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OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III

https://openciv3.org/
389•klaussilveira•4h ago•85 comments

The Waymo World Model

https://waymo.com/blog/2026/02/the-waymo-world-model-a-new-frontier-for-autonomous-driving-simula...
748•xnx•10h ago•459 comments

Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

https://github.com/pydantic/monty
117•dmpetrov•5h ago•48 comments

Show HN: Look Ma, No Linux: Shell, App Installer, Vi, Cc on ESP32-S3 / BreezyBox

https://github.com/valdanylchuk/breezydemo
131•isitcontent•5h ago•14 comments

Show HN: I spent 4 years building a UI design tool with only the features I use

https://vecti.com
234•vecti•7h ago•113 comments

Dark Alley Mathematics

https://blog.szczepan.org/blog/three-points/
27•quibono•4d ago•1 comments

Microsoft open-sources LiteBox, a security-focused library OS

https://github.com/microsoft/litebox
302•aktau•11h ago•151 comments

A century of hair samples proves leaded gas ban worked

https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/02/a-century-of-hair-samples-proves-leaded-gas-ban-worked/
56•jnord•3d ago•3 comments

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/
304•ostacke•11h ago•82 comments

Show HN: If you lose your memory, how to regain access to your computer?

https://eljojo.github.io/rememory/
160•eljojo•7h ago•121 comments

Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

https://hackers-1995.vercel.app/
376•todsacerdoti•13h ago•214 comments

Show HN: R3forth, a ColorForth-inspired language with a tiny VM

https://github.com/phreda4/r3
43•phreda4•4h ago•7 comments

An Update on Heroku

https://www.heroku.com/blog/an-update-on-heroku/
305•lstoll•11h ago•230 comments

I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

https://infisical.com/blog/devops-to-solutions-engineering
100•vmatsiiako•10h ago•33 comments

How to effectively write quality code with AI

https://heidenstedt.org/posts/2026/how-to-effectively-write-quality-code-with-ai/
167•i5heu•8h ago•127 comments

Learning from context is harder than we thought

https://hy.tencent.com/research/100025?langVersion=en
138•limoce•3d ago•76 comments

Understanding Neural Network, Visually

https://visualrambling.space/neural-network/
223•surprisetalk•3d ago•29 comments

FORTH? Really!?

https://rescrv.net/w/2026/02/06/associative
36•rescrv•12h ago•17 comments

I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

https://kirkville.com/i-now-assume-that-all-ads-on-apple-news-are-scams/
955•cdrnsf•14h ago•413 comments

PC Floppy Copy Protection: Vault Prolok

https://martypc.blogspot.com/2024/09/pc-floppy-copy-protection-vault-prolok.html
7•kmm•4d ago•0 comments

Introducing the Developer Knowledge API and MCP Server

https://developers.googleblog.com/introducing-the-developer-knowledge-api-and-mcp-server/
8•gfortaine•2h ago•0 comments

I'm going to cure my girlfriend's brain tumor

https://andrewjrod.substack.com/p/im-going-to-cure-my-girlfriends-brain
30•ray__•1h ago•5 comments

Claude Composer

https://www.josh.ing/blog/claude-composer
97•coloneltcb•2d ago•68 comments

The Oklahoma Architect Who Turned Kitsch into Art

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-31/oklahoma-architect-bruce-goff-s-wild-home-desi...
17•MarlonPro•3d ago•2 comments

Show HN: Smooth CLI – Token-efficient browser for AI agents

https://docs.smooth.sh/cli/overview
76•antves•1d ago•56 comments

Evaluating and mitigating the growing risk of LLM-discovered 0-days

https://red.anthropic.com/2026/zero-days/
32•lebovic•1d ago•11 comments

Show HN: Slack CLI for Agents

https://github.com/stablyai/agent-slack
37•nwparker•1d ago•8 comments

How virtual textures work

https://www.shlom.dev/articles/how-virtual-textures-really-work/
23•betamark•12h ago•22 comments

Evolution of car door handles over the decades

https://newatlas.com/automotive/evolution-car-door-handle/
38•andsoitis•3d ago•61 comments

The Beauty of Slag

https://mag.uchicago.edu/science-medicine/beauty-slag
27•sohkamyung•3d ago•3 comments
Open in hackernews

One Handed Keyboard

https://github.com/htx-studio/One-Handed-Keyboard
218•doppp•2mo ago

Comments

ekjhgkejhgk•2mo ago
"Hi, would you like some RSI?"

"Yes, just the one thank you."

hsbauauvhabzb•2mo ago
Iirc this keyboard was custom made for a user that only has one hand. A layered design would be better but harder for the average user to adapt to.
block_dagger•2mo ago
This already happened to me because of mouse usage. I’ve longed for a keyboard like this so I cam rest my right arm/hand which has significant damage and pain.
rnentjes•2mo ago
I am using this mouse because of that, and it works for me:

https://www.contourdesign.com/collection/contour-slidermouse

mechanicum•2mo ago
Their video on YouTube, in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vW12gQ4Klc
dandersch•2mo ago
I wonder what issues they ran into with using the entire keyboard as a mouse.
psKama•2mo ago
Same, looks like an amazing idea.
hiq•2mo ago
I'm assuming it's too heavy and has too much contact surface (so more friction), making it too hard to glide smoothly.

There's probably something with the position of the hand when you move the mouse as well. At least I seem to be moving mostly the wrist when I use my mouse, meaning that my hand and forearm are not always aligned; without this alignment, I feel there's more strain on the wrist when typing.

fragmede•2mo ago
my imagined device has the hand a bit more vertical, which would give more leverage for moving the device around.

Could you do a thing with magnets where you have a special mousepad as well with the pad being all one pole pointing up and the device the same pole pointing down?

Also my imagined device would not need the full keyboard, just the full right side of a qwerty keyboard.

msephton•2mo ago
I'd also guess fatigue. Pushing around that huge thing constantly
egypturnash•2mo ago
Put keyboard in perfect ergonomic position on the desk, move mouse, now the keyboard's in a terrible ergonomic position.

Also you have to keep a much bigger area clear for it.

jolmg•2mo ago
I imagine it's uncomfortable to grip since you need to be careful to not press a key doing so. Since you can't rely on fingers much for grip, you could put more force pressing downward with your wrist but that would also add friction with the table. Mice are small enough that you can fit your hand around it, but a keyboard is large and flat.
zero0529•2mo ago
Okay I must say, the production quality of that video is insane.
mholm•2mo ago
Feels like HTX blew up out of nowhere with a ton of long form content at once, but they were huge in Chinese social media already, and finally decided to start translating previous content to english and uploading to Youtube.
y-curious•2mo ago
My family and I binged a few of their videos. They’re so good
fouc•2mo ago
Oh nice, these are the guys that made the auto-aiming trash can!
utopcell•2mo ago
I'd watch a video about the making of this video.
danielfalbo•2mo ago
From their youtube channel description:

> Our goal is to create fun and engaging videos.

I wonder whether they are more into video-making or tech.

cyberax•2mo ago
Yes.

I've been watching them in Chinese for a while. Their video production evolved through the years by leaps and bounds. Their technical skill also skyrocketed. But it started as a channel with technical reviews and some DIY.

If you want to try to watch their videos with AI translation, you can try this: https://space.bilibili.com/163637592 For example, an artificial flower made of memory metal: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gN411M7kh/

stavros•2mo ago
That looks really interesting, but there's a ton of text flying over the video and it's making it hard to actually see what's going on in the image. Is there a way to disable that?
cyberax•2mo ago
Yes, you just need to click on the button with the "弹" character right below the video (it's appropriately called "barrage of bullets").
ugh123•2mo ago
Agreed! Check out "scrubby" video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bLyZ7gkurv4
ykonstant•2mo ago
The wholesomeness and ingenuity made my day!
r0b05•2mo ago
Does anyone know which keys/switches out there sound like this one?

It's got a soft cheery non-intrusive sound that I really like compared to the usual louder mechanical keys/switches that I hear in videos.

rjzzleep•2mo ago
I recently learned that it's not just the switch, but also the gasket, so the switch plate material, the foam layers and even the keycap itself. I built two different split keyboards recently with the same simple Kailh box red v2 switch and they sound and feel completely different just because of the thickness of the switch plate and the type of keycaps I use.(check this for example https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HIldaxljpzc )

You can check if you find the switches colors here(it looks like an Akko purple pro, but not quite) https://keeb-finder.com/switches

Whereas rtings has a filtering list that also has sound profiles in the review pages.

https://www.rtings.com/keyboard-switch/tools/compare

r0b05•2mo ago
Thanks for the info. A split keyboard sounds awesome.
rjzzleep•2mo ago
You can get really cheap boards on taobao, for sofle, lily58, corne(all 3 are open source/open hardware) keyboards. You can of course also get prebuilt ones with or without switches for cheap if you want to. But in today's world, if you have tools and access to a 3d printer you can get a board for a few bucks some components and finish the whole thing with good switches and keycaps for 20-30 dollars.

It's a fun experience, and a nice reason to play around with SMD soldering techniques. I had my daughter (4 years) solder the hotswap sockets.

Worth checking out the miryoku layout, which is optimized for small keyboards, where I recently added sensor bindings for ec11 encoders[1].

[1] https://github.com/manna-harbour/miryoku_zmk/pull/116

arein3•2mo ago
The sound is described like creamy or thocky.

You can get aula f75 for cheap, arround 50$, there are plenty of sound tests on youtube as it's very popular.

I got that version and I am happy, but if I was to buy a new one I would get the full size f108 because it's important for me to have distance between arrow keys and other keys. And tbh I would just get an apple keyboard or something similarly slim because it's more confortable for me. However for thicc (mechanical switch) keyboards, aula f75 has great specs and sound at a very good price.

r0b05•2mo ago
Thanks will check out the aula 75
UltraSane•2mo ago
Best keyboard I have very used was at a random data center and I would swear it was using alps switches. They feel more like snapping a glass rod.
piskov•2mo ago
Lube them manually (by yourself or someone else)
eloeffler•2mo ago
Just leaving some links here because I had been researching this intensively before a planned shoulder surgery:

(Definitely adding this to my list)

Frogpad: German language one handed keyboard. Unfortunately discontinued http://frogpad.com/

Mirrorboard (my favorite): Intruiging mirror solution that builds upon the assumption that it is easier to access muscle memory from the other hand when you've learned it before https://blog.xkcd.com/2007/08/14/mirrorboard-a-one-handed-ke...

Mistel Barocco fully split Keyboard: Can (and unfortunately must) be programmed without software. Right half is the main keyboard. Left side connects to it, works also in standalone mode but is not programmable then. https://mistelkeyboard.com/products/bd20945a731491407807e80d...

znpy•2mo ago
The frogpad is most likely the best one. So sad to see it’s been discontinued.
swannodette•2mo ago
Some research on this topic http://edgarmatias.com/papers/hci96/

On OS X you can achieve this with Keyb, Karabiner Elements, etc. It's also easy to do with a programmable keyboard with ZMK/QMK. I've set up my Kinesis 360 Pro this way, being symmetrical means I can access every key easily. Hardware support for sticky keys also helps quite a bit.

GlumWoodpecker•2mo ago
Just being pedantic and off-topic here, but macOS hasn't been called OS X for nearly ten years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS#macOS

binaryturtle•2mo ago
Some of us still use OS X and haven't made the unnecessary switch to any of the macOS that followed it. :)
worthless-trash•2mo ago
It'll always be OSX to me. Fight the branding!
pimlottc•2mo ago
Twiddler is an older design from the first wave of wearable computers, there are newer revisions that are still being sold afaik

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twiddler

https://www.mytwiddler.com/

larusso•2mo ago
The mirror board is an interesting idea as it allows to start with a normal keyboard and one could then switch to a smaller board with the muscle memory trained. I would prefer a different switch key though. I use cap lock as a layer switch on my keyboards. But I will think about it and try out a few things. It could already be useful in situation where I need to keep my hand over the mousepad.
Symbiote•2mo ago
I was maintaining [1] which might be useful to you, but it's become outdated. It doesn't have a filter for one handed keyboards, but some of the "two halves" ones might be appropriate.

(If someone is interested in taking the site over and bringing it up to date, please open an issue.)

[1] https://aposymbiont.github.io/split-keyboards/

stray•2mo ago
I lost the use of my right hand in '06.

It's amazing how quickly you adapt. I have to put my mouse to the left of my keyboard and whereas before I was a touch typist, I now have to look.

And I can use a standard keyboard without undue hassle.

giraldo•2mo ago
Yes, having a special keyboard can be limiting in that it’s a pain to cart around to hook up to laptops, etc. and to get an extra in case it fails.

It still could be nice to have something optimized, though. If you ever design one, please share it, because I think you’d get more interest than you’d think.

I began to have interest in developing for everyone (primarily for differences for vision, though difference in hearing, memory, learning also) about 13 years ago, and got little support from the small company I worked for. We had a very color-specific interface, because we were space-limited. Then, wouldn’t you know it, our next manager was red-green colorblind, but it didn’t bother her.

I got jaded about it, learning that basically no one cared enough, and that people just get ignored and struggle with their adaptive devices. This still pisses me off, and I was once thinking heavily about applying a job where I could do something about it, but I don’t have the required background.

With AI, there’s beginning to be almost no excuse for someone not to add first-class support for all types of people into their interfaces and process, but people still continue to design like everyone is a twenty-something y.o. with full hearing, 20/15 full color vision, 130 IQ average, and no memory or learning differences or other modalities.

keyle•2mo ago
I'm trying to understand why this isn't a thing already. It seems there would be a market for it; when you consider all the different keyboards shapes and sizes...
victorbjorklund•2mo ago
You can just buy a split keyboard and put all the keys on layers on one side.
Symbiote•2mo ago
A UK company had produced them for decades, which probably serves most injured non-geek users.

https://www.maltron.com/store/p19/Maltron_Single_Hand_Keyboa...

ginko•2mo ago
That's actually quite a reasonable price for such a specialized device.
jimlikeslimes•2mo ago
Check out chorded keyboards. They've been a thing for a very long time. At least since early 00s or 90s when I saw them first. They are held one handed have 5 keys and you get different letters by chording multiple keys together.
clort•2mo ago
first consumer device I ever saw was the Microwriter, back in the 1980's .. but court stenographers have been using chorded keyboards for a century or more

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwriter

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype

exasperaited•2mo ago
Court stenography keyboards were not originally spelling out letters, though; they worked in shorthand symbols. I guess they can autoexpand that now.

Microwriter devices produced ASCII directly.

cons0le•2mo ago
CharaChorder beats all. I can type faster than I can talk
exasperaited•2mo ago
There's Maltron, Microwriter (who pretty much invented the contemporary chording ASCII computer keyboard) and its weird successors like Twiddler and Charachorder.

But the fundamental problem with one-handed keyboards is that as soon as you only have one hand, you step into specialisation.

People's hands and one-hand abilities are actually quite variable. People who have never had two hands have different hand agility to people who lose a hand in adulthood, for example.

Two-handed keyboards and two-handed typing masks so much of this variability, because you can be a fast and efficient typist even with your hands straying across the keyboard and using only two or three fingers on each hand (say, two on non-dominant hand, two and thumb on dominant).

One-handed keyboards, by contrast, need to be more optimised for individual one-handed typists when any economy of scale is already difficult to achieve.

scatbot•2mo ago
From the submission title I expected some kind of chorded keyboard. This is just a tiny regular keyboard. What a bummer.

This reminds me how I once spend months trying to track down a Frogpad for a cyberpunk-inspired wearable computing project. I found one on eBay but got outbid at the last second. It still hurts a little.

stavros•2mo ago
Wouldn't it be easier to make a Frogpad?
iammrpayments•2mo ago
I thought this was a meme for cultured games.
ginko•2mo ago
Notice it's for left-handed use.
jagged-chisel•2mo ago
Someone linked to the video - they have produced a right-handed version.
Levitz•2mo ago
Left handed people also have a libido to take care of, after all.
ok_craig•2mo ago
About 20 years ago I wrote a little program to turn my own standard keyboard into something I could type on one hand with. It's basically just T9, with every basic letter key bound to two letters instead of one. (The mirror counterpart from the other side of the keyboard.)

It's a shit demo from college and I always wanted to share the concept but never made it presentable.

https://github.com/cilphex/QuickBoard

attila-lendvai•2mo ago
i believe that a crucial feature of good keyboards is that your wrist is stationary. this enables a better form of "muscle memory".

i've been using such a keyboard for two decades.

snickerer•2mo ago
My personal search ended with the ZSA Moonlander.
othomp•2mo ago
Matias has a neat one-handed keyboard. It's quite expensive for what it is, especially considering these days where it's so easy to get a keyboard with remappable keys. There's a simulator on the sidebar at the link, and IMO it's quite intuitive.

https://matias.ca/halfkeyboard/

nephanth•2mo ago
I tried that concept whith my ergodox when i had an arm in a splint, but i couldnt quite get my brain to wrap around it. I could type on the right key, but not press the mirror/switch key at the right moment.

What would have made it easier is if it could infer the right key like an autocorrect

hoss1474489•2mo ago
Wow, 595 USD is insanely expensive for literally half a keyboard.
icarnales•2mo ago
this can be implemented in software, i use it on Windows with AutoHotKey and on mac with Karabiner Elements, it costs 0 Dollars that way and is great
kurtis_reed•2mo ago
It's in Mandarin
garganzol•2mo ago
I am kind of fascinated that some people move the world forward finding a solution even for supposedly dare conditions, while others kill innocent with bombs. This is what I've felt after watching the video.

Good luck to these manufacturers who serve the niche with such a passion. It needs a lion share of compassion to be able to design this kind of products for handicapped people.

iagooar•2mo ago
I saw the keyboard to be operated by the left hand only and here is my (totally personal and somewhoat adjacent) problem with it.

My left hand is the one which has suffered the most the many hours of using a keyboard over the last +-25 years. While the right hand has the occasional break from the keyboard when using the mouse, the left hand is constantly glued to the keyboard.

It also has a much tougher job - all the cmd, ctrl, alt and shift + combinations are mostly done using the left hand - e.g. on Mac you cannot cmd+shift+ select text with the arrows - you must use the left hand - so it ends up doing so much more work.

I wonder if there are other people with the same problem. My right hand never hurts after many hours of computer work - but the left hand does. It hurts even now that I am typing and I haven't even spent more than an hour doing it.

stavros•2mo ago
You should remap ctrl/cmd (whatever feels better) to caps lock. It'll be much more convenient.
etothepii•2mo ago
Check out make caps lock great again.

https://github.com/Vonng/Capslock

gcanyon•2mo ago
I'm at the point where I need to redefine cmd-z, x, c, v because my left thumb doesn't want to do that dance anymore. It's been painful for a year, and I finally got to the point of redefining it a couple weeks ago. And the muscle memory is so ingrained that I changed it to option ', 1, 2, 3 and never thought about the idea that my right hand could do it.
__s•2mo ago
I was getting hand pain, switched to a Totem keyboard. 38 keys, 6 thumb keys. Column splay & never reaching for number row has greatly helped. 20g actuation means little force needed
dandersch•2mo ago

  >It also has a much tougher job - all the cmd, ctrl, alt and shift + combinations are mostly done using the left hand
Look into homerow mods if you are prepared to do some (invasive) key remaps in software: https://precondition.github.io/home-row-mods
pfortuny•2mo ago
This has changed my life so much for the better. Once I knew about this, I needed look no further.
Klathmon•2mo ago
And if you like it, picking up any QMK or ZMK compatible keyboard would let you do it in firmware too!
smrq•2mo ago
Please do your hands a favor and get yourself an ergonomic keyboard! Thumb keys especially alleviate the issues with modifiers that you're describing.

I use a Glove80 as my daily driver right now, although the price tag to build quality ratio is not amazing, so idk if I would recommend it particularly. But there's a massive world of ergo keyboards out there--surely the right one for you exists somewhere!

trollbridge•2mo ago
Use your right hand for meta keys?
egypturnash•2mo ago
there's a right-hand version too :)
ldoughty•2mo ago
They started with the left hand as requested, but made right hand version as well.

I wish these were also commercially available... I'd love to pay for one of these... I know it's open sources, but I don't know the language nor do I have the skills to construct one myself.

lolive•2mo ago
Like people trying to find new interfaces for music making [thank god touchscreens!], there are people trying to figure out new hardware for interacting with computers. Thank you dudes!

PS: the first step towards feeling why such research is so important is when you start customizing productivity shortcuts on your existing keyboard. Then you understand that the input device in front of you can be more than a stupid typewriter. From there you start interrogating your interaction with machines. [and then you are addict, and you end up designing your own device :)]

mcdow•2mo ago
Super cool!
jorisboris•2mo ago
The right hand keyboard could finally make me look like Boris from Golden Eye typing away while holding a pen in the left hand
cons0le•2mo ago
If anyone's interested in something way faster that still lets you go one handed. Take a look at the charachorder. You can type one handed, or easily rip 200wpm with 2 hands. But it does take like a year to get fast. I was coming from a moonlander tho so I was ready
y-curious•2mo ago
Thank you for sharing, so flipping cool. How do you handle the mouse navigation aspect? That’s one thing missing from my glove80
helios_tu•2mo ago
ZMK on the glove80 has mouse control! I use a modified version of this keymap: https://sunaku.github.io/moergo-glove80-keyboard.html#mouse-...

Essentially, hold down a thumb key and WASD (well, ESDF) moves the mouse.

fallat•2mo ago
I want to pull the trigger on this so badly. I've had my eyes on it for years. It seems the best way to increase typing speed is to reduce finger movement via physical modifications to a keyboard.

Does charachorder support Dvorak-like layout mentally? Not a 1-1 but something similar? Like vowels on left hand?

392•2mo ago
The best way to speed up is to practice. Alternative layouts are a waste of time unless you're trying to fix an ergonomic / pain issue, and even then the board itself and your technique and lifestyle are more important. I type faster than any Dvorak user I've met and I did nothing make that happen except be impatient. But typing is basically over with now that Whisper is a single button press away.
fallat•2mo ago
I use Dvorak, so I'm asking to maybe make the transition easier LOL.
piskov•2mo ago
Year seems not worth it: all the time spent on learning just won’t pay off unless you’re a school or college student
cons0le•2mo ago
every time I send an entire email template with one keystroke, it's worth it. Maybe not for everyone, but for people that are basically at their computer all day everyday, its great. Sentences, paragraphs, macros, templates, everything can be just 1 keystroke.

Granted, I used to be able to do this with custom firmware on the moonlander, but with the charachorder it feels more smooth

piskov•2mo ago
Ain’t the same is true with keyboard layers. Nothing prevents you to create, let’s say, capslock+q to insert one ting, capslock+w — another, etc.

Basically this is how keyboards like “ultimate hacking keyboard” and what have you work: record arbitrary keystorkes, macros.

utopcell•2mo ago
..we found an off the shelf keyboard that could work, but we couldn't get it because it was 999 euros. So let's make 7 iterations of our own keyboard with our Formlabs 3d printer, create silicom molds for each key, print legends with our uv printer and we're done. Glad he did though, looks awesome!
ilitirit•2mo ago
These guys are quite well-known in China and have recently started uploading tto Youtube as well. Their videos are quite entertaining and have extremely high production value compared to many other creators.

https://www.youtube.com/@HTXStudio/videos

I love the one about the automated trash cans.

hexeater•2mo ago
Add eye tracking to replace the track ball please. :-)
NooneAtAll3•2mo ago
is it only left-handed?
kajic•2mo ago
No
egypturnash•2mo ago
holy crap I want one of these, I spend a ton of time with one hand on my drawing stylus and the other on my keyboard and not having to go as far for right-side shortcuts would be great.
gethly•2mo ago
This looks like all you can eat of the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
KolenCh•2mo ago
Interesting. I worry about its ergonomics though as RSI might develops over time after long term usage of that design.

I've been designing my own one-handed keyboard for 3 years. My main problem is that both of my wrist suffers from RSI and either wrist can ocassionally acts up with different levels of pain. (I also have shoulder problem.) They can become practically disabled temporarily for a few weeks, or just quite painful for me to avoid using it. So my desiderata are a bit different from permanently one-handed people.

Interestingly my right wrist is acting up in the last couple weeks so I've been going through a iterative redesign phase recently. I probably will write up a blog post in the future when I have the final design, I'm going through it briefly below:

Desiderata: (first three are directly from the temporarily and random disabled hand criteria)

- primary used for two hands - each hand should be able to single-handedly control the computer - skill transfer from two hand to one hand: since one hand use is oacassional, retraining time should be minimal - based on the research in http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327051hci1101_... which eventually becomes a producten https://matias.ca/halfkeyboard/ , the concept of a mirror key becomes a requirement: with the hold of a mirror key, the key at the mirror image position is active. An implementation detail is that the mirror key is a dual function key: on tap it is space, on hold it is mirror. I've implemented other possibility but find that the design in this research is better than others I come up with. - symmetric keyboard would facilitate this, where many split keyboards already is. - I must be able to buy them off the shelf. I do not have the skills to design it from scratch, nor do I afford to put more strain to my hand to assemble it from parts. - ergonomic must be one the of the primary goal of the keyboard, to minimize RSI. Speed is not important at all for example. - from my empircal experience, split keyboard, espeicially true split keyboard would encourage a better wrist and shoulder ergonomics. Hence I require split keyboards.

Based on these criteria, I bought ZSA Moonlander (QMK based) personally and Kinesis Advantage 360 Pro (ZMK based) for work.

The mirror key based design is currently at

    - Moonlander https://configure.zsa.io/moonlander/layouts/QwA3z/latest/0
    - Adv360 Pro: https://github.com/ickc/Adv360-Pro-ZMK/tree/dev
The key concept are that the mirror key can be implemented as a layer, and shift also functionally acts like a mirror. Thumb cluster are then dual function, where on hold a key could be the mirror key (via layer), another key could be the shift key. And since mirror+shift is needed, you either hold both (which is a bit less pleasant for the thumb), or have another layer serves as the shift-mirror key. Over there, every key is implemented as holding shift+key at mirrored position.

The ZSA training site is useful to iterate this design process: after each iteration I'd train per single hand and see if it works. For example in my earlier design I mainly focused on testing single left hand use and later found it doesn't quite work for single right hand.

Finally, macOS sticky modifier is used to hold modifier with a single hand. I.e. Ctrl+Opt+A becomes Ctrl+Opt, release, A. This is because OSM in QMK cannot handles one-shot of multiple modifiers well. Without doing fancy thing, you need to do Ctrl, release, Opt, release, A.

Same design working across Moonlander and Adv360 is important. Layout differences is not that much thankfully, but firmware difference can be a pain.

Lastly, I recently bought a Silakka54 for the ocassions where the setup hassle of either is too high. Basically either lap use or going to a meeting. I think my current layout design is adaptable to it but I'll see.

miladyincontrol•2mo ago
I've found pretty good success just using a planck with layers swaping left/right halves. Its not my daily driver but it becomes surprisingly intuitive to do more with less.
icarnales•2mo ago
After a stroke I've been using a software version of the half qwerty keyboard, it works quite well and you dot need special hardware, but you don't have integrated mouse, you can achieve that using ahk on windows and Karabiner Elements on Mac. the big advantage is that you keep using the same qwerty layout but mirrored, this makes it easier to learn. http://half-qwerty.com/
nvlled•2mo ago
Kind of uneconomical that they have different designs for left-hand and right-hand. They could have just placed the trackball or a nipple in the middle of the keys, and mouse function keys on any side. The hand still need to move and travel anyway with the current design to reach for the mouse keys.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan•2mo ago
I played with a few alternative keyboard layouts in high school, and I can say from personal experience that it's surprisingly easy to adapt to a one handed mirror layout. You just hold a designated modifier key with your thumb then the whole keyboard flips. Took just a couple days to get to like 80% of my normal typing speed.
TinyBig•2mo ago
If you already know how to touch type, I recommend using software to mirror your keyboard when the spacebar is held down. I lacked the use of my dominant arm for a few months while recovering from an injury, and by week 3, mirroring no longer required conscious thought.