deskthority

Hey Webwit! I found the genius that had the idea to type vertically! Also, he is sending me his prototype for my collection. His Name is Stephan Riemann. He holds Patent Nr. 298 04 683.0 for this keyboard.

He built a prototype with help from Cherry in 1998 and was on the German Patent Office travelling exhibition that year.

He later shared his findings and his ideas with folks from Cornell University, who made a study on the ergonomical aspects of vertical typing VS regular typing. PDF: http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=& ... ms&cad=rja

This study led them to design the Safetype! My personal feeling is that they took a lot from Stephan Riemann without giving him credit.

Pictures provided to me by Stephan Riemann and I have his permission to post them. Ive been talking to him and I hope to get him to join us here. He seemed interested when I last talked to him.

From what he told me this was version 2.0. Version 3.0 would have had ergonomic thumb placements and should have been wireless. Version 1.0 is lost to the ages.


I will make more pictures once I get the keyboard. I am positively giddy awaiting its arrival.

Great find, congrats!

Interesting position for the Return key. That reminds me of an idea for ergonomic keyboards that came up in discussions where the Return key (and possibly other keys, such as Tab, Backspace, etc.) are vertical on the left and right sides of each key well.

Great catch, Ascaii! Has gone to the right one then.

I saw the offer on ebay.de

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Prototyp-Aufrech ... 35ca5a067e

but didn't have time to take a closer look, and when I came home it had already gone...

According to the picture there, it seems like the long shift key above the windows keys was actually used as Return later.

Very nice. If I was waiting for that in the post I'd have trouble sleeping...

I'm lookng forward to when you get it
i'd love to see a video of it being used too

I wonder what HE is using nowadays with all his prototypes gone.

Vertically mounted touchscreens!

I just got it and I am very happy. Stephan sent along some pictures and his old typed up "report" on how he developed the idea and how he created the prototype.

I also took a few pictures, but unfortunately today seems to be a bad day for me, because apparently Im shaking hard (insert M.J. Fox joke here). I will take some better pictures when I have a quiet moment I think.

Ascaii wrote:I just got it and I am very happy. Stephan sent along some pictures and his old typed up "report" on how he developed the idea and how he created the prototype.

I also took a few pictures, but unfortunately today seems to be a bad day for me, because apparently Im shaking hard (insert M.J. Fox joke here). I will take some better pictures when I have a quiet moment I think.

Wow!! This board is so cool. I'm glad you got it!

congrats on making me jelly.

That's really great! And I see it has some official Litster keys!

Awesome stuff, nice find!

SafeType is making kind of those.



http://safetype.com/index.php

Yes, Ascaii even noted that the SafeType designers got the idea from that prototype.

Ascaii : Thanks a lot for that great find !
Cherry, matrix layout, plate mounting and handwiring, vertical position, upside pinky switch and front thumbs key and everything in 98 ! I also see on your august 10th post something very close to ergodox. A large part of the workshop thread in one post !

Maybe Findecanor mentioned this post : http://deskthority.net/workshop-f7/an-o ... t4560.html. It's clear that we are all condemned to reinvent the wheel.

great stuff, how does this relate to the Yogitype ?
http://www.yogitype.com/en/