༺ blog - ideas ༻

freekee

2024 Jan 31

Let us seize the means of computation!

We’ve had qwerty for a veeery long time

kefmit typing

We have tons of amazing innovations in keyboards - see the voyager, keebmaker or the gergoplex

voyager keyboard

gergoplex keyboard

Then there are game controllers

game controller

Lets make a typing interface that combines the best of a gaming controller with a minimalist, ergonomic, split keyboard!

FREEKEE

  • more ergonomic with palms facing in
  • combines mouse/track pad
  • customisable with zmk and qmk
  • type in VR
  • on the couch
  • in space
  • connect to laptops
  • desktops
  • smart devices
  • you don’t have to sit at a desk

There are ready made offerings like grabshell and alphagrip but the linux support is poor or not there and you basically get what you’re given.

A game controller’s motion capabilities for point and click can be used as a mouse or track pad. We could use one of these

The position is better than a traditional, palm down style, which is designed to be used with a device sitting on a desk. The gaming controller has the palms facing the belly which is a much more natural orientation.

The old qwerty days can be left behind, we already have lots of better ways. There’s dvorak, colemak and my fav halmak for example. Program your own ‘just exactly right’ keyboard/controller! Let’s call the project ‘freekey’ and opensource everything.