#1592: ButtonBoard

Have you ever noticed the big difference between even The best keyboard keys and the way your mouse button works?

The keys are designed to move vertically through a relatively large distance, so that your fingers can change their mind in the course of a mistaken selection and also, I guess, so that touch typists can rest their hands on the keyboard without accidentally typing. Most people, though, aren’t touch typists.

Today’s invention is a keyboard for the rest of us -ie with keys made in the manner of mouse buttons. These would have a very small travel, require little force but also give crisp auditory and tactile feedback -something that conventional keys rarely manage.

The keys would probably be best hinged from the edge nearest the screen and could still be separated from each other by a gap, to help with locating them. This would lessen the severity of finger impacts which occur thousands of times per day and perhaps reduce rsi-type injuries.

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