorded keyboard built into the Pandora. This might be practical as a case mod or replacement case, and I propose it as an idea for Pandora 2.

The idea is that you have a suitable set of buttons on the bottom of the case, so that you could press them with your fingers while holding the panda (imagine holding the panda; all of your fingers are underneath).

Properly done, a few buttons (surely not a hideous expense to implement) would let you type as fast as on a regular keyboard.

Not only that, but you could use them for game controls. This is why I propose the idea for Pandora 2: aside from their use for typing (which requires some dedication to learn to type this way), they would be a great improvement to game control features.

I don't know how the Pandora case is constructed. I don't know what chorded keyboard system would be suitable.

But I thought the idea worth mentioning. Thoughts?

 

[Klepto]

I'm interested in the same thing as part of my wearable Pandora project. While I'm not looking for a mod as much as an add-on it seems that this may be worth looking at. The major problem I foresee is that the thumb is used and on the same side as the fingers.

 

[greendots]

not really worth it imo... Remember that the keyboard is built on the backside of the pcb and the battery is in the bottom. There is no space for something like this unless everything was moved around. Thats not to say its a bad idea for a future version necessarily. Maybe it Pandora got some major backing and can afford to shrink the pcb.

 

[daffy]

it seems that this may be worth looking at.



IR. Does the panda have an IR interface?

 

[Klepto]

Oops, I didn't notice the IR interface. Forget that idea then

 

[stuey]

<oops double post - damn two handed keyboards>

 

[stuey]

Oops, I didn't notice the IR interface. Forget that idea then

I've owned a few 'microwriters and Agendas' - chorded keyboards are great.

Couldn't you 'mask' out some of the Pandora's qwerty keys ( some sort of plastic /stencil/inlayed overlay) and use a software 'look up table' to emulate the key chords?

I'm no programmer but i'd throw some $$ to shareware for it.

this guy may have done it already
http://joy2chord.sourceforge.net/

 

[Izomiac]

I'm a bit doubtful that a chorded keyboard could get you up to normal typing speeds, since it'd have to wait XX milliseconds to see if another button is about to be pressed. However, it would be cool to have, and quite possibly faster to use than the default keyboard. If you wanted to do it without modding the Pandora just use the shoulder buttons, the D pad, and A/B/X/Y for a total of 2*2*8*4 = 2^7 = 128 typeable characters. Example: L = Shift, R = Numbers/Punctuation, and the character is typed when a direction on the D pad and either A, B, X, or Y are pressed simultaneously. A nifty GUI component might pop up when the D pad is pressed, showing character ranges (a-d, e-h, etc.) over a D pad, and the specific character overlayed on a representation of the A, B, X, Y buttons. Morse code is also an option, although I'm not sure if it'd be faster than using the Pandora keyboard.

 

[bawjaws]

I'm glad I'm not the only one looking at this. It seems to me that either a separate device that communicates via bluetooth or using the existing game controls as a chording keyboard would be the way to go.

Unfortunately, even as more and more portable bluetooth equipped devices are sold there seems to be no market for such things.

There is the frogpad, though it seems a bit moribund: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/6c82/ That page claims to support linux and it's just a keyboard so it *should* work with the Pandora.

If there's anything else good out there hardware wise I'd like to hear about it.

But honestly, the Pandora's a unique case and I think the fact that it's already got the gaming controls nicely placed for your two hands as well as a full keyboards worth of keys to fall back on for less used characters means that a bespoke software solution would be great.

Note that in other threads it's been stated that the keyboard can only accept a maximum of 2-3 keypresses at once due to the hardware used but that the gaming controls are all independant. There's apparently also wiring for a second set of trigger buttons which should be easily moddable (well, relatively speaking).

re-edit: nevermind, addde a url to Joy2Chord already linked above.

 

[Klepto]

I'm a bit doubtful that a chorded keyboard could get you up to normal typing speeds, since it'd have to wait XX milliseconds to see if another button is about to be pressed.

Depending on the method chorded keyboards can be much faster than conventional ones, the stenography machines used in court are a kind of chorded keyboard and are used for just this reason. You don't have to insert a delay, you just need to register all key presses made from the point the first key is pressed until the last key is released.

However, it would be cool to have, and quite possibly faster to use than the default keyboard. If you wanted to do it without modding the Pandora just use the shoulder buttons, the D pad, and A/B/X/Y for a total of 2*2*8*4 = 2^7 = 128 typeable characters. Example: L = Shift, R = Numbers/Punctuation, and the character is typed when a direction on the D pad and either A, B, X, or Y are pressed simultaneously. A nifty GUI component might pop up when the D pad is pressed, showing character ranges (a-d, e-h, etc.) over a D pad, and the specific character overlayed on a representation of the A, B, X, Y buttons.

That's a very good idea and it should be pretty simple to implement, especially if it's done at the x-windows level rather than in a keyboard driver. The drawback is that it still requires two hands, for a mobile device one handed operation is quite often the reason for using a chorded keyboard.

Here is a pic of a guy using a waist mounted frogpad. Looks like a nice solution but I can't help feeling the frogpad is overpriced for what it is. Personally I might get a bit of plastic pipe (a diameter of 1.5 to 2 inches would be ideal) and an old game pad and make myself one that uses microwriter codes.

 

[jdh2550]

Oops, I didn't notice the IR interface. Forget that idea then

EDIT: OK, so I read the order page:

(1) The cypad ain't cheap!
(2) They sell a USB based IR receiver - so you should be able to use the cypad with the pandora.

I like the look of the cypad over the frogpad - it's much slimmer. However, I wonder which version would be easier to learn for me? I kind of thing the frogpad looks "easier" - but it would be nice to try both out for a couple of weeks. But then I'd probably loose my ability to use my good old QWERTY keyboard...

Hmm, if I ever get the tilt interface working perhaps this might be hardware project #2.

So many cool projects to play with - so little time!

 

[wirelessdreamer]

If anyone here is interested in using joy2chord for their chorded keyboard here's what you need to know.

Right now it supports using any device that can talk though /dev/input/jsx.

it has support for multiple modes, and i have a full default config included with it for the chorded keyboard pictured at joy2chord.sourceforge.net.

One of my main focuses with joy2chord was making it easy to configure. The config file is heavily commented.

the easiest mod you could do, would be to get a playstation2 style usb gamepad for 8 bucks from ebay, rip it open, and remove the analog section, with whats left you have over 10 buttons to work with, and depending on your electronics skill if you rewire some traces, and don't want as many buttons you can shrink the boards size down alot, which is what i did for my chorded keyboard.

I'm usually i'dle in #linuxice on freenode, along with some people interested in carpc's and a few people that use joy2chord if anyone wants to talk over their ideas.

 

[Klepto]

Thanks wirelessdreamer, I am indeed planning on doing just what you suggest and had already identified joy2chord as my preferred driver. If it's possible I may keep one of the analog sticks to use with my thumb as a kind of trackpoint. Right now the plans are on hold until my Pandora arrives, but if I find time before then I may start sooner. Either way it's good to know you are here on these boards

 

[wirelessdreamer]

i'm planning to add analog -> mouse support, if i know someone is planning on using it i'll bump it up on my priority list.