Can I Get A Good Ax?
For the past few weeks, I’ve been helping out with an audit at work. My function has mainly been as a scribe, sitting in the conference room and doing my best to capture everything that happens during the nine or ten hours of auditing. My curse is my ability to type and my understanding of the systems being audited – meaning I can get the important stuff and recognize the stuff that might not need to be written down.
I’ve enjoyed it. It is like liveblogging, since the notes are monitored live by our audit response team in another conference room.
I’m particular about my keyboard. In my normal job, I type most of the day. When I’m not at work, I type some more. I want to be a writer…which means typing. You develop a preference for keyboards.
On my primary desktop, I use a Microsoft Ergo. On the laptop, I don’t have much of a choice (although I did shop for my machine based on keyboard size and layout). At work, I managed to get another Microsoft Ergo, matching my home PC. So when it came time to serve in the audit, I yanked my keyboard and took it with me.
Walking around the building with this keyboard seemed odd. People stared. I felt like I needed a little case to keep it in, like a musical instrument.
And that got me thinking. For someone who might spend ten to twelve hours a day typing, my keyboard is nearly as important to me as an instrument would be to a musician.
So why can’t I go find a high-end, luxury, customized keyboard to match my particular biomechanics?
I started looking on the net and didn’t find much. Is there a market here?
How much would someone be willing to pay if they could customize a keyboard? I mean things like key click, key pressure, positions of keys, amount of movement of each key, materials, textures and so forth?
I have a problem with my ‘b’ and ‘v’. Why can’t I get those keys with slightly different spacing? How about a customization process like my eye doctor? Move those keys around…”Is that better, or worse?”
I think I would be willing to shell out a decent amount for something like this. Anyone else?
2 Comments to “Can I Get A Good Ax?”
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Maybe this isn’t the forum for bouncing around a potentially brilliant idea to service an untapped market space…
I did a quick Gurgle and found the following web sites:
http://www.fentek-ind.com/keyboard.htm
http://www.synctronics.com/process.html
http://www.laube.com/products/input/key_ass/index.htm
http://www.ikey.com/custom.aspx
None of these do exactly what you say. When customizing, they talk mostly about key colors and labels. Laube seems to come the closest. But, holy crap, it’s going to cost.
The ergo keyboards at the first site in the list were around $300.00. That’s not so bad, but not truly customized. Laube designs and builds custom key interfaces for specific applications. The chrome telephone pad was cool. So, designing a specific keyboard is within the realm of their skillset. But, I don’t know if they could “fit it” to your biometrics. Furthermore, for a one-off, the price is going to be right up there with the custom musical instrument.
I like a good keyboard. I like the click feedback, the rough texture, and a good solid feel. That’s why I use this old IBM keyboard. But, dude, I got it for $7.00 at Goodwill. I would not have paid $300.00. I might have gone to $20.00, although I would know I was being squeezed.
But, I wonder… If I tried one that was custom fit to me, would I change my mind?
Given the focus on ergonomics in the workplace, I wonder if there is a market there. You take your magic fitter and go to a big company. You charge them … oh … $750.00 per keyboard. Then, they churn their employees through your system.
Maybe even market it as a medical device. That would get insurance companies involved.
Shiny idea!
Chris.