[HN Gopher] Show HN: I've built a tiny hand-held keyboard
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Show HN: I've built a tiny hand-held keyboard
I bet you didn't knew you can use modelling clay (as opposed to 3d
printing) to make nice devices by hand :)
Author : mafik
Score : 228 points
Date : 2025-10-09 15:51 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| robthebrew wrote:
| There was a product very similar to this in the late 1980s. My
| uncle invested in the company. But it flopped. I am sorry I
| cannot remember the name. I do remember skilled typists could use
| it at least as fast as 2 hand traditional typing.
| theodric wrote:
| That tracks. I just don't think there's the sales volume you'd
| need to manufacture and sell something like this at an adequate
| profit, and certainly in the 80s it would have been even more
| difficult to find enough compute and utility in one place
| without the benefit of Internet services.
| medwards666 wrote:
| Wasn't the Microwriter was it perchance?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwriter
| theodric wrote:
| Nice work! I'm happy to see that some folks are still interested
| in wearable computing.
|
| The Twiddler gives me hand cramps, so I might give this one a
| shot. (It's low on the pile, however.)
| zh3 wrote:
| Having had a twiddler since they came out, seeing this topic
| the first ting I did was search the thread to see who mentioned
| it first :) Not sure of the timeline, probably a little after
| that the Playstation Glove looked like a great idea but the
| reality sucked.
|
| Decades on now but still trying to find wearable computing
| stuff that can drag modern computing back to the early 90s
| (spending years trying to recreate the original Private Eye [0]
| display). Checking that out on wikipedia right now just fired a
| harmony of so many nostalgia neurons:-
|
| >The Student Electronic Notebook consisted of the Private Eye,
| Toshiba diskless AIX notebook computers (prototypes), a stylus
| based input system and a virtual keyboard. It used direct-
| sequence spread spectrum radio links to provide all the usual
| TCP/IP based services, including NFS mounted file systems and
| X11, which all ran in the Andrew Project environment.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearable_computer#1980s
| epiccoleman wrote:
| Dude, this is so cool! I've had something like this floating
| around my cluttered headspace for ages, and it always sort of
| floats to the surface during the rare times when I do some light
| sysadmin work via Termux on my phone.
|
| Another thing that jumps to mind is the minichord[1], a nominally
| open-source synth/instrument.
|
| I just love seeing these little devices people can come up with
| given the proliferation of the necessary devboards and tools.
| Nice project.
| sparrish wrote:
| Not a new thing. Twiddler is on version 4.
| https://www.mytwiddler.com/
| briandw wrote:
| Op was showing off a project. Not claiming novelty. The fact
| that there are similar items on the market does not diminish
| this work.
| sparrish wrote:
| I wasn't trying to diminish his work. I was letting others
| know that creating your own isn't the only option available.
| FullyFunctional wrote:
| Twiddler really isn't the same product at all
| Y_Y wrote:
| But the twiddler is $230
| lairv wrote:
| I had a similar idea when apple vision pro came out, to be able
| to code while laying on a couch or bed fully relaxed, but never
| got to doing it. Neat!
| skvmb wrote:
| I code this way using the Rayneo Air 3S Pro. Feels like I
| accomplish more this way because the display is on my head and
| I can relax.
| lairv wrote:
| Do you just type with a regular keyboard then?
| gkhartman wrote:
| I do the same with viture pro xr glasses using a Bluetooth
| keyboard. It's been great when I'm having neck/back issues
| that require laying down to recover. The downside being that
| xr glasses cause a bit more eye strain, which forces the
| short periodic breaks that I should be taking anyway.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| > code while laying on a couch or bed fully relaxed
|
| I wanted this so much I started programming on my phone with
| Termux. Yes, on a touch screen.
| LinuxAmbulance wrote:
| Very nice work. Might not hurt to throw in a few more pictures
| that illustrate the steps in the build process.
| 0_____0 wrote:
| This is peak hacker. I love this. I love that it's COTS
| components, I love that the contoured bit is clay. An efficient
| build.
| jml7c5 wrote:
| What sort of typing speed do you reach with it?
| mafik wrote:
| Hard to say because I'm still stumbling trying to remember a
| chord most of the time. I'd say 20 wpm when the stumbling is
| only moderate. I need to get that muscle memory trained!
| bee_rider wrote:
| Did you follow some convention for your chording or make
| something up yourself?
|
| I kind of wonder if some layout that mimics wasd but uses the
| thumb buttons to indicate which "row" you are in could be
| intuitive to people who learned to type conventionally. (The
| intuition here being that most of us aren't going to become
| keyer experts).
| mafik wrote:
| No, I didn't experiment with modes almost at all. I had one
| mode where I mapped the arrows to individual keys but in
| the end dint't use it - it's faster to enter a chord -
| especially chords for Ctrl+Arrows are nice.
|
| For a time I made the mappings a little more memorable by
| forcing two related keys (like a and a or o and o) to have
| their chords differ in just one finger position - and that
| did work but it lowered the "efficiency estamates" of the
| generated layouts. In the end I reserved one thumb position
| for my custom shortcuts and allowed the optimizer to go
| crazy with all the remaining chords. After playing with
| both styles I prefer the latter. Entering text feels more a
| little fast-paced maze solving game where you have to
| figure out which fingers to move to transition between
| chords.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Interesting. As a vim fan I think I would be very unhappy
| with any layout that didn't have hjkl as my home
| position. But, of course, the ability to experiment is a
| huge strength of open source projects.
|
| What a cool project. I grew up playing with modeling
| clay, but never did anything with those skills. It is
| fascinating to see them used in something useful like
| this.
|
| Maybe a scanner of some sort is needed, to share 3D
| printable versions of clay objects, haha.
| Gys wrote:
| Maybe record a short video with the hand typing in the foreground
| and a screen in the background. To give an idea of the typing
| effort and speed.
| 4b11b4 wrote:
| yes one video pls
| dylan604 wrote:
| I'm very confused now about it's use. Is it a keyboard for
| typing letters/numbers or a keyboard for making music? The fact
| TFA talks about chords and arpeggios made me think it was for
| music programming. I'm well confused on it's purpose now.
| hsbauauvhabzb wrote:
| Micro keyboards often use chords for extending functions? Alt
| and/or F4 might be a chord, for example
| abeppu wrote:
| I'm also wondering whether the presence of arpeggios and
| rolled chords is a benefit, or if it makes it harder to pick
| up. Eg tentatively assembling a chord one key at a time
| because you're learning must look like a rolled chord, right?
| Tcepsa wrote:
| It's for letters/numbers. The mechanical keyboard community
| has adopted phrases like "chord" and "arpeggio" because they
| refer to analogous things in the typing world ("pressing
| multiple keys at the same time" and "pressing multiple keys
| in quick succession", respectively).
|
| In keyboards with a limited number of keys (such as in TFA)
| they become especially crucial to being able to express the
| full complement of "standard" letters, numbers, and symbols.
| kittoes wrote:
| Chords and arpeggios apply to typing as well, is how
| stenographers type so fast.
| alanbernstein wrote:
| Cool! Did you consider using more compact keys and caps?
| mafik wrote:
| No, but it's a great idea. For thumb I'm using a Ctrl-sized
| keycap - it has the perfect in width where I can avoid pressing
| the buttons on the sides. But for other fingers, the regular-
| sized switches and caps feel a little too widely spaced...
| Something 15% smaller than standard keycaps would be perfect.
| dgently7 wrote:
| I was playing with this same idea. Even the clay part, except
| I was expecting to use clay to sculpt then scan that into cad
| to make a 3dp case. I got a bunch of keys and some "monster
| clay" bc it's more solid than sculpy and jammed em in there
| to try and made a 3dayout like this but getting things in the
| right place in 3 dimensions with the clay as the base was
| hard and it ended up in the dead projects pile. Using the
| wire endoskeleton is such a great idea for holding the keys
| right where you need em.
|
| Anyway I got a bunch of the khali(sp?) choc low profile keys
| for that. they are basically half the height of regular keys,
| I think they could be even better for this. One thing with a
| chord keyboard is that the keycaps that are big enough to
| reach across and find blindly might not need to be that big
| when you finger is just resting on them. I thought making
| some custom narrow caps might let you get more keys in a
| similar handheld form factor.
|
| I might have to give this project another shot with what
| you've made here. awesome stuff!
| stevenicr wrote:
| great job showing this, inspiring!
|
| I want this not for typing all the letters and numbers, but just
| the keyboard shortcuts to play Empire Earth V4 VR
|
| - until that fantasy materializes maybe enough typing for an Age
| of Empires type game without being stuck at a full keyboard,
|
| something like this maybe the perfect in-between ps4 controller
| and full keyboard for many things.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| I mean, a nice thing about DIY-ing it, you can just program it
| with whatever keys you want:) You could even have a layer for
| whatever game and a layer for full typing.
| eprparadox wrote:
| awesome
| major505 wrote:
| I would love to see a video of this in action.
| villgax wrote:
| I want a pen shaped gyroscopic mouse to use while
| watching/interacting with stuff through AR glasses, just needs to
| point click, right click & two buttons for custom keystrokes
| dgently7 wrote:
| Agree pens are underrated as input over mice. Or for ar
| (fingers).
|
| Maybe apple will make a pen input for a Vision Pro thing
| someday... though knowing them it'll be some crazy vision based
| tracing system thing that requires special hardware in the
| headset that would require you to update your Vision Pro to the
| newest model to use it.
| mjparrott wrote:
| Check out this design:
| https://patents.google.com/patent/US20030179178A1/en
| stronglikedan wrote:
| I wish they had called it the Mobile Text Entry _Radio_ Device,
| or Mobile TERD for short. (Since it has a radio transmitter.)
| blipvert wrote:
| Just don't go introducing yourself as a one handed typist.
| chrismorgan wrote:
| I had vague ideas, a few years ago, of integrating a keyboard
| into the handlebar of a recumbent tricycle (it would need to not
| interfere with braking, but there's a fair bit of leeway left for
| useful design). Modelling clay had indeed not occurred to me! Nor
| had I realised how chorded keyboards could hook directly to GPIO
| pins. If I'd seen this back then, I probably would have gone
| ahead and prototyped something right away. Alas for this vision
| (though not alas in general!), I got married instead and my long-
| distance cycling days are behind me. But I'm still rather tempted
| to play with this, it looks fun and surprisingly straightforward,
| even if I can't immediately see a good practical purpose in my
| life. Just last week I happened to see a box of _epoxy_ modelling
| clay and wondered what it would be like to use... though I
| suspect it might harden too quickly for this.
| jpm_sd wrote:
| Steve Roberts beat you to it, back in the 80s.
|
| https://bikepacking.com/plog/steve-roberts-computing-across-...
|
| More details, from the man himself:
|
| https://microship.com/winnebiko-ii/
|
| https://microship.com/bicycle-mobile-packeteering/
|
| https://microship.com/first-text-while-driving/
|
| https://microship.com/behemoth/
|
| I think the craziest thing is that almost every feature he
| built into BEHEMOTH is now covered by the average smartphone (+
| a small solar panel).
| FullyFunctional wrote:
| Yes, but this is way beyond that IMO. Really lovely project
| that I of course must build
| buttetsu wrote:
| I had never heard of Steve Roberts or these amazing bike
| projects. Reading up through the development of BEHEMOTH put
| an huge smile on my face, thank you. Such passion!
| EvanAnderson wrote:
| If you want to see BEHEMOTH it used to be at the Computer
| History Museum in Mountain View. I'd assume it's still
| there.
|
| Edit: Yeah! Here's the stuff:
| https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mobile-
| computing/...
| 4b11b4 wrote:
| - cost function for layouts?! awesome
|
| - play doh
|
| - IMU would be incredible
|
| - less key version is good idea
| TheJoeMan wrote:
| Add this to the list of "18650 cells being incorrectly used as
| removable batteries". At this point the sale of those battery
| holders should be banned...
| etskinner wrote:
| Why is that a problem? Potential for damage when
| exposed/changed? No battery protection?
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Potentially over discharging, which can reduce the life of
| the cells.
| rlue wrote:
| Can you elaborate on or cite a source as to why this practice
| is incorrect? The Nitecore D4 battery charger supports
| recharging of this and other sizes of Li-ion batteries (in
| addition to NiMH), so I am skeptical that it is inherently
| dangerous.
| mafik wrote:
| I guess an exposed battery is more susceptible to short
| circuit. Imagine you have this in your pocket while in a
| heavy rain. Battery could short circuit due to water creating
| conductive connection between battery terminals. It would
| heat up quickly an maybe even start burning. Still, I prefer
| 18650 to these flat, lasagna-type cells which swell and can
| be pierced by any sharp object. Even though the latter has
| built-in protection and the former doesn't.
| dfc wrote:
| I imagine that OP is referring to batteries with no protection
| circuit and the positive and negative terminals of the
| batteries being exposed[1]. The Samsungs in the keyboard do in
| fact lack a protection circuit. I don't know if banning the
| sale of battery holders is going to be a great fix.
|
| [1]: Something like this: https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-
| Releases/2021/CPSC-Issues...
| whycome wrote:
| I always wanted dual gloves like this so I could essentially tap
| on my legs while sitting down.
| proee wrote:
| Great to see someone trying to innovate. It's surprising humans
| haven't come up with a better input method than an old school
| keyboard. Who would have thought that a typewriter from 1874
| would still be so visible on a modern Macbook!
|
| Surely, there has to be a better way.
| jerezzprime wrote:
| I think it is a momentum problem. You learn to use a keyboard
| when you are young/inexperienced, because you need to learn
| something, and then learning something new is hard and slows
| you down, so you stick with what you know. It's doubly hard to
| both create a new layout and learn it.
| FullyFunctional wrote:
| As I hate tapping on glass, mistyping non-stop, I'm always
| evaluating options. This is an awesome project and a great write
| up, but we want more! :) Please consider published a video so we
| might see it in action (also showing the build process would be
| appreciated).
| rcarmo wrote:
| Cute. I use a Bluehand
| (https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2023/08/08/1230) and have often
| thought it would be nice to not have to set it down someplace...
| cat-whisperer wrote:
| love the design, it would be crazy if this becomes a thing!
| cromulent wrote:
| Bravo! Apparently they are known as _keyers_.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyer#Computer_interface_keyer...
|
| Edit: Circa 1980 when I was young and impressionable, my father's
| buddy had a WriteHander and since then I have loved this kind of
| thing.
|
| http://ibnteo.klava.org/keyboard/writehander
| dylan604 wrote:
| The writehander link has an image that is clearly not a
| righthander user. Much more of a southpaw targeted device
| egypturnash wrote:
| "Available for either right or left hand..." - the second
| sentence beneath that image
| goodpoint wrote:
| Bending fingers so much during use is bad for your tendons and
| ligaments.
| rob_c wrote:
| Yeah that brings new definition to pebkac...
| herval wrote:
| That's some true hacker device!
| ge96 wrote:
| This looks less aggressive than the one that covers your fist
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eklg7CKs57A&t=172s
| lukevp wrote:
| I'm not sure about drinking tea with an 18650 unprotected
| strapped to your hand like that. The battery should at least have
| a holder
| jdiff wrote:
| This is fantastic, I've been looking for something like this for
| over a year so I can type while going for a walk on the
| treadmill.
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(page generated 2025-10-09 23:00 UTC)