Subject: FAQ: Typing Injuries (3/5): Keyboard Alternatives [monthly posting] From: Dan Wallach Reply-To: Dan Wallach Followup-To: sci.med.occupational Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.med.occupational,comp.human-factors,comp.answers,sci.answers,news.answers Summary: everything you ever wanted to know about replacing your keyboard Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Content-type: text/x-usenet-FAQ; version=1.0; title="Typing Injury FAQ: (3/5) Keyboard alternatives" Archive-name: typing-injury-faq/keyboards Version: $Revision: 6.22 $ $Date: 1994/08/29 06:19:24 $ Prologue -------- This FAQ may be cited as: Wallach, Dan S. (1994) "Typing Injury FAQ: Keyboard Alternatives" Usenet news.answers. Available via anonymous ftp from rtfm.mit.edu in pub/usenet/news.answers/typing-injury-faq/keyboards. 14 pages. World-Wide-Web users will find this available as hypertext: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/typing-injury-faq/top.html (Dan Wallach's page) http://www.cs.princeton.edu/grad/dwallach/ Answers To Frequently Asked Questions about Keyboard Alternatives ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1992-1994 By Dan Wallach The opinions in here are my own, unless otherwise mentioned, and do not represent the opinions of any organization or vendor. [Current distribution: sci.med.occupational, sci.med, comp.human-factors, {news,sci,comp}.answers, and e-mail to c+health@iubvm.ucs.indiana.edu, sorehand@vm.ucsf.edu, and cstg-L@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu] Changes since previously distributed versions are marked with change || bars to the right of the text, as is this paragraph. || Information in this FAQ has been pieced together from phone conversations, e-mail, and product literature. While I hope it's useful, the information in here is neither comprehensive nor error free. If you find something wrong or missing, please mail me, and I'll update my list. Thanks. All phone numbers, unless otherwise mentioned, are U.S.A. phone numbers. All monetary figures, unless otherwise mentioned, are U.S.A. dollars. Products covered in this FAQ: Using a PC's keyboard on your workstation / compatibility issues ("normal" keyboards -- by normal, I really mean non-chording) Apple Computer, Inc. Comfort Keyboard System DataHand ergoLogic Ergo Max FlexPro (Key Tronic) Fountain Hills Systems Kinesis Ergonomic Keyboard Lexmark || The MyKey Maltron MiniErgo (Marquardt Switches) Somers EK1 Ergonomic Keyboard The Tony! Ergonomic KeySystem The Vertical The Wave ("chording" systems / speech recognizers / other products) AccuKey The Bat (Infogrip) Braille 'n Speak (Blaize) DataEgg (InHand Development) DragonDictate (Dragon Systems) Half-QWERTY IBM Speech Server Series (ISSS) / Personal Dictation System (PDS) IBM VoiceType 2 IN3 Voice Command / IN3 PRO Kurzweil VOICE Microwriter Power Secretary The Minimal Motion Computer Access System Octima Twiddler GIF pictures of many of these products are available via anonymous ftp from ftp.csua.berkeley.edu:/pub/typing-injury. (128.32.149.19) I highly recommend getting the pictures. They tell much more than I can fit into this file. If you can't ftp, send me mail, and I'll uuencode and mail them to you (they're pretty big...) Using a PC's keyboard on your workstation / compatibility issues ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Spoofing a keyboard over the serial port If you've got a proprietary computer which uses its own keyboard (Sun, HP, DEC, etc.) then you're going to have a hard time finding a vendor to sell you a compatible keyboard. If your workstation runs the X window system, you're in luck. You can buy a cheap used PC, hook your expensive keyboard up to it, and run a serial cable to your workstation. Then, run a program on the workstation to read the serial port and generate fake X keyboard events. A number of programs can facilitate this for you. kt and a2x support ASCII input. a2x-RawPC and serkey support raw PC scancode input. Also, the new version of kt (kt18) additionally supports raw PC scancodes. a2x is a sophisticated program, capable of controlling the mouse, and even moving among widgets on the screen. It requires a server extension (XTEST, DEC-XTRAP, or XTestExtension1). To find out if your server can do this, run 'xdpyinfo' and see if any of these strings appear in the extensions list. If your server doesn't have this, you may want to investigate compiling X11R5, patchlevel 18 or later, or bugging your vendor. kt is a simpler program, which should work with unextended X servers. Another program called xsendevent also exists, but I haven't seen it. a2x-RawPC, serkey, and kt18 can take input from a device such as the Genovation Serial Box which converts a PC keyboard into a normal RS232 serial device, but otherwise passes through the raw PC scancodes. This approach has several advantages: a Serial Box is only $150, whereas the cheapest used PC you may ever find is over $300. A Serial Box could easily fit in your pocket, while PC's tend to be much bigger. Most important, however, is the ability to use *all* the keys of your PC keyboard with your workstation, like the function keys. a2x, a2x-RawPC, serkey and kt are all available via anonymous ftp from ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. Genovation can be contacted at: 17741 Mitchell North Irvine, CA 92714, U.S.A. Voice: 714-833-3355 Fax: 714-833-0322 Apparently, you can also find it for $94+shipping from a mail order company called "United Computer Express", at 800-448-3738. Kinesis is also reselling the Genovation boxes under their own label. Warning: apparently, the Genovation serial box doesn't work with the Maltron keyboard. 2) Macintosh Kinesis Corp. now has an adapter to make a PC keyboard connect to a Macintosh. They'll happily sell you the adapter without one of their keyboards. The price is around $100. Call 800-454-6374. || A similar product is made by the Silicon Valley Bus Company, which || supports PC mice and keyboards. It's called the KeyStone and costs || $99 plus $6 shipping. || Silicon Valley Bus Company || 475 Brown Rd. || San Juan Bautista, CA 95045 || Phone: 408-623-2300 or maybe 800-775-0555 || 3) X terminals Also, a number of X terminals (NCD, Tektronix, to name a few) use PC-compatible keyboards. If you have an X terminal, you may be all set. Try it out with a normal PC keyboard before you go through the trouble of buying an alternative keyboard. Also, some X terminals add extra buttons -- you may need to keep your original keyboard around for the once-in-a-blue-moon that you have to hit the Setup key. 4) NeXT NeXT had announced that new NeXT machines will use the Apple Desktop Bus, meaning any Mac keyboard will work. Then, they announced they were cancelling their hardware production. If you want any kind of upgrade for an older NeXT, do it now! 5) Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics has announced that their newer machines (Indigo^2 and beyond) will use standard PC-compatible keyboards and mice. I don't believe this also applies to the Power Series machines. It's not possible to upgrade an older SGI to use PC keyboards, except by upgrading the entire machine. Contact your SGI sales rep for more details. 6) IBM RS/6000 IBM RS/6000 keyboards are actually similar to normal PC keyboards. Unfortunately, you can't just plug one in. You need two things: a cable converter to go from the large PC keyboard connector to the smaller PS/2 style DIN-6, and a new device driver for AIX. Believe it or not, IBM wrote this device driver recently, I used it, and it works. However, they don't want me to redistribute it. I've been told Judy Hume (512) 823-6337 is a potential contact. If you learn anything new, please send me e-mail. Several people have reported problems contacting IBM on this issue. Be sure to bug your sales rep into doing the research. Again, let me know if you learn anything new. 7) HP workstations If you are using an HP workstation, you can buy a converter box that converts the HP-HIL serial to PS2. The converter is made by Modular Industrial Computers 615-499-0700. 8) Other stuff Some vendors here (notably: Health Care Keyboard Co. and AccuCorp) support some odd keyboard types, and may be responsive to your queries regarding supporting your own weird computer. If you can get sufficient documention about how your keyboard works (either from the vendor, or with a storage oscilloscope), you may be in luck. Contact the companies for more details. "Normal" keyboards -- things that look like "standard" QWERTY keyboards ----------------------------------------------------------------------- GIF pictures of many of these keyboards can be found via anonymous FTP ftp.csua.berkeley.edu:/pub/typing-injury/gifs 1) Apple Adjustable Keyboard Apple Computer, Inc. Sales offices all over the place. Price: $219 (some dealers have it for less) Shipping: Now. Supports: Mac Apple's keyboard has one section for each hand, and the sections rotate backward on a hinge. The sections do not tilt upward. The keys are arranged in a normal QWERTY fashion. The main foldable keyboard resembles a normal Apple Keyboard. A separate keypad contains all the extended key functions. The keyboard also comes with matching wrist rests, which are not directly attachable to the keyboard. Many peripheral keys, such as function keys, are "chicklet" keys, rather than full size, normal keyboard keys. (See the files apple-press and apple-tidbits on the ftp.csua.berkeley.edu archive for more details) 2) Comfort Keyboard System Phone: 414-536-2160 (technical info) 414-253-4131 (sales) Fax: 414-253-4177 Health Care Keyboard Company N82 W15340 Appleton Ave Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin 53051 U.S.A. E-Mail: hlthcare@EARTH.EXECPC.COM || Jeffrey Szmanda (Vice President -- contact) Price: $795, includes one "personality" module. Additional personality modules are around $150 each. A footpedal is also now available. || Shipping: Now. Supports: PC and Mac. Sun, HP-IL, and IBM 122-key in beta. A carrying case is also available. The idea is that one keyboard works with everything. You purchase "compatibility modules", a new cord, and possibly new keycaps, and then you can move your one keyboard around among different machines. It's a three-piece folding keyboard. The layout resembles the standard 101-key keyboard, except sliced into three sections. Each section is on a "custom telescoping universal mount." Each section independently adjusts to an infinite number of positions allowing each individual to type in a natural posture. You can rearrange the three sections, too (have the keypad in the middle if you want). Each section is otherwise normal-shaped (i.e.: you put all three sections flat, and you have what looks like a normal 101-key keyboard). Other features: full remapping and macros, programmable delay and repeat times. Coming soon: bounce keys and sticky keys. Also coming soon: non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) to store macros (currently, the PC downloads them at boot time). Anyone with an old Comfort (serial number < 5000) can upgrade to a newer version of the keyboard. Call technical assistance (414-253-6900) for more details. The upgrade will generally cost $189, depending on the state of the original keyboard. 3) DataHand Phone: 602-860-8584 Industrial Innovations, Inc. 10789 North 90th Street Scottsdale, Arizona 85260-6727, U.S.A. Price: $2000/unit (1 unit == 2 pods). Lease options available. Shipping: Now. (Expect it to take about a month) Supports: PC and Mac Each hand has its own "pod". Each of the four main fingers has five switches each: forward, back, left, right, and down. The thumbs have a number of switches. Despite appearances, the key layout resembles QWERTY, and is reported to be no big deal to adapt to. The idea is that your hands never have to move to use the keyboard. A finger-mouse is also built-in. If you ask, they'll send you a 15 minute video tape and lots of other information. (see also: the detailed review, written by Cliff Lasser ftp.csua.berkeley.edu:/pub/typing-injury/datahand-review) 4) ergoLogic Model 7.1 Phone: 800-ONLY-WAY FAX: 604-433-0111 ErgoLogic Enterprises, Inc. 47000 Warm Springs Blvd, Unit 430 Fremont, CA 94539-7467 (See "FlexPro Keyboard") Price: $399 (but, I've heard $489 for the FlexPro. Go figure.) Supports: PC Shipping: March, 1994 ErgoLogic has licensed their keyboard to Key Tronic, which is how you're more likely to see one of their keyboards. Both keyboards are manufactured in the same facility, and are exactly the same, except for the label in the upper left corner. 5) Ergo Max Phone: 602-294-5450 Fax: 602-294-6890 Maxi Switch, Inc. Price: $99 + $19.95 for a separate 40-key keypad Supports: PC Shipping: 2Q94 (maybe) Each half of the main keyboard can be independently raised/angled. An optional keypad, and an integrated wrist-rest / thumb trackball is available. 6) FlexPro Keyboard Phone: 800-262-6006 Possible contact: Denise Razzeto, 509-927-5299 Key Tronic (See "ergoLogic Model 7.1") Sold by many clone vendors and PC shops Price: $489 (?) Shipping: March, 1994 Supports: PC Keytronic apparently showed a prototype keyboard at Comdex. It's another split-design. One thumb-wheel controls the tilt of both the left and right-hand sides of the main alphanumeric section. The arrow keys and keypad resemble a normal 101-key PC keyboard. Keytronic makes standard PC keyboards, also, so this product will probably be sold through their standard distribution channels. Keytronic is working together with ErgoLogic Enterprises on this, so it's the same keyboard. 7) Fountain Hills FH-101 Phone: 602-596-8633 Fountain Hills Systems 15022 North 75th St. Scottsdale, AZ 85260-2476 Price: $349 with quantity discounts Shipping: ??? Supports: PC The Fountain Hills keyboard is set at a 20 degree fixed angle for each hand. The keyboard is still flat (i.e.: not higher in the middle) and has no adjustments. 8) Kinesis Ergonomic Keyboard Phone: 800-454-6374 or 206-402-8100 || Fax: 206-402-8181 || Kinesis Corporation || 22232 17th Avenue SE || Bothell, WA 98021-7425 || Shirley Lunde (VP Marketing -- contact) Price: $390. Volume discounts available. This includes adhesive wrist pads and a TypingTutor program. Foot pedals and other accessories are extra. Supports: PC. Mac and Sun Sparc through emulation boxes. Shipping: Now. The layout has a large blank space in the middle, even though the keyboard is about the size of a normal PC keyboard -- slightly smaller. Each hand has its own set of keys, laid out to minimize finger travel. Thumb buttons handle many major functions (enter, backspace, etc.). The keyboard supports remapping, macros, and adjustable repeat rate. Foot pedals are also available, and can be mapped to any key on the keyboard (shift, control, whatever). The keypad is "embedded" in the right hand, and a toggle button (or foot pedal) changes between normal and keypad mode for your right hand. Software is newly available that lets you split the Kinesis into multiple personalities so you can have more than one set of macros and remappings available. This software runs on your PC and downloads the data to the keyboard. For more info, contact the company. Kinesis has a number of prototype adapters which can be used to connect the Kinesis (or other PC keyboards) to Mac, Sun, or HP. They also resell a serial-port adapter (the Genovation) which can be used to connect the Kinesis (or other PC keyboards) to anything with a serial port. Again, for more info, contact the company. 9) Lexmark Model M13 (Select-Ease) Lexmark is a major manufacturer of PC equipment, actually a spin-off || of IBM. You should be able to find their products at many computer || stores. Sorry, I don't have a picture, yet. || Phone: 800-438-2468 || Cost: $179 || Available: Now || Compatibility: PC || [Description by Chris Grant] || This keyboard is a split/ angled one, with a ball-type hinge at the || top of the split. You can put it into positions identical to the || Ergologic and similar to most Comfort positions (but it doesn't tent || when the parts are separated). You can separate the parts when flat || like the Kinesis. It has a conventional layout so differs from the || Kinesis. It's not programmable. Aside from the split/angle (which is || extremely versatile and stable), its only other difference from || regular keyboards is that the left part of the space bar can be a || backspace key. || The keyboard includes a built-in "pointing-stick" much IBM's || ThinkPad portable computers. || 10) Maltron Phone: (+44) 081 398 3265 (United Kingdom) P.C.D. Maltron Limited 15 Orchard Lane East Molesey Surrey KT8 OBN England Pamela and Stephen Hobday (contacts) U.S. Distributor: Jim Barrett Applied Learning Corp. 1376 Glen Hardie Road Wayne, PA 19087 Phone: 215-688-6866 Canadian Distributor: Robert Vellinga Human Systems, Inc. 310 Main Street East, Suite 205 Milton, Ontario, L9T 1P4 Phone: 416-875-0220 Fax: 416-878-1683 Price: 375 pounds $790 + shipping in the U.S.A. They have a number of accessories, including carrying cases, switch boxes to use both your normal keyboard and the Maltron, an articulated arm that clamps on to your table, and training 'courses' to help you learn to type on your Maltron. You can also rent a keyboard for 10 pounds/week + taxes. U.S. price: $120/month, and then $60 off purchase if you want it. Shipping: Now (in your choice of colors: black or grey) Supports: PC's, Mac, Amstrad 1512/1640. Maltron has four main products -- a two-handed keyboard, two one-handed keyboards, and a keyboard designed for handicapped people to control with a mouth-stick. The layout allocates more buttons to the thumbs, and is curved to bring keys closer to the fingers. A separate keypad is in the middle. The newer Maltrons have a different layout than the pictures on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu. Function keys, tab, and some other secondary keys have been rearranged. The shift keys are now larger, also. 11) MiniErgo Phone: 315-655-8050 Fax: 315-655-8042 Marquardt Switches Inc. 2711 Route 20 East Cazenovia, New York 13035 Robert Philipchik -- contact Price: $179 for MiniErgo, $125 for external numeric keypad. Shipping: now Supports: PC The MiniErgo is a split keyboard system with no numeric keypad (keypad available separately in August). The two halves are fixed at about a 30 degree angle, to approximate the angle of your arms when you hands are in QWERTY home position. The slant is approximately same as standard 101-key keyboard. They've moved the cursor controls into the gap between the two halves. A Fn key is used to access an embedded keypad and PgUp,PgDn,Home, and End. 12) The MyKey Phone: 703-771-1047 Fax: 703-771-1137 E-Mail: 75050.3323@compuserve.com ErgonomiXX, Inc. 525-K Est Market Street Box 295 Leesburg, VA 22071 Price: $275 Shipping: now (may also be in some CompUSA stores, stock # 289-554) Supports: PC The MyKey has the full 101 keys of a normal PC keyboard plus an integrated trackball pointing device and integrated wrist rests. The main alpha-numeric keys are split at a fixed angle, with the normal PC layout. The function keys appear in a circle on the left, with the arrow keys inside them. 13) Somers EK1 Ergonomic Keyboard Phone: 805-273-1609 E-Mail: RSomers@aol.com (Richard Somers) Somers Engineering 3424 Vicker Way Palmdale, CA 93551 Price: $348 + shipping Supports: PC and Mac (at the same time! see below) Shipping: "in limited quantities" A trackball module is also available ($100), which can clip on the side or replace the cursor keypad. The keyboard is broken down into three modules which can be re- arranged. (the keypad could be put on the left, for example). The alphanumeric keys are vertical rather than the usual diagonal arrangement. The keyboard is based on the Datadesk Switchboard -- Somers just developed a new keyboard module for it. Thus, they take advantage of the Switchboard's PC and Mac compatibility. You can't plug it into both at the same time, but you need only use the right cable, and tweak some DIP switches to change the keyboard's personality. 14) The Tony! Ergonomic KeySystem Phone: 415-969-8669 (I'm told this is no longer valid, though) Tony Hodges The Tony! Corporation 2332 Thompson Court Mountain View, CA 94043, U.S.A. Price: $625 (you commit now, and then you're in line to buy the keyboard. When it ships, if it's cheaper, you pay the cheaper price. If it's more expensive, you still pay $625) Supports: Mac, PC, IBM 3270, Sun, and DEC. Shipping: ??? The Tony! should allow separate positioning of every key, to allow the keyboard to be personally customized. A thumb-operated mouse will also be available. 15) The Vertical Phone: 619-454-0000 Jeffrey Spencer or Stephen Albert P.O. Box 2636 La Jolla, CA 92038, U.S.A. Price: $299 Supports: no info available, probably PC's Shipping: ??? The Vertical Keyboard is split in two halves, each pointing straight up. The user can adjust the width of the device, but not the tilt of each section. Side-view mirrors are installed to allow users to see their fingers on the keys. 16) The Wave Phone: 310-644-6100 Fax: 310-644-6068 Iocomm International Technology 12700 Yukon Avenue Hawthorne, California 90250, U.S.A. Robin Hunter (contact -- in sales) Price: $99.95 + $15 for a set of cables Supports: PC Shipping: now. Iocomm also manufactures "ordinary" 101-key keyboard (PC/AT) and 84-key keyboard (PC/XT), so make sure you get the right one. The one-piece keyboard has a built-in wrist-rest. It looks *exactly* like a normal 101-key PC keyboard, with two inches of built-in wrist rest. The key switch feel is reported to be greatly improved. Chording keyboards / speech recognizers / other products -------------------------------------------------------- GIF pictures of many of these keyboards can be found via anonymous FTP ftp.csua.berkeley.edu:/pub/typing-injury/gifs 1) AccuKey 703-961-2001 (Larry Langley -- President) AccuCorp, Inc. P.O. Box 66 Christiansburg, VA 24073, U.S.A. Price: $495 + shipping. 60 day lease for $35. Shipping: Now. Supports: PC, Mac, IBM 3270, Sun Sparc, and TeleVideo 935 and 955. Doesn't use conventional push-keys. Soft rubber keys, which rock forward and backward (each key has three states), make chords for typing keys. Learning time is estimated to be 2-3 hours, for getting started, and maybe two weeks to get used to it. Currently, the thumbs don't do anything, although a thumb-trackball is in the works. The company claims it takes about a week of work to support a new computer. They will be happy to adapt their keyboard to your computer, if possible. 2) The Bat Infogrip, Inc. Phone: 800-397-0921 or maybe 805-566-1049 1145 Eugenia Place, Suite 201 Carpinteria, CA 93013 Ward Bond (main contact) David Vicknair (did the Unix software) Price: $495 (dual set -- each one is a complete keyboard by itself) $295 (single) (cheaper prices were offered at MacWorld Expo as a show-special.) Shipping: Now. Supports: Mac, IBM PC (serial port -- native keyboard port version coming very soon...). No other workstations supported, but serial support for Unix with X Windows has been written. PC and Mac are getting all the real attention from the company. A chording system. One hand is sufficient to type everything. The second hand is for redundancy and increased speed. 30 day money back guarantee, no questions asked. 3) Braille 'n Speak Phone: 301-879-4944 Blazie Engineering 3660 Mill Green Rd. Street, Md 21154, U.S.A. (information provided by Doug Martin ) The Braille N Speak uses any of several Braille codes for entering information: Grade I, Grade II, or computer Braille. Basically, letters a-j are combinations of dots 1, 2, 4, and 5. Letters k-t are the same combinations as a-j with dot 3 added. Letters u, v, x, y, and z are like a-e with dots 3 and 6 added. (w is unique because Louis Braille didn't have a w in the French alphabet.) 4) DataEgg InHand Development Group 10330 Sepulveda Blvd. Suite 140 Mission Hills, CA 91345, U.S.A. E-Mail: garyf@puente.Jpl.Nasa.Gov Price: $150 Shipping: First Quarter, 1994. Supports: see below The DataEgg is a round, one-handed, chording computer with a two-line LCD display (similar to the Microwriter AgendA). It can also serve as an alternative computer keyboard through a computer's serial port (currently supporting the PC, although it wouldn't be too hard to support X or a Mac if they wrote the driver). InHand will be manufacturing the device, which was originally developed by Gary Friedman of JPL. Mr. Friedman's phone number: 818-354-1220 I don't have a phone number for InHand. More info is available in NASA Tech Briefs, December 1992, Newsweek's "Technology Supplement" of December 12, 1992, or EE Times, March 8, 1993. 5) DragonDictate Phone: 800-TALK-TYP or 617-965-5200 Fax: 617-527-0372 E-Mail: support@dragonsys.com Dragon Systems, Inc. 320 Nevada Street Newton, MA 02160 Prices: (note: these have dropped significantly since last time) || DragonDictate Starter $395 (5k word active vocab,1K global macro,500 app specific macros) DragonDictate Classic $695 (30K active vocab, 5K global macro,2K app specific macros) DragonDictate Power $1695 (15K,30K,45K,60K word active vocab,5K global macro,2K app specific macros) Upgrade prices from older version are also available. Also, you can purchase any of these systems with an "ACPA" DSP || board for an additional $300. DragonDictate will work fine with || a standard "multimedia" sound card, though. || Shipping: Now. Compatibility: 486/33 (or higher) recommended PC only (3rd party support for Mac) Free software support for X windows is also available -- your PC with Dragon hardware talks to your workstation over a serial cable or network. The program is called a2x, and is available via anonymous ftp: ftp.csua.berkeley.edu:/pub/typing-injury/a2x.tar.Z ftp.x.org:/contrib/a2x.tar.Z (most current) If you want to use your Dragon product with X windows, you may want to ask for Peter Cohen, an salesman at Dragon who knows more about this sort of thing. Dragon Systems sells a number of voice recognition products. Most (if not all) of them seem to run on PC's and compatibles (including PS/2's and other MicroChannel boxes). They sell you a hardware board and software which sits in front of a number of popular word processors and spreadsheets. Dragon has recently announced "DDWIN", which extends || Dragon support to all Microsoft Windows applications. || Each user `trains' the system to their voice, and there are provisions to correct the system when it makes mistakes, on the fly. Multiple people can use it, but you have to load a different personality file for each person. You still get the use of your normal keyboard, too. On the DragonDictate Classic, you need to pause 1/10th sec between words. Dragon claims typical input speeds of 30-40 words per minute. Dragon's technology is also part of the following products (about which I have little-to-no other info): Microsoft Windows Sound System (Voice Pilot) IBM VoiceType Power Secretary (by Articulate Systems -- for Macintosh) EMStation (by Lanier Voice Products -- "emergency medical workstation") 6) Half-QWERTY Phone: 416-749-3124 (Canada) FAX: 416-740-4132 The Matias Corporation 178 Thistledown Boulevard Rexdale, Ontario, Canada M9V 1K1 E-mail: ematias@dgp.toronto.edu Demo for anonymous ftp: explorer.dgp.toronto.edu:/pub/Half-QWERTY Price: $129.95 (higher in Canada, quantity discounts available) Shipping: Now. Supports: Mac and PC (but, not Windows) This thing is purely software. No hardware at all. The software will mirror the keyboard when you hold down the space bar, allowing you type one-handed. 7) IBM Speech Server Series (ISSS) / Personal Dictation System (PDS) IBM Corporation Phone: Contact your IBM sales rep or call 800-TALK-2ME ISSS and PDS are built around the same technology. ISSS uses an IBM RS/6000 and PDS uses any PC running OS/2. Price: ISSS: Starts around $5000 for a stand-alone system PDS: $499 Software and microphone $499 ISA card $579 Microchannel card Shipping: Now. ISSS/PDS supports a 30,000 word dictionary. It's speaker-dependent, so requires training (1-2 hours). ISSS/PDS recognize US and UK English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. ISSS/PDS can control any X or OS/2 application, and supports user- customizable profiles for macros. A developer's API is also available. Dictation rates of 70-100 words per minute are possible with 95-99 percent accuracy, including a model of the language to disambiguate words such as "to", "two", and "too". IBM also makes some voice products not really intended for the "handicap" market with continuous speech and smaller vocubularies. Call them for more details. 8) IBM VoiceType 2 IBM Corporation Phone: 1-800-TALK-TYP (Dragon Systems) or 1-800-426-2968 (IBM Catalog orders) Cost: $2195 Shipping: now IBM VoiceType is essentially a repackaged Dragon product. It has an active dictionary of 7000 words and a "backup" dictionary of 100k words. This product is essentially obsoleted by newer IBM and Dragon offerings, so you probably don't want it. 9) IN3 (in-cube) Voice Command Voice: 404-925-7950 Fax: 404-925-7924 Command Corp, Inc. 3675 Crestwood Parkway P.O. Box 956099 Duluth, GA 30136-9502, U.S.A. E-Mail: in3@gacc.atl.ga.us Contact: Brantley Kelly Platforms: Sun Sparc (SunOS or Solaris) and MS Windows 3.1. Price: Sun: $495, without microphone, available separately for $195 (ask for IN3 Pro, not Voice Command) MS Windows: $179 (Voice Command) or $395 (IN3 Pro) (IN3 Pro for MS Windows includes a microphone) For Sun, IN3 provides a complete navigation solution, including voice macros. A developer API is also available. The native Sparc audio is used for input. IN3 can be found on Sun's Catalyst CDware. For MS Windows, IN3 provides a solution similar to the Sun. Most 8 and 16 bit audio cards are supported. A developer API is also available. Windows 3.1 and a 386 or better processor are required. Demos can be found on Compuserve, America On-Line, and various comp.binaries.ms-windows archive site and BBS systems. For typing-injured users, they recommend the IN3 Pro product, rather than the cheaper Voice Command. 10) Kurzweil VOICE Phone: 617-893-5151 Fax: 617-893-6525 Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, Inc. 411 Waverley Oaks Road Waltham MA 02154 Contact: Joe Murphy Cost: Was $3000. Apparently, it's now $995. Shipping: now The Kurzweil system is a voice recognition system which interfaces with PC compatibles. You get a board which will support 50,000 words -- 10K user defined and 40K from a 200K word dictionary. The system is reported to attempt speaker-independence through continuously adapting voice models. This requires about 12 mbytes of disk space to store its state, however. MS-DOS *and* Windows are supported. Requires 486DX/33 or better with at least 32 MBytes RAM. 11) Microwriter AgendA Phone: (+44) 81 715 1023 (U.K.) (voice or FAX) Microwriter Services Ltd Unit 1 Seaforth Works Rear of 8-12 Seaforth Avenue New Malden Surrey KT3 6JP (Info from Carroll Morgan ) The AgendA is a personal desktop assistant (PDA) style machine. You can carry it along with you. It has chording input. You can also hook it up to your PC, or even program it. It costs just under 200 pounds, with 128K memory. [Apparently Microwriter is in some form of bankruptcy right now. The DataEgg is somehow based on this. You may want to contact InHand for more information.] 12) The Minimal Motion Computer Access System Phone: 508-263-6437 Fax: 508-263-6537 Equal Access Computer Technology Dr. Michael Weinreigh 39 Oneida Rd. Acton, MA 01720, U.S.A. Price: InfoGrip-compatible: "a few hundred dollars" + a one-handed Bat For their own system: $300 (DOS software) + "a few hundred dollars" Shipping: these are custom-made, so an occupational therapist would make moulds/do whatever to make it for you. You can buy one now. Supports: PC only, although the InfoGrip-compatible version might work with a Mac. In a one-handed version, there is exactly one button per finger. In a two-handed version, you get four buttons per finger, and the thumbs don't do anything. You can also get one-handed versions with three thumb buttons -- compatible with the InfoGrip Bat. Basically, get it any way you want. They also have a software tutorial to help you learn the chording, which can also be used as a one-handed chording system for most DOS apps, using the standard keyboard. Works on a PC under DOS, not Windows. Planning on Macintosh and PC/Windows support. No work has been done on a Unix version, yet. 13) Octima Phone: 972-4-5322844 (Israel) Fax: 972-3-5322970 Ergoplic Keyboards Ltd. P.O. Box 31 Kiryat Ono 55100, Israel (info from Mandy Jaffe-Katz ) A one-handed keyboard. 14) Power Secretary Phone: 800-443-7077 or 617-935-5656 || Cost: $1995 || Compatibility: Macintosh with at least 20 Mbytes RAM || Articulate Systems A product based on DragonDictate, but for the Macintosh. Call for more info. 15) Twiddler Phone: 516-474-4405, or 800-638-2352 Handykey 141 Mt. Sinai Ave. Mt. Sinai, NY 11766 Chris George (President) Price: $199. Shipping: now. Supports: PC The Twiddler is both a keyboard and a mouse, and it fits in one hand. You type via finger chords. Shift, control, etc. are thumb buttons. When in "mouse" mode, tilting the Twiddler moves the mouse, and mouse buttons are on your fingers. The cabling leaves your normal keyboard available, also. Most applications work, and Windows works fine. DESQview has trouble. GEOWorks also has trouble -- mouse works, keyboard doesn't. OS/2 compatibility coming soon. 60 day full refund, minus shipping fee. Thanks ------ Thanks go to Chris Bekins for providing the basis for this information. Thanks to the numerous contributors: Doug Martin Carroll Morgan Mandy Jaffe-Katz Wes Hunter Paul Schwartz H.J. Woltring Dan Sorenson Chris VanHaren Ravi Pandya Leonard H. Tower Jr. Dan Jacobson Jim Cheetham Cliff Lasser Richard Donkin Paul Rubin David Erb Bob Scheifler Chris Grant Scott Mandell John Darragh Russell Nelson John Lamp Paul Roossin Tom Knotts Donna Foley Bob Adams Gary Karp <72212.3240@COMPUSERVE.COM> Kelly Fairbanks Peter Bower Paul Benati Peter S. Cohen <70254.535@CompuServe.COM> Steve Wartig and everybody else who I've probably managed to forget. The opinions in here are my own, unless otherwise mentioned, and do not represent the opinions of any organization or vendor.