Don’t ever carry up the subject of keyboards round a bunch of techies until you need to immediately end up in a heated dialogue. Opinions concerning the ultimate type of keyboard, or the very best switches or keycaps to make use of, fluctuate wildly, and each single individual current shall be completely sure that their preferences are objectively the proper decisions.
Meaning a keyboard would should be nearly infinitely configurable to make everybody pleased. That could be a tall order, but it surely hasn’t stopped individuals from making an attempt to construct such a tool.
Any language might be supported (đź“·: Inkbox)
Maybe the obvious resolution is to make use of a touchscreen show. However whereas these do supply limitless flexibility, the typing expertise itself is totally horrible. As a compromise, keyboards have been developed with a tiny show in every particular person keycap. This may be a terrific resolution if it wasn’t so expensive. These keyboards usually promote for nicely over a thousand {dollars}.
To maintain prices down, some individuals have tried to place clear keyboards excessive of touchscreens. However whereas the typing expertise with these keyboards is healthier than a naked touchscreen, it nonetheless isn’t superb.
YouTuber Inkbox thought that utilizing a single display screen was the suitable route to go, however was sad with the typing expertise of those keyboards, so he determined to construct his personal customized resolution. After giving the issue some thought, he determined to embed small magnets within the facet of 3D-printed resin keys. By additionally embedding magnets within the supporting construction of the keyboard, the clear keys may resist being pressed down, like normal keys.
There could possibly be some gaming potential (đź“·: Inkbox)
To date so good, however there additionally wanted to be a mechanism to learn out key presses. The magnets pulled double responsibility right here. Corridor impact sensors had been embedded in a circuit board beneath the display screen. When the keys are pressed down, it adjustments the power of the magnetic discipline that these sensors detect.
These measurements had been handed by way of analog-to-digital converters earlier than being learn by the GPIO pins of an Orange Pi 5 single-board pc. Software program operating on this pc interprets the indicators to find out which key was pressed, and it sends that data to a related pc, which sees it as an HID system.
With the nuts and bolts of the system in place, all that was left was to show a picture on the keyboard’s display screen. By lining the picture up with the keys, any arbitrary letters or graphics might be displayed below each. There’s additionally some room between and above the keys that can be utilized to show further graphics only for enjoyable.
Ultimately, regardless of all the trouble, this keyboard nonetheless simply wasn’t that nice. The keys had been a bit undersized, and due to the magnetic mechanism, they tended to shift round barely. It appears just like the search remains to be on for the proper keyboard.
