What is with all the wasted space on keyboards? There’s a whole back side just sitting there doing nothing. But how can you use the back at the same time as the front?
Just when we think Google Japan can’t possibly produce another weird, amazing keyboard that actually works and comes with full documentation, they go and outdo themselves with this ortholinear Mobius thing that wastes (almost) no space. (Japanese, translated) Be sure to check out the video after the break where hilarity ensues.
This crazy thing is made up of 26 modules, each with 8 key switches, four on a side. Do the math — that’s a total of 208 keys! More than enough to stretch out around the table and do some group programming without rubbing elbows. All the switches are hot-swappable, and there’s even RGB backlighting. The controller here is the STM32F042F4P6.
So what are all the extra keys for? Well, the keyboard is half in Japanese and half QWERTY, and has a set of emoji keys as well for the full programming experience. You can also make a paper version if you want to test out the topology.
Be sure to check out the documentation, because it’s pretty interesting how this keyboard is put together. And no, we’re not sure how to set it down and use it without accidental key presses. Suppose that’s part of the charm?
Have you ever wondered what happened to all the Japanese computers of yore? We did.
Thanks for the tip, [CityZen]!
Hang this baby up vertically with some bearings, add some physical index notches or bumps to grip and spin! This is the way!
How would you hang it up? Like, where would it attach to be hung? Any “edge” you could put a bearing against travels to both the “inside” and the “outside” of the toroid that could contain this, and there are keys that cross the traditional “toroidal inner circle” as well.. I just don’t know how you could hang this in any way that would allow it to rotate freely without pressing keys or blocking access to keys.
You let the “one” edge run sandwiched between two opposing rollers & then I see two options:
1. Done. But you have a stop point on the keyboard’s edge so it can’t turn completely free. (back and forth movement allowed. Probably with deadspot).
2. You mount the rollers themselves in frame which can roll horizontally.
I think 2. would result in the “keyboard” being able to move freely.
I did not know it was April 1st !
Maybe it’s a conspiracy by accordion players?
Actually this keyboard is not double-sided. All the keys are on the same plane.
No they aren’t. They are on the same side of the surface and it’s clearly not a plane. It also requires 20 inches long thumb and index to use it correctly.
It is technically a “plane” in non-Euclidean space.
Oh you kids and your topology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnH5sQBIba8
Japanese
I sure hope it is….
[Otherwise, I was thinking I really need to get a job at Google Japan– ‘Come up insane impractical shit that will never sell– and get paid for it?!?]
More in the playlist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHqPrHTN1dU&list=PLLkq-mu9c_kYR7DJ4evrYLT82FNCBnqXS
The entire thing is a waste of space, actually. Looks cool, though.
Completely impractical and a ‘waste’ of money and time and perfectly good key switches. And a great piece of art!
Bring two of them together with the edges connected and you’ll get a KLEIN keyboard with no in or outside.
“And no, we’re not sure how to set it down and use it without accidental key presses.”
It might be useful aboard the ISS?
I could swear I saw a dude playing one of these at this dive bar on Tatooine.
And I was wondering if I saw it on one of those old 1960s “Star Trek” documentaries.
It belongs in an alien spacecraft…I imagine one of Lovecraft’s Elder Things in the center with tentacles all over it.
The Juggernaut ship we saw in PROMETHEUS (and the derelict in 1979’s ALIEN) makes me wonder if the spaceship design was a font, a flying glyph that means death.
Different ship designs for different letters.
Might be really great for use in zero gravity like the space station.
Where is the space actually?
At the intersection of Fashionable, Portable and Wearable is the hat keyboard:
https://youtu.be/6vib77CUxNM?si=Bg7De5KQRlOKKeJy
Thanks for the link!
It actually lowered my hatred for Google by a quantum!
The first thing that entered my mind was could, the “NCIS 2 idiots 1 keyboard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ)” actually work with a keyboard like this and the answer is still no.