FrogPad is out to make the keyboard the size of your palm.
The five-employee start-up is actively marketing a fully functional, 20-key keyboard at Comdex this week, which measures three inches by five inches -- about the same size as a personal digital assistant. The typical keyboard contains 128 keys and is more than a foot long.
The size reduction is possible through a close analysis of human anthropology and typing styles, according to Linda Marroquin, FrogPad's CEO. The 15 letters featured at the centre of FrogPad's keyboard -- a selection which includes the letters "T," "A," "E" and "H" -- represent approximately 86 percent of average keyboard activity of English-language typists. Hitting a Shift key at the bottom of the green keyboard in conjunction with one of the fifteen central keys gets you to the rest of the alphabet.
Similarly, punching the Number key allows a person to type in numbers while the Symbol key lets users type in parenthesis and other punctuation marks.
Alternatives to the standard QWERTY keyboard have long been a quest for many high-tech companies. Doug Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse, has advocated mice with chord keyboards. Microsoft and others have tried to popularise handwriting or voice recognition as an alternative to typing. Other companies have designed holographic keyboards.
Although these gyrations might not be necessary on a standard keyboard, it's not that tough to learn, said Atin Patel, a representative from Gennum, a Canadian company that is helping FrogPad to come out with a version that can connect through Bluetooth in the first quarter.
In studies at Rice University, students were able to type 40 words per minute after eight to 10 hours of training, he said. While FrogPad came up with the concept, Ideo came up with the design, said Marroquin.
The keyboard is largely aimed at target markets. Engineers working on CAD (computer-aided design) applications often like to keep one hand on a mouse at all times, said Marroquin. With FrogPad, a CAD user can continue to use the mouse and input data through the keyboard. Similarly, people with disabilities can more readily type.
"You operate it with two fingers," Patel said.
A version of the pad that can be attached through a USB cable came out on 13 October and is available from FrogPad's Web site and other retailers. A version that will connect through Bluetooth, tentatively called Blue Frog, will come out in the first quarter, Marroquin and Patel said. Apple Computer, among other computer makers, is exploring the idea of bundling the keyboard with computers.
Talkback
It will be interesting to see if this type of keyboard takes off, think it will be used more by new entrants to the market than 'old hands' such as myself who would need to relearn how to touch type.
I am surpised that a keyboard based on the numeric keypad favoured by the SMS generation hasn't yet taken off, surely the next generation of employees will be able to type just as fast using a 'predicitve text' type format currently being utilised at astonising speed by teenagers across the country.
Great idea but WAY to expensive!