Keyboard manufacturers are seeking for the ways to make the life of typists more comfortable. VisiKey keyboards care for the visually impaired or just those who haven't bothered to learn touch typing and still look at the keyboard while typing.

So, VisiKey keyboards claim to reduce eye strain of "lazy" typists with the help of 430% larger print of the keys on the keyboard. Moreover, "high contrast (white on black) lettering is generally easier for most people to distinguish at a glance".



VisiKey website

Are you still hesitating between Dvorak and QWERTY? Are you still searching for a more ergonomic layout? Stop.
Now you have a chance to design a keyboard of your own. With the help of a customizable computer keyboard called DX1 keyboard.

“These keys are like blank tapes,” said Pankaj Garg, a software architect at Mountain View, Calif.-based Ergodex, which developed the product. “You can make them whatever you want them to be.”

You can, for example, assign the keys sets of macros for complex and repetitive software commands in any application that uses a keyboard for input. That includes video editing, word processing and graphics packages, as well as games, e-mail programs and Web browsers. What’s more, you can easily juggle from macros in one application to macros in another. Toggle between Photoshop, Excel and “Counter-Strike.”



http://www.compkeyboard.com

Another ergonomic keyboard designed to relieve the typing strain and to ensure maximum comfort. What's amusing is the fact that the key split is done not the way Microsoft Natural and other clones offer but between 5 and 6 keys.
The right hand seems to get more responsibility in this version. Strangely enough, it can be pretty comfortable. What's more, the non-standard split does not affect the distance the right hand has to cover from one corner of the keyboard to the other.
The price is $39,99.

Have you stopped drinking coffee because you spend all the time at the computer? Perhaps you are not in the minority. The market started offering washable keyboards so that you can get back to your drinking habits. Just imagine – whenever you feel your keyboard needs a good wash, just put it under the running water or even use some disinfecting solution. And your keyboard shines and looks clean, healthy and safe. There are wireless and corded models, price varies from USD50 to 80. Washable mice, however, are a bit more expensive! Perhaps I will add one to my wishlist.

Wash it!
Unotron Washable Keyboards

Are you tired of hassle laptop typing? Or still messing instead of messaging with your handheld?
Look at this device and start breathing afresh.

"AlphaGrip's 2-handed touch typing technology is device agnostic and features a vertical hand orientation which allows the fingers to fall naturally and comfortably into position on 8 full-sized, multi-directional buttons located on the back of the device. By requiring only minimal finger movement, users can quickly teach themselves to generate all the letters of the alphabet as well as punctuation marks and functions. A centrally located 2-thumbed cursor control is comfortable and easy to use, and a mode switch button allows users to have the functionality of several (otherwise dedicated) devices (keyboard/mouse, game controller, or TV remote) within one form factor."
http://www.alphagrips.com/press1.html

It's difficult to visualize how it really works but some videos are really impressive. It's only a pity that the principle of touch-typing on such a device remains a mystery until you try the product.

Video demos are available here
http://www.alphagrips.com/typingdemo.html

Let me introduce another know-how which offers to learn touch-typing without using any tutor. The marketing idea is really attractive for lazy minds: you just spend a certain sum on a magic keyboard and there you are!
This time the idea is simple again.
The three keyboard rows "are enclosed by the "walls" formed by the ridges and the fingers operate as if they were in a frame." This is how TACTUS keyboard works.

It immediately reminds of the Microsoft Natural Keyboard but with several separators.
The convenience of the TACTUS keyboard boils down to this: "In the alphabetical section of a standard keyboard, the typist has only two reference points, a dot on the letters F and J. In the alphabetical
section of the TACTUS keyboard, in addition to the standard dots on the letters F and J, there are twenty more reference points, organised into "boxes", which are intuitive and easy to feel, get used to and remember."
http://www.tactuskeyboard.com
The obvious advantage is satisfying the need of the visually impaired.
The main discomfort is that both hands have to crowd densely, although the fingers can find their way easily enough.

To sum up. Not bad for beginners, I presume, but quite unnecessary for advanced typists. Moreover, it's difficult to imagine the learning process without adjusting oneself to the novelty like this.

"Genius must be simple!" - thought Mr. Guermeur and scrubbed all the letters from his keyboard, learned to touch-type and claimed he invented a brand-new way of learning.
As a matter of fact, the idea is not that new. That's actually how touch-typing was first taught. The keyboard of the typewriter was covered with a carton box in order to prevent students from peeping onto it. That was effective but not sufficient. Teaching method was still required.
However, Mr. Guermeur ignored all the methods and just typed on the blank keyboard and it worked perfectly for him, why not for others?
So, Mr. Guermeur patented his innovation and entered the keyboard market. He even teamed up with Cherry and modernized the characteristics of his blank keyboards. Now he has all the rights to claim that not all the keyboards are born the same.
The invention is called Das Keyboard (genius must be simple, do you remember?) and costs $89.95.
Any volunteers to try it?

Das Keyboard