One day, a couple years ago, Jeremy had a Very Bad Idea...
A wearable keyboard for on-stage presentations.
Here is the prototype in action:
The Problem
I speak at developer events pretty regularly; it's one of the things I really love to do. For a new talk, I spend a lot of time planning and practicing. And I work on getting the right amount of content for a time slot -- generally 60 minutes.
In June 2022, I was at the dev up conference in St. Charles, MO, and I gave a talk on golang: "Go for the C# Developer". I managed to mess up the timing on the talk -- I had to skip some of the planned content because otherwise the talk would have run long. (I don't think the audience noticed that I skipped anything, but I did.)
Note: I will be speaking at dev up again this year - August 14-16, 2024. Be sure to take a look at the event; it's always a lot of good content, good learning, and good people.
Back in the speaker room, I talked with some folks including Barry Stahl (https://cognitiveinheritance.com/) trying to figure out what went wrong. I was about 10 minutes off on my timing. I had done the talk several times before and been fine on the time. It really bothered me that I was so far off this time.
And then I figured out what went wrong: COVID.
No, I didn't have COVID. COVID moved developer events online for quite a while (much too long -- I really missed people during that time).
"Go for the C# Developer" was a new talk at the time. And although I had given the talk several times before, they had always been virtual presentations. This was the first time I had given the talk in person on-stage.
That's when I realized what really went wrong: I didn't take transit time into account.
I am a bit animated when talking on stage, and I tend to walk around. This particular talk is all demo, so I type out a few lines of code, then walk away from the podium to talk about what that code does, then walk back to the podium to write a few more lines of code.
What I didn't take into account for this talk was the time spent walking back to the podium to type more code.
The Idea
That's when I came up with the "Very Bad Idea": a wearable keyboard that I could use for presentations. The general design was to have a 2-part keyboard with the pieces placed fairly ergonomically so my hands would fall on them naturally.
Unfortunately, Barry encouraged me on the "Very Bad Idea".
I purchased a 2-part keyboard not long after this event. And I ran through a few thoughts on how to put things together. But I never built anything -- until now.
The Prototype
Materials
- Kinesis Freestyle 2 Blue keyboard (link)
- Logitech Ergo M575 Wireless Trackball (link)
- LEGO bricks (link)
- Ribbon
- Bungee cord
Assembly
I needed a frame to hold the keyboard. I thought that LEGO bricks might work, but I am not the best builder. Then I came across the Space Roller Coaster set. When I was building the LEGO set, the base seemed quite sturdy and just what I needed. (Pieces of that base are in the photo above.)
That path was a dead end. Although the base was sturdy for what it was designed for, it did not hold up well to twisting motion. When I tried using it, the joints came apart pretty quickly. I tried a few modifications before deciding that that design was not the right way to go.
Then I had the idea to use MILS plates. This is a technique the LEGO community uses to build sturdy bases that can be moved without worrying about things flexing. I didn't use any specific designs -- just the general one of creating a sandwich of bricks and plates.
Here is the inside of the first plate I built sized for one half of the keyboard:
Then I built a second:
Then I assembled them with the keyboard:
There are quite a few things shown here. First, I opened the keyboard and ran ribbons through both halves. This provides a general way to attach the keyboard to something else. I ran the ribbon through the LEGO plates and sealed them up. Then I tied the ribbon at the end to hold the keyboard onto the plate.
Once I had the two halves, I connected them with some cross pieces. Here's the (almost) completed build.
The arrangement of the keyboard halves is the key to this particular design/idea. When I place this on my chest, my hands fall fairly naturally onto the keyboard.
You can get a better idea of how this works from the video at the top of the article.
It Works!
I'm actually surprised this worked as well as it did. I am pretty happy with this as a first prototype. There are still quite a few issues to address, but this is a start.
Here are some things to improve:
-
General sturdiness
It's pretty sturdy, but pieces tend to come loose. -
Keyboard position
The position of the keyboard halves in relation to each other is not quite right. And a bit of an angle would be good, too. -
Attachment points
Bungee cords hooked to an unreliable connection points are not a great solution. My initial idea was to use a guitar strap or something similar. - Trackball mounting
A usable solution needs a mouse/trackball/trackpad. Current thought is to mount the trackball mouse to the side of my leg (like a gunslinger).
Will I Actually Use This?
I would love to use a version of this on stage at least once. If nothing else, people would remember me (although I hope they remember me for the cool things that I show them in my coding demos).
I will also need to practice -- A LOT. I am a good touch typist (there's no way this would work if I wasn't). But I would need to do dozens (if not hundreds) of hours of practice in order to be proficient at using it. Programming is particularly interesting because there are a lot of symbols used. I also use a lot of multi-key shortcuts while programming. So, lots of practice.
I'll be sure to post updates, and we'll see if "Very Bad Idea" ever makes it into production (meaning, one of my presentations).
Happy Building!
