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auanta

Member

Registered: 2022-08-03

Posts: 45  

Beyond the mouse and keyboard

I love my "hacker's" keyboard but I find that it is too big for me, so it hurts my hands because I don't have the range most people do and I get tired quickly. (A vim person most definitely.) I just wish that it was smaller because I strain to reach the keys. I thought it is only because I am a bad typist! (Sarcasm alert: Only REAL hackers type 999 WPM in the dark on a glow in the dark dvorak keyboard that goes clackity clack! ... Reality: become a fast typist, still struggle with the keyboard, and get chronic pain.)

Most devices on the market that cater to hackers are kinda inaccessible and uncomfortable for to me to use, it gets worse with age. There are some devices but they run proprietary stuff and often don't work on Linux.

I think I am stuck now having to look for alternatives to keyboards altogether because 99% of them hurt, I can't live this way! Also it would be ideal to do typing while I am walking outside or just moving around in general. Not just on a phone, either, but the PinePhone does help.

Anyway so now I say No More of this Nonsense! I'm trying to put together some solutions for alternative input devices. And, even among the supposed alternatives...not a lot really satisfy. But I will list here what I find compelling, and your thoughts are welcome.

So this is just a place to collect my research on what may or may not become a project... (I know, I need a blog..)

• Voice dictation in GNU/Linux
  -- https://github.com/ideasman42/nerd-dictation is really good which uses VOSK-API, which in turn uses Kaldi
  -- VOSK based solutions are the simplest to set up whereas with Kaldi I had to compile GBs of code.

• Coding with your voice using Kaldi
  -- THIS MAN. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBe0p9slFdI 
  --- https://github.com/grwgreg/silviux   
  --- https://github.com/grwgreg/streaming-audio-recognition
  -- Another example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk1mGbIJx3s
  --- https://github.com/dictation-toolbox/dragonfly
  --- https://github.com/daanzu/dragonfly_daanzu_tools
  --- https://github.com/daanzu/kaldi-active-grammar

• Typing gloves, gesture gloves
  -- Arduino typing glove https://github.com/SilentDreamcast/gest … /glove.jpg
  -- Sign Language Glove https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1lSoTNKzfQ
  --- https://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/cou … index.html

• Interesting blog about ergonomics and RSI, funny enough I have one of their "best" picks for keyboards
  -- http://xahlee.info/kbd/ergonomic_keyboards_index.html
  -- "USA is thriving with crowd funded fancy keyboards that will become available in year 3000, or DIY keyboards that take a life-time to build. Meanwhile in China, sound ergonomic keyboards, are a dime a dozen, and 5 times cheaper" xahlee.info/kbd/ly092_mini_keyboard.html
  -- Wrist Pronation (long hours on a keyboard) http://xahlee.info/kbd/keyboard_forearm_pronation.html

• Thumb keyboard https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 … 133508.htm

• Chording keyboard https://www.tifaq.org/keyboards/chording-keyboards.html
  -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AZoeCmnyow
  -- New driver for the old Twiddler keyboard https://github.com/brandon-rhodes/twiddler-1-driver

• Chording air-type keyboard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B39J8RpBLvw https://github.com/cmsunu28/sotto

• Software keyboards (there are a million)
  -- Drifting keyboard moves with your movements https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EAi5Hxoovo

• Hardware keyboards overview by a professional https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OfcrvbUlgc&t=63s

• Keyboard link dump by another poor soul https://community.keyboard.io/t/random- … -dump/1333
  -- Success story: "2016 07 16 With the help of adafruit.com I have finally (14 years :slight_smile: made a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Chordite, as follows. What Adafruit has done is hand us a BLE module as a black box which you communicate with by AT+ commands, in the style of an old-fashioned telephone modem, along with enough documentation to make sense of it. Pretty slick. Bordering on awesome. The state of my code is such that both keyboard and mouse mode work with my wife’s macbook but so far only the keyboard works with my Android settop box. Probably some timing issue. The prototype fabrication instructions downloadable at chordite.com 3 are still the best I have.
  board: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-fea … e/overview 2 schematic: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-fea … /downloads atmega32u4 datasheet: http://www.atmel.com/devices/atmega32u4.aspx Arduino setup info: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-fea … t-le/setup beta-quality source code: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cho … 0Chordite/ "

• Braille smartphone keypads
  -- https://hackaday.io/project/21175-tipo- … one-keypad
  -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wueLXCbm_KY

• Stenographic piano keyboard lets you do the highest speed at 200 WPM! http://xahlee.info/kbd/michela_chorded_keyboard.html

• Combined stenotype, piano and computer keyboard styles http://xahlee.info/kbd/stenotype_machine.html

Last edited by auanta (2022-08-09 03:14:39)

---

Devuan GNU/Linux, the sysadmin secret sauce
> "I use Hyperbola btw" my favorite BSD

Disclaimer: If I give you any technical advice, always double check it, because even though I used GNU/Linux many years, I'm still learning, just like you. I try to help, but I could be wrong! Empower yourself!

Camtaf

Member

Registered: 2019-11-19

Posts: 436  

Re: Beyond the mouse and keyboard

My main keyboard is a CiT KB-738, its small overall size is what drew me to it, I hate those massive keyboards with keypads & multi media keys, this is just a keyboard.

When I'm setting up my RPi, I often use a wireless mini keyboard with touch pad.

Maybe one of the above may appeal to you.

EDIT: Almost forgot, I use xvkbd on my thin client computer, I don't type much generally, & this suffices for online web browser, music, videos, & time wasting games.

Last edited by Camtaf (2022-08-08 14:14:43)

auanta

Member

Registered: 2022-08-03

Posts: 45  

Re: Beyond the mouse and keyboard

My main keyboard is a CiT KB-738, its small overall size is what drew me to it, I hate those massive keyboards with keypads & multi media keys, this is just a keyboard.

When I'm setting up my RPi, I often use a wireless mini keyboard with touch pad.

Maybe one of the above may appeal to you.

EDIT: Almost forgot, I use xvkbd on my thin client computer, I don't type much generally, & this suffices for online web browser, music, videos, & time wasting games.

Thank you for sharing your setup! I have an Ultimate Hacking Keyboard. It splits in half, which is a necessity for touch typing, and I can change the bindings with a key combination.

I actually do ( or did ) a lot of typing and unless I get the voice dictation working, well.......

After doing all that research, maybe I should get some different switches. Never can have too many tools. The brown Kailh box switches are too hard to press down. OH I GET IT NOW, it's because the force is at 60. I could get a 45...

Last edited by auanta (2022-08-09 01:32:44)

---

Devuan GNU/Linux, the sysadmin secret sauce
> "I use Hyperbola btw" my favorite BSD

Disclaimer: If I give you any technical advice, always double check it, because even though I used GNU/Linux many years, I'm still learning, just like you. I try to help, but I could be wrong! Empower yourself!