Gboard Kurukuru Version - Your fingers stay put. The keys come around
Gboard Kurukuru Version is a conveyor belt keyboard from Google Japan's Gboard team, its 15th. Four belts carry 29 keys each past your fingers, so one hand can reach every character. It isn't for sale, but STL files, firmware and a build guide are on GitHub.
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Hi everyone!
Google Japan's Gboard team keeps coming up with wonderfully odd keyboard ideas, and it has become a yearly tradition. This is the 15th, after a one-key Morse keyboard, a teacup, a rotary phone and a hat.
This year's is the Gboard Conveyor Belt Version in the repo, and くるくる in Japanese. Kurukuru is the sound of something going round and round, which is what the keys do. Four belts carry 29 keys each, 116 in total, and the letter you want comes around to your fingers. Upper and lower case are both on the belts, and one hand is enough for everything.
You can also build it. The build guide covers the 3D-printed frame, an N20 motor and Choc low-profile switches, with KiCad board files and firmware in the same repo. The keycaps in the parts list are blank, so what goes on them is up to you!
wtf
the conveyor belt idea is smart and makes typing in diffrent languages much easier
What a delightfully clever twist bringing the keys to your fingers instead of moving your fingers to the keys, and open-sourcing the whole build makes it even better.
I love that Google still spends time building things like this haha. Is it practical? Probably not. Would I love to try it? Absolutely. Curious how long it would actually take to type a full sentence compared to a regular keyboard.