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Show HN: Clawtype v2.1 – a one-hand chorded USB keyboard and mouse [video]

106 points by akavel 2 weeks ago | 27 comments

Written in Rust (embassy), running on a SparkFun ProMicro RP2040 board, with an MPU6050 gyroscope. Based on the Chordite idea from John W. McKown (https://web.archive.org/web/20220201061603/http://chordite.c...). Intended for use with XR glasses I recently bought. Currently my typing speed is still rather slow, but my skill is graduably improving and at a noticeable pace, and I can and do some vim coding in my hobby time. I plan to try and do a wireless (BLE) version next, hopefully running off a single AA NiMH battery. The code is at: https://github.com/akavel/clawtype

barriteau 2 weeks ago

I'm an early adopter and long time user of the Tap Strap [1] and the TapXR [2], they solved for me the same OP's aspirations ;)

There is some room for improvement, but it really works, flawlessly [3].

[1] https://www.tapwithus.com/how-tapxr-works/

[2] https://www.tapwithus.com/product/tap-xr/

[3] https://www.tapwithus.com/how-tapxr-works/

ics 2 weeks ago

Learning about this for the first time, do you use the TapXR or the Tap Strap? Are there any tasks you do/not use it for, or environments where it functions better or worse? Can it work single hand or with both hands (and a second device)?

barriteau 2 weeks ago

I have both, they work pretty well, TapXR looks nicer but has one drawback: doesn't do very well in low light conditions and doesn't work at all in the dark; the old Strap doesn't have this problem, its only drawbacks are the extra seconds it takes to wear it and the weirder aesthetics.

I've only used them as keyboards, so I'm not very familiar with the media controller options, but as far as I can see it's a very easy mode to use.

You can use two of them at the same time, one in each hand, but it probably won't be necessary, you can get to type very fast with one hand.

They are very well supported on iOS. I once plugged one into Windows and it seemed to work fine, but I have not tested it extensively.

ics 2 weeks ago

That’s interesting, thanks. I a word and meant to ask which you use more, oops. The strap says that it works better on hard surfaces which makes me wonder about how it fares on say, a leg, stiff cushion, or things like that. Also if it’s not using an optical sensor, I wonder what happens when you try playing an instrument with it on. Might have to give it a try.

barriteau 2 weeks ago

The TapXR I use the most ;)

rendaw 2 weeks ago

Those require a surface to type, right?

barriteau 1 week ago

In "keyboard" mode, you need something to tap on, but it can be the mousepad on your desk, your opposite arm, the underside of your dining room table, the side of your thigh while walking, the handlebars of your bike, etc.

There are also "air gestures" (Smart TV control, air mouse, and media control modes) that don't require a surface. (By the way, there are recent updates in this department that leave out the Tap Strap).

I'm not into gaming, VR sets or the like at all, so I can't say how good or bad these are for that sort of thing, but that market seems to be the main focus and direction the company is taking these days.

jonquark 2 weeks ago

I'm not a hardware tinkerer - but if there was a production version of this, I would buy it. But I guess I'm a niche market.

Sn0wCoder 2 weeks ago

Watched the video and super excited to see where tech like this ends up in a few years. Was on the quest to find a split keyboard last week and ran across this. Ended up with a UHK, but man I thought hard about buying one (pair) of these. I was just worried about dust, dirt and overall longevity. Seems like something that would need to be worked on every month or two. The kit is reasonable and might be a fun (next) project.

https://svalboard.com/

Would be interested to hear about anyone's experience that owns one of these. How do they hold up? How long did it take to get used to using? Would you recommend to a friend?

akavel 2 weeks ago

I'm not aware of any production version of Chordite (that this design is based on) as of now; but in the wider family of chorded keyboards, the one with a production version that I'm aware of is the Twiddler.

mcshicks 2 weeks ago

I was going to say I have a old twiddler 2 (wired usb). There was this program I used to learn called "twidor" that was like a type tutor but had graphic that showed you the chords. Really helpful. I didn't see anything like that in the github repository linked in the video. I guess they are up to twiddler 4 now. I read the linked chordite page and I agree that a problem with the twiddler is you are kind of trying to hold the thing steady so you can chord with the same fingers you chording with.

https://wearables.cc.gatech.edu/projects/twidor/screens.html

akavel 2 weeks ago

I don't have a program at the moment. The layout I currently use is in the codebase, starts here: https://github.com/akavel/clawtype/blob/96980f68427eb1089112... Personally, I just edited this layout description into a more compact form and printed it on a sheet of A4 paper as a cheatsheet. I do intend to make this aspect more scriptable, but didn't get to it yet.

For learning, I personally just try to slowly code simple hobby things in vim, with the cheatsheet in the other hand... I tried to make the layout relatively intuitive wherever I could. I also patiently went through all the possible combinations of presses, and tried to group them into categories of easy<->medium<->hard<->impossible, then tried to put esp. the more frequently used keys on the easier combinations/chords.

runsonrum 2 weeks ago

Other one-handed keyboards with different input methods. All sorts of interesting custom keyboards as well.

https://kbd.news/tag/one-handed/

rendaw 2 weeks ago

This is awesome! Is there any support beyond the wrist, or how resistive is it when you press the buttons? Have you considered 2 hands too? Do you feel like you've maxed out the number of comfortably reachable keys? I guess you can't have keys off to the side since you can't move your hand relative to the keyboard. Does the thumb do anything currently?

I'm in this niche market too... although I don't really have an immediate use case beyond someday being more portable. Also had some issues with XR glasses and fov being reduced further by eye-glass distance.

akavel 2 weeks ago

No more physical support for the hand than what's seen in the vid. You can check more info in the github repo (https://github.com/akavel/clawtype) and on printables (https://www.printables.com/model/1231156-clawtype). The strap and the plate under the wrist seem enough that I'm not looking to improve on that at the moment; but I still need to test this version on some longer usage sessions. Interestingly, the original inventor and patent owner (https://web.archive.org/web/20220201061603/http://chordite.c...) has a design that doesn't even use a strap, but I didn't explore this direction yet (and honestly not yet even sure how to crack it). I know of another designer who's trying to iterate in that space: http://blog.russnelson.com/chordite

As to resistance, there's a balance to be adjusted between having the buttons too easy or to hard. This seems in main part to need to be adjusted by their positioning though. If too easy, you'll press combinations/chords accidentally too often. If too hard, it gets tiresome and annoying. Maybe there's some better placement possible, haven't found it yet. The switches currently used are Alps; they have dimensions which make them a good fit for this particular design; Cherry MX are a tiny bit too big and would require some rethinking.

As to 2 hands, the whole point for me is to have my main (right) hand available for other use, like drinking water, or otherwise supporting myself in the physical environment around. So I'm not currently interested in two-handed.

As to the number of keys - the four fingers seem busy enough; on the other hand, if you could fit smaller switches around (as in the DataHand design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DataHand - see also 3d-printed clones on the internet - _edit:_ e.g. the https://svalboard.com, as mentioned by someone else, and lalboard https://hackaday.io/project/178232-lalboard-ergonomic-keyboa... as respectfully linked from therein), maybe you could try working with that. The obvious extra possibility is the thumb as you mention - it does feel like something could be added there, though it also sometimes helps a bit in holding the device. The original Chordite designer managed to somehow do it without a strap, but his reasons to not use the thumb are somewhat confusing to me.