On one hand, I can’t suggest a great alternative, but man, silicone keys…I guess if they work for the author.
Stenotypists – people who have to professionally do very high-speed text entry – do use these dinky specialized keyboards that IIRC from a Japanese-language one – I think that there were multiple Japanese layouts – can only have a home row or something. I think that they use chording or something. I don’t know if that might address it, but learning one would be a huge change. Also, I have no idea what keys they can output…given that they’re highly-optimized for text entry, they might not be able to do weird symbols.
A steno machine, stenotype machine, shorthand machine, stenograph or steno writer is a specialized chorded keyboard or typewriter used by stenographers for shorthand use. In order to pass the United States Registered Professional Reporter test, a trained court reporter or closed captioner must write speeds of approximately 180, 200, and 225 words per minute (wpm) at very high accuracy in the categories of literary, jury charge, and testimony, respectively.[1] Some stenographers can reach up to 375 words per minute, according to the website of the California Official Court Reporters Association (COCRA).[2]
That has some examples of one-key-per-finger keyboards, like the BAT keyboard (well, that has three for the thumb, but given that you hit those with the side of the thumb, I assume that it’d be okay with long nails):
The problem is that (a) the BAT is discontinued and (b) you really don’t want a one handed keyboard, which is what the BAT does…it’d be better to have a two handed chorded keyboard, or you’re taking half of your fingers out of the picture.
EDIT: Here’s an open-source, two-handed chording keyboard, the Ialboard, based on the discontinued DataHand keyboard. I’m not sure that it’d work with very long nails in its current form – they might collide with the structure of the keyboard – but it’s 3d printed and I’m pretty sure that if the format doesn’t work as-is, a tweak to the 3d-printed keys would permit for arbitrarily long nails. Just need to create a space for 'em.
Gonna need some serious keyboard re-learning, though.
EDIT2: Here’s another two-handed chording keyboard with one input device per finger, the CharaChorder. It uses an analog D-pad under each finger. I think that it’d have space for long nails as-is. It does have separate arrow key and mouse control sticks, and I’m not sure if those, given the placement, would be an issue for long nails. I’d imagine that if one were determined to work around that with an external mouse device and – if you use arrow keys enough to need it; I rarely do – maybe some dedicated arrow key keyboard, though I’d think that having the arrow keys in vim-style hjkl-style layout might be preferable to the inverted-T layout that seems common. I don’t know whether the barrel connector’s positioning there would be an issue, though the positioning of that is obviously not critical to the keyboard, and I imagine that if it is an issue, with a bit of work, one could relocate it.
EDIT3: It looks like there’s another DataHand-based 3D-printed keyboard besides the above-mentioned Ialboard, the Svalboard. Same argument as with the Ialboard – I’m not sure that it’d be usable with long nails as is, but I’m pretty sure that that design could be modified with approprately-different key shapes to permit long nails to extend through a gap. You can apparently buy the thing in kit form, 3D-print it, so I figure that if someone wants to make a “longnail” variant of a few of the 3D-printed parts, that’d probably be a pretty easy keyboard to start from.
The downside is that I don’t think that – unlike the above CharaChorder – this comes with a travel carrying case, which might be important if you’re a laptop user. I guess it’d probably be possible to craft something with foam and a shell, but that’s not off-the-shelf any more.
Words per minute meaning literally words or characters?
Words. Well, IIRC in tests it’s something like an abstract word of fixed length, something like 5 characters or something, as that’s the average word length in English. Like, it doesn’t mean you’re typing “antidisestablishmentarianism” over and over, one word each time.
Since words vary in length, for the purpose of measurement of text entry the definition of each “word” is often standardized to be five characters or keystrokes long in English,[1] including spaces and punctuation. For example, under such a method applied to plain English text the phrase “I run” counts as one word, but “rhinoceros” and “let’s talk” would both count as two.
Karat et al. found in one study of average computer users in 1999 that the average rate for transcription was 32.5 words per minute, and 19.0 words per minute for composition.[2] In the same study, when the group was divided into “fast”, “moderate”, and “slow” groups, the average speeds were 40 wpm, 35 wpm, and 23 wpm, respectively.
With the onset of the era of desktop computers and smartphones, fast typing skills became much more widespread. As of 2019, the average typing speed on a mobile phone was 36.2 wpm with 2.3% uncorrected errors—there were significant correlations with age, level of English proficiency, and number of fingers used to type.[3] Some typists have sustained speeds over 200 wpm for a 15-second typing test with simple English words.[4]
Typically, professional typists type at speeds of 43 to 80 wpm, while some positions can require 80 to 95 (usually the minimum required for dispatch positions and other time-sensitive typing jobs), and some advanced typists work at speeds above 120 wpm.[5] Two-finger typists, sometimes also referred to as “hunt and peck” typists, commonly reach sustained speeds of about 37 wpm for memorized text and 27 wpm when copying text, but in bursts may be able to reach much higher speeds.[6] From the 1920s through the 1970s, typing speed (along with shorthand speed) was an important secretarial qualification, and typing contests were popular and often publicized by typewriter companies as promotional tools.
Stenotype
Stenotype keyboards enable the trained user to input text as fast as 360 wpm at very high accuracy for an extended period, which is sufficient for real-time activities such as court reporting or closed captioning. While training dropout rates are very high — in some cases only 10% or even fewer graduate — stenotype students are usually able to reach speeds of 100–120 wpm within six months, which is faster than most alphanumeric typists. Guinness World Records gives 360 wpm with 97.23% accuracy as the highest achieved speed using a stenotype.[7]
So it’s not a typo or whatever, if that’s what you mean.
Because 3 - 4 words per second seems a bit much to me and whoever talks that fast?
It’s pretty fast, but then you’re talking about a professional text-entry person using the fastest plain-text entry mechanism we know about in a speed test. I’m sure that that’s not something demanded of a stenotypist in a normal real-time transcription session.
My guess is that you probably could still make practical use of it if you didn’t need real-time transcription by doing a recording and then playing back with software that can do time stretching to accelerate the rate of playback; you could transcribe more-quickly.
'course, automated transcription’s getting better too, and that might also be an answer on that front.
If only something allowed you to use the typing system you already know, was able to be rolled up, doesn’t require you to already own a 3D printer and have knowledge of modeling software, and cost less than $50.
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Hmm. That’s an interesting problem to have.
On one hand, I can’t suggest a great alternative, but man, silicone keys…I guess if they work for the author.
Stenotypists – people who have to professionally do very high-speed text entry – do use these dinky specialized keyboards that IIRC from a Japanese-language one – I think that there were multiple Japanese layouts – can only have a home row or something. I think that they use chording or something. I don’t know if that might address it, but learning one would be a huge change. Also, I have no idea what keys they can output…given that they’re highly-optimized for text entry, they might not be able to do weird symbols.
goes looking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype
Hmm.
Looking at the key layout there, and here:
https://stenokeyboards.com/
…it looks like English-language stenotype keyboards don’t just use a single row, but rather two or more rows. So that’s probably out.
There’s apparently a second chording layout, the “palantype” layout, but that also doesn’t do only one key per finger:
https://www.openstenoproject.org/palantype/tutorial/2016/08/21/learn-palantype.html
There are dedicated chording keyboards that do use only one key per finger, though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard
That has some examples of one-key-per-finger keyboards, like the BAT keyboard (well, that has three for the thumb, but given that you hit those with the side of the thumb, I assume that it’d be okay with long nails):
https://www.infogrip.com/bat-keyboard.html
The problem is that (a) the BAT is discontinued and (b) you really don’t want a one handed keyboard, which is what the BAT does…it’d be better to have a two handed chorded keyboard, or you’re taking half of your fingers out of the picture.
EDIT: Here’s an open-source, two-handed chording keyboard, the Ialboard, based on the discontinued DataHand keyboard. I’m not sure that it’d work with very long nails in its current form – they might collide with the structure of the keyboard – but it’s 3d printed and I’m pretty sure that if the format doesn’t work as-is, a tweak to the 3d-printed keys would permit for arbitrarily long nails. Just need to create a space for 'em.
Gonna need some serious keyboard re-learning, though.
EDIT2: Here’s another two-handed chording keyboard with one input device per finger, the CharaChorder. It uses an analog D-pad under each finger. I think that it’d have space for long nails as-is. It does have separate arrow key and mouse control sticks, and I’m not sure if those, given the placement, would be an issue for long nails. I’d imagine that if one were determined to work around that with an external mouse device and – if you use arrow keys enough to need it; I rarely do – maybe some dedicated arrow key keyboard, though I’d think that having the arrow keys in vim-style hjkl-style layout might be preferable to the inverted-T layout that seems common. I don’t know whether the barrel connector’s positioning there would be an issue, though the positioning of that is obviously not critical to the keyboard, and I imagine that if it is an issue, with a bit of work, one could relocate it.
EDIT3: It looks like there’s another DataHand-based 3D-printed keyboard besides the above-mentioned Ialboard, the Svalboard. Same argument as with the Ialboard – I’m not sure that it’d be usable with long nails as is, but I’m pretty sure that that design could be modified with approprately-different key shapes to permit long nails to extend through a gap. You can apparently buy the thing in kit form, 3D-print it, so I figure that if someone wants to make a “longnail” variant of a few of the 3D-printed parts, that’d probably be a pretty easy keyboard to start from.
The downside is that I don’t think that – unlike the above CharaChorder – this comes with a travel carrying case, which might be important if you’re a laptop user. I guess it’d probably be possible to craft something with foam and a shell, but that’s not off-the-shelf any more.
Words per minute meaning literally words or characters? Because 3 - 4 words per second seems a bit much to me and whoever talks that fast?
Words. Well, IIRC in tests it’s something like an abstract word of fixed length, something like 5 characters or something, as that’s the average word length in English. Like, it doesn’t mean you’re typing “antidisestablishmentarianism” over and over, one word each time.
kagis
Yeah:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute
So it’s not a typo or whatever, if that’s what you mean.
It’s pretty fast, but then you’re talking about a professional text-entry person using the fastest plain-text entry mechanism we know about in a speed test. I’m sure that that’s not something demanded of a stenotypist in a normal real-time transcription session.
My guess is that you probably could still make practical use of it if you didn’t need real-time transcription by doing a recording and then playing back with software that can do time stretching to accelerate the rate of playback; you could transcribe more-quickly.
'course, automated transcription’s getting better too, and that might also be an answer on that front.
If only something allowed you to use the typing system you already know, was able to be rolled up, doesn’t require you to already own a 3D printer and have knowledge of modeling software, and cost less than $50.
If only…