Building A Better Keyboard

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

WHO SAYS ALL COMPUTER KEYBOARDS HAVE TO LOOK alike? With more and more computer users complaining of wrist and arm injuries, keyboard designers are taking a fresh look at the one component that has hardly changed since the earliest days of computing -- or, for that matter, the earliest days of typewriting 125 years ago. The result is a new crop of alternative keyboards that take the standard flat, rectangular input device and bend, split, fold and twist it almost beyond recognition.

Most new keyboards start with the familiar qwerty key arrangement (named after the first six keys in the top left row of letters) and try to shape it into a more ergonomic form. A keyboard made by Kinesis Corp. in Bellevue, Washington, moves the keys into two saucer-size wells about a hand's width apart, relocating hard-to-reach function keys and providing more support for the wrists. The TONY! keyboard, designed by Anthony Hodges in Mountain View, California, is hinged in the middle, between g and h, so that the hands can meet the keys in a more natural, thumbs-up position. The Comfort keyboard, developed by the Health Care Keyboard Co. of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, breaks the board into three parts that can be rotated in every direction to suit the needs of individuals typing in every conceivable position -- even standing up.

Some designs take a more radical approach that would require users to master a new way of typing. The DataHand, developed by Industrial Innovations in Scottsdale, Arizona, abandons conventional keys altogether, replacing them with padded handrests and little finger wells. Each finger can produce five different characters by pressing forward, back, left, right or straight down. Infogrip, Inc., of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, goes one step further. It makes a - seven-key "chordic" keypad that works like a court stenographer's machine: the operator presses a different combination of keys to produce each letter.

The designers argue that by allowing hands to rest in a more natural posture and fingers to reach keys more easily, the new keyboards will reduce the stress and strain associated with RSI. But doctors specializing in treating keyboard injuries warn that none of the new models have yet undergone rigorous scientific testing.

Still, keyboard makers believe their new designs will find a ready market despite the high price tags ($200 to $2,000, vs. as little as $20 for a standard model). They figure that employers -- and their insurers -- which are required under various workers' compensation laws to pay injured computer users to stay at home, will happily pay a premium for a new keyboard if that is what it takes to get them back on the job.