Keyboard Builders' Digest
Check out Mechboards now!
Keyboard Builders' Digest / Inspiration

Gboard bar

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

KBD.news
Published October 6, 2022
Enjoying the content? 54 supporters keep this blog running — Donate like TurtleKeebs, TALPKEYBOARD, and @keebio.

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

Do you like this post? Share, donate, subscribe, tip me off!

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


Related

NKEY magazine

Created by graphic design student Nate Kearney, NKEY is a print magazine concept with some kbd.news interviews as its backbone.

2001 vs 2010 - A Story in Keyboards

Wyvyrn reflects on keyboards in movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact.

GravaStar Mercury K1 Pro review

GravaStar is launching the breathtaking Mercury K1 Pro and other members of their new family of wireless gaming keyboards – with recurring sci-fi motifs, great typing experience, and a lot more!

The Luigi Colani office chair, 1970

The retrofuturistic Luigi Colani office chair features a built-in split Selectric-style typewriter.

Morningstar PCB art

Astra's Morningstar is a cute Pro Micro based, hotswap, 40% ergonomic unibody keyboard with a little glowing LED star in it.

×
top