Elecom's "gear drive" keyboard prevents typing errors

If you're a connoisseur of keyboards then check the latest from Elecom of Japan. Featuring a new "gear drive system", the TK-U09FG is said to prevent typing errors. Available October in black and white just like Stevie and Paul for a cool ¥5,040 or about $43 when these hit Stateside.

[Via Impress]

[im first @ Sep 19th 2006 9:47AM]

how does it work?

[Tobbe @ Sep 19th 2006 9:47AM]

That has got to be the smallest spacebar I've ever seen! Is it even usable?

[@ Sep 19th 2006 10:20AM]

"That has got to be the smallest spacebar I've ever seen! Is it even usable?"

I have a feeling the stateside board won't have those extra keys between the alts that the Japanese boards do...

[Sparkomatic @ Sep 19th 2006 9:48AM]

"just like Stevie and Paul"...you guys crack me up...lol

[Alcaron @ Sep 19th 2006 9:48AM]

Um...hows about some deets?

"CHECK OUT THIS NEW KEYBOARD WITH GEAR DRIVE!!!"

Ooooooook...what is gear drive?

[Pete @ Sep 19th 2006 9:48AM]

How does it prevent typing errors? Does it just make it more difficult to press the keys or something, to try and reduce fat finger syndrome? I find that most of my typing errors are not from hitting neighboring keys to what I wanted, but instead typing too fast and getting ahead of myself. Heh, maybe I'm just an inaccurate typist :-P

[Fuzz @ Sep 19th 2006 9:55AM]

Ivr got to gt me onew of theaes!

[Calleja @ Sep 19th 2006 9:56AM]

Ok, I kinda get this "gear drive" has gears under each key..... but how does this prevent typing errors? By making the jeys so hard to push down you reduce your typing speed to a crawl? Kinda like one fingered pre-school typing?

Ok, yeah, I guess that would prevent typos.... and also waste entire days of time.

[sooperscoop @ Sep 19th 2006 10:02AM]

I guess it prevents typing errors by only depressing the key if it's hit square in the middle.

I think the space bar is small because it's a Japanese keyboard, look at the extra keys. Plus Japenese text doesn't use as many spaces.

[will @ Sep 19th 2006 10:03AM]

i think the idea is that it firms up the keys.

try this at home kids!

put a finger on the corner of a key and wiggle it. The key moves. Now press down. it has a bit of a sticky feeling to it.

Now what these little gears do is even everything out. So now when you put a finger on the corner of a key is doesnt wobble! Even better is that when you push down on a corner, the key doesn't go down corner first, it all goes down level because each cog has to be at the same height.

I happen to think its a great idea, but i can also see keys breaking a lot more often. and my monthly act of pulling all my keys of to clean out the breadcrumbs will become a bit difficult...

[Andir3.0 @ Sep 19th 2006 10:36AM]

Think about when them breadcrumbs mash in the gears. Don't get me wrong, but even the cleanest person leaves part of themselves in the keys...

[David @ Sep 19th 2006 10:03AM]

Perhaps this prevents adjacent keys from depressing when the desired key is pressed, avoiding typos from accidentally brushing the neighboring keys?

David

[Mike @ Sep 19th 2006 2:33PM]

That's what I was thinking too... It'd somehow not let you accidentally press two keys next to each other at the same time...

[will @ Sep 19th 2006 10:15AM]

oh cos that wouldn't make gaming an absolute whore of a task... when i want to go forward and strafe left.. for example..

[Charles Taylor @ Sep 19th 2006 10:24AM]

from the drawings, it looks like the gears make you press the exact center of the key in order to fully depress it.

[jc @ Sep 19th 2006 10:37AM]

The gear system allows for the key to be pressed no matter where on the key you press. You can press it on a corner, but the gears will make the key travel down at the same rate, and the button will press down on the sensor.

[iptydafu @ Sep 19th 2006 11:11AM]

Yeah, that's about as over-engineered a keyboard as you'd ever want. I can certainly see the benefits while tooling around on livejournal, or something.

[Kevlar @ Sep 19th 2006 11:16AM]

I'm typing this on a BenQ A122 Keyboard, and this is the nicest keyboard I've ever used. It has a similar idea to the gear thing, in that the keys are cushioned by a crossbar that makes sure the key is pressed straight down, even when you push on the corner. I think they called it X-Key or something. The keys have a lower profile, similar to laptop keys as well.

Someone told me this keyboard was designed by BMW. If you ever see a BenQ A122 in stores, I reccomend getting it without hesitation.

[Gerald @ Sep 19th 2006 12:09PM]

Hey guys, I can make the worlds best typing keyboard!

All you got to do is make large, square spaced out querty keyboards to minimize the probability of an error!

Also, even then, I personally feel that errors are inevitable and i am not sold by their marketing gimmick.

If i use that keyboard and lightning type, Im sure to make some errors... like for example, i have made three errors in writing this passage and had to backspace it...

Just some lame comments that i hope is constructive.

Gerald

[@ Sep 19th 2006 7:20PM]

How is it possible to misspell "qwerty"? Please tell me you have an AZERTY keyboard, or some other non-English based keyboard?

koan

[James @ Sep 19th 2006 1:43PM]

I still think my 16 year old IBM Model M is better. :]

[Arawn @ Sep 19th 2006 9:55PM]

Hear, hear!

The Model M is (probably) the best keyboard ever made! You either love it or hate it! :)

[J. Neutron @ Sep 19th 2006 1:56PM]

The keys are motorized! they move down in order when windows automatically enters text, kind of like a player piano!

[Karl Viklund @ Sep 19th 2006 1:59PM]

Well, most of my typing errors comes from not hitting the right key so I doubt this will help. I mean, if I press "I" by misstaked but wanted a "O" instead, the keyboard won't know.

[PEZ @ Sep 19th 2006 2:11PM]

Will it prevent you from posting crappy blog titles!

OMFG just kidding! LMNOP!

[Monte @ Sep 19th 2006 3:05PM]

I think jc is right. I have a cheap, crappy Dell keyboard at work, and whenever I press a key *slightly* off-center, it binds.

[Mike10010100 @ Sep 19th 2006 3:24PM]

Well, you could always just run it through ye old google search engine if you're so curious. In actuallity, the four sides of the keyboard are linked, so that when one side of the key is pushed, the other sides are lowered along with it. It shouldn't reduce typing errors, it's just another way for the keys to be mounted.

[crackpipe @ Sep 19th 2006 3:28PM]

Actually, the spacebar is normal width. It's just that everything else is HUGE. The entire keyboard is the size of a desk. Look at the size of the fingers in the diagram. Those crazy Japanese.

[Dan @ Sep 19th 2006 3:38PM]

This would be good for gaming if used correctly. All of a sudden, pressure sensitive keystrokes are possible.

[Larry @ Sep 19th 2006 3:47PM]

Actually, my keyboard broke a couple months ago (A damn fine keyboard too, I sanded off all the keys so it was really a DIY Das Keyboard) so I had to dig through a closet to find a keyboard. Lo and behold, in my dad's closet I find three brand new Japanese keyboards. They're pretty hard to get used to, with the keys, especially the spacebar, being so insanely small, and with like four or five keys that don't do anything. Plus the question mark key is moved to the side one...and the number symbols are all moved to the side one, despite they're labelling. But I'm used to it by now. I'm just lucky I don't play games on this beast. eMachines for the win!

[leigh @ Sep 19th 2006 4:00PM]

will, you have such fat fingers that you use the same one to press left and forwards? - just strange... i use separate fingers, and always catch the E key, which if playing bf2 is a bit of a sh** cos i fall 5,000 feet from my heli.

[Alex Rudloff @ Sep 19th 2006 4:47PM]

Very cool

[Max @ Sep 19th 2006 5:45PM]

I would bet the little gears would get gummed up with all the crap that gets down into keyboards. Its a good idea but preobally reall bad for gaming you know?

[MasaMuneCyrus @ Sep 19th 2006 7:31PM]

I explained how this works on digg, if anyone is interested:

http://digg.com/hardware/How_Elecom_s_gear_drive_keyboard_prevents_typing_errors#c3120999

[Leo Chen @ Sep 19th 2006 9:45PM]

interesting.