Google Japan shows off conveyor-belt keyboard with keys that move to fingers

I love Google Japan’s annual[1] tradition of releasing wild/wacky keyboard designs.

[1] Sidenote: anyone know if there’s a specific significance to September 30 or October 1 in Japan à la April Fools’ Day?

Better link: https://blog.google/intl/ja-jp/products/android-chrome-play/...

That posture looks painfully uncomfortable for the wrist.

There's no speech-to-text in Japanese apparently.

And I here like a moron using _layers_ in my corne with blank caps. Definitely gonna try to mod this to support at least two real layers per keyboard side.

This must be one of those Japanese "quirky-fun, but useless inventions" things (chindogu). You know, like the toilet paper holder you strap to your head so you're never without a roll, or the vise you use to press two or more well-worn bars of soap together into a single, bigger bar.

In terms of design it reminds me of that bit of Animusic's "Pipe Dream" where xylophone bars of the appropriate pitch travel on a rail just in time to be struck by ball bearings from a stationary launcher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmoUSSVSV7I&t=2m12s

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