It’s alive!

Hello, Stranger! What a wonderful day was it, wasn’t it?

Well, it was for me. First, today I managed to build the first working prototype of my mobile keyboard, which I call “Corny”. The keyboard is build out of 36 0.6mm pushbuttons, arranged in six hexagonals on two PCBs. The PCBs are designed to be attached to the back of a phone so that, when the phone is held in landscape mode the three central fingers on each hand naturally land in centers of the hexagons, and each finger, thus, controls six buttons.

I have to admit, typing on this keyboard is a very distinct experience. I once said to one of my subscribers that typing on this keyboard should be faster than typing on a desktop keyboard, and so far this prototype proves me wrong. There are multiple usability problems needed to be addressed before making final decision on this project, amongst them:

• The buttons are a bit too tight
• Not sure if this is because of how the prototype works or it may also be a more general problem, but sometimes some keys are “misbehaving” – either don’t register or register multiple times.

Worth to also note some good things proven with the prototype:

• It is amazing!!! This setup is, unequiocally, the best handeld setup I’ve ever tried, and I tried ALOT of them.
• Although the typing speed is terrible, the more I type the easier and faster it gets!

Oh, but it gets better! Besides being able to test that amazing keyboard, today I managed to install this website! It is not much for now, but I plan to use it for blog posts on technology – including my hardware and software projects. So, I guess, I’ll see you around ;-)