Single-Hand Post-Mechanical Writing Cores
Concomitant Designs for Single-Hand Writers
The aforementioned two-hand Post-Mechanical keyboard would be the sad undoing of a single-hand writer.
That writer will struggle to navigate the well-designed Dvorak scheme, endlessly jumping back-and-forth from one side of the keyboard to the other. The innovative "Λ" shaped gap between the two banks of the split character key array will make those jumps progressively wider, moving downward.
Inventing the quintessential two-handed alphanumeric keyboard has engendered an innate obligation to provide efficient alternatives for single-hand writers. The Dvorak single-hand letter sequences provide the foundation of very serviceable alternative Post-Mechanical keyboards for single-hand writers.
A writing core that is specifically tailored for single-hand writers must have the character keys aligned upon the natural biomechanical angle of either the right-hand or left-hand.
The Post-Mechanical Right layout includes an improved monolithic character key array that is organized in linear angled key columns, which are aligned with the fingers of the single-hand operator. The Post-Mechanical Left layout is a mirrored image version of the Right.
The original left-handed Dvorak letter scheme differed from the right-handed due to the typewriter keyboard's asymmetric configuration. With a mirrored physical layout there is no need for divergent letter schemes. Studying both schemes, I concluded that the 'comma' and 'period' keys are used a lot more often than the "Q" and "X" keys. The right-handed letter sequence is the better choice to populate both single-hand keyboards.
Please Note: These new designs are meant for young writers. They will distress experienced Dvorak single-hand users. I will consider designing PCBs and firmware with legacy features if a request is made. To what end?
Single-hand Post-Mechanical Dvorak writing instruments can be made for any language using the Greek, Latin, or Cyrillic alphabets. The community does not have to depend upon large PC manufacturers. Although my handmade keyboards are plain looking, they are robust. They could outlast store-bought fare.
Ronald Earl Walker - Champion of Single-Hand Writers
Single-Hand Post-Mechanical Keyboards
Actualizing Serviceable Single-Hand Keyboards
Single-hand writing using a notebook keyboard is stressful. Queue up on the screen: you must awkwardly protract your shoulder to reach the far side of the keyboard. Position yourself to comfortably use the keyboard: the screen is far off-center of your binocular vision. Single-hand writers prefer to use an external keyboard (Young 2021).
I have it on good authority that single-hand writers prefer compact keyboards, less real estate to cover with one hand. In lieu of that knowledge, plans to build my reworked single-hand TKL designs were scrapped. Still and all, the drawings of my single-hand tenkeyless keyboards are awful purdy, so I included them in the above gallery.
The needs of single-hand writers vary. With full use of all digits, efficient operation of an alphanumeric keyboard is feasible. Writers with greater disability could still use the writing instrument as a supplement for speech-to-text writing. Editing text would be a challenge using speech-to-text. Placing the cursor and selecting a section of text to edit might be easier to accomplish with use of a keyboard, or a mouse.
For practical utility, the single-hand Post-Mechanical desktop keyboards (including the discontinued TKLs) have the cursor and navigation keys positioned on the near "strong side." Optimal alignment between human and keyboard occurs near the far “weak side” of the writing core.
The “sticky-keys” accessibility function makes single-hand use of a keyboard practical. However, the traditional location of the near strong-side “Shift” key is less than optimal for single-hand writers. A reach for that modifier key forces the writer to drop down below home-position. The writer must then pause to reacquire home-position.
The strong-side "Shift" key is widened and relocated to the near end of the top alpha-row; the other carriage control keys are placed in conventional positions. Reaches for that relocated "Shift" key using the extended outer fingers are comfortable... less stressful than reaching for a key under the hand with curled fingers.
The Post-Mechanical Left keyboard has the primary letters aligned on the right side of the keycaps. Left-hand keyboards for languages that require the use of "Alt Gr" should have those tertiary characters aligned on the left side of the keycaps, matching the relocated "Alt Gr" key. Left-hand writers can more easily read the key and understand which primary, secondary, or tertiary character a keystroke will produce.
With the numeric character key sequences reversed inside of the Post-Mechanical Left writing core, it does appear reasonable to also reverse the “function” key sequences on the keyboard. By reversing all numeric sequences on the Left Post-Mechanical, the foreseeable “mental gymnastics” required to operate the instrument are mitigated.
Please Note: These new designs are meant for young writers. They will distress experienced Dvorak single-hand users. I will consider designing PCBs and firmware with legacy features if a request is made. To what end?
Single-hand writers do not like using built-in notebook keyboards. Still and all, PC makers could provide them.
Ronald Earl Walker - Yixpukejoqa (Left-hand joke)
Single-Hand PM Keyboards for Other Languages
‘Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning’.
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
The Post-Mechanical Trust Bids You Welcome
Got some idea of what it would cost to have custom die-sub keycap sets produced by an American manufacturer. That purchase would include all keycap groups needed to make a Dvorak/Qwerty TKL, compact or 60% keyboard. There is also group for Right/Left Dvorak. No new sizes, just substitutions of currently molded keycaps.
Eventually, injection molds would be made to produce my unique keycaps, costing tens of thousands of dollars.
There are no plans to build a Post-Mechanical factory. There is no profitability projected. Considering crowdfunding of a personal cause nature, enabling 'The Post-Mechanical Trust' to have custom injection molds produced.
Further crowdfunding to have the first batch of notebook keyboards produced would cost tens of millions of dollars. I do wish it was simple, easy and inexpensive to kick the 150-year-old Qwerty hegemony to the curb, it is not!
The trust has been considering the creation of video content.
Three videos are being proposed:
1. An introduction to Post Mechanical keyboards.
2. Making a 3D printed keyboard case.
3. Building up a PCB and programming.
Crass commercialism is distasteful. That being said, an obligatory pitch must be made. Seeing is believing, it is unfortunate for all that I must show my ugly mug. I have a branded YouTube channel just waiting around.
In 2024, the platform has become almost unwatchable. YouTube is spewing an insane amount of commercials that just set my nerves on end. The trust is looking at alternatives to that 'my way or the highway' platform.
If the website traffic outgrows the web service's shared server, we will be upgrading with our web service to a dedicated server. I like what I have created on iPage. They have always provided good customer support.
The trust purchased an Epson label printer for production keyboards in November 2024. By US law the product ID, serial number, company name and contact information must be attached to the keyboards. Product labels will be affixed to recesses in the case bottom. The unfulfilled requirement held up the show for several months.
Aside from enforcing the monopoly and fixing prices, the Post-Mechanical Trust will conduct business lawfully.
Ronald Earl Walker - Keyboard Evolution Pathfinder
References in Order of Appearance
Herzog et al. "Bio-Mechanical Keyboard Structure and Method."
U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,903 - June 2, 1987.
Sholes, C. Latham. "Type-Writing Machine."
U.S. Pat. No. 207,559 - August 27, 1878.
Yasuoka, Koichi and Yasuoka, Makoto. "On the Prehistory of QWERTY."
Zinbun, no.42, 2011, pp. 161-174.
Sholes, Christopher Latham. "Type-Writing Machine."
U.S. Pat. No. 568,630 - September 29, 1896.
Dvorak et al. "Typewriter Keyboard."
U.S. Pat. No. 2,040,248 - May 12, 1936.
Liebowitz, Stan and Margolis, Stephen. "Typing Errors."
Reason Magazine, June 1996.
Lewis, Richard. "Scientific One-Hand Typing."
Popular Science, no. 148, March 1946, pp. 131-133.
Young, Britt H. (2021, August 9). "A One-Handed Writer’s Search for the Perfect Mechanical Keyboard."
Wirecutter. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/search-for-the-perfect-mechanical-keyboard/. Accessed 29 Sept. 2024.