The Mantis prototype, shared by Felix Kuehling, is designed around the Hex caps.
KBD.news Published February 23, 2023
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Felix Kuehling aka fxkuehl/luckybipedal toyed with s-ol's HEX caps (manufactured by FKcaps). The result: an open-source PCB and monoblock 36-key keyboard called Mantis.
The hexagonal keycaps provide a natural 30° angle and unique stagger but also raise some important questions like where the heck is the home row :D and how to adapt existing logical layouts.
To address the confusion, Felix shared this color-coded diagram:
The left side illustrates the column angle and stagger with different colors for each finger. The right side shows the shape of a hypothetical numpad on a layer. (Layout: Modified Colemak-DH with minimal changes to accommodate fewer index-finger keys while preserving low same-finger bigrams.)
Transitioning from a 36 Cantor-remix, the main difficulty is, that the index fingers only have 5 keys, while the pinkies have 4 keys. This requires some changes in the keymap that take some relearning – luckybipedal.
Speaking of possible improvements, Felix points out that the thumb keys need more space between them, and the outer home-row keys are harder to reach than expected, "while the empty space in the top row seems more attractive".
Felix Kühling explains how hexagonal keys work surprisingly well in an ergonomic layout without fine-tuning parameters like hand rotation, column stagger and splay.