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Keyboard Builders' Digest / Inspiration

Gboard bar

The Gboard bar is the result of Google Japan's latest brainstorm.

KBD.news
Published October 6, 2022
Creators! Feel free to tip me off about your keyboard related projects to bring them to 150,000 readers.

By now you've probably all seen the Gboard bar keyboard, designed by the crazy people at Google Japan – It even reached CNN's threshold of sensation…

Basically, it's a single-row keyboard released on October 1st because it has 101 keys.

UPDATE: I almost missed an important detail – this keyboard was co-designed by our good old friend Ikeji Shun aka Ikejima! :D (See also: Egg laptop, Round-robin matrix, etc.)

Have you ever searched up, down, left and right on your keyboard because you can't find the character you want to type? In order to solve such problems, we have developed a keyboard that makes it easier to find characters – Gboard team.

As a DIY device, all the schematics, boards and software are open source.

Specs

  • Length: 1,650 mm (the prototype was 2.4 m long)
  • modular (various segments)
  • 16 boards for mounting keys + 1 control board
  • Layout: 1D QWERTY array, 1D ASCII array or ABC order

"The width is only 0.064m [Ed.: seems to be even thinner, there are probably multiple variants], making it convenient even on desks where documents are piled up."

"No more cats laying on keyboards. Great for work-from-home."

"If two people use it in tandem, the development speed will be doubled. New friendships will also be made."

Resources

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Published on Thu 6th Oct 2022. Featured in KBD #98.


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