deskthority

Hi all,
I've shortened my username a bit from "Kurrk" to "Kurk". That's a good opportunity to post a few pictures of a rather "short" keyboard: Infogrip's BAT keyboard. This particular one is the left-handed version of the old model with AT/ADB interface from - as far as I know - 1994. BTW, the name has nothing to do with super heroes but stems from Infogrip's home town Baton Rouge.
It is a chorded keyboard which means that characters and character-modifier combination are entered by pressing several of its seven keys at once. The characters are registered after releasing all of the pressed keys. Standard alpha characters can be entered by using the four finger keys and the grey thumb key. The red and the blue thumb keys are employed for entering punctuation and modifiers. E.g. pressing the blue button once activates a momentary SHIFT mode so that the next character entered will end up as its shifted character.
It took me a while to memorize the character combinations. After about two weeks with a little daily practice I was able to type 20-25 WPM but only if there were no numbers or less common punctuation involved. Entering something like "Ctrl"+"?" takes some finger work.
The ergonomic experience was comfortable. One can rest the hand on the BAT keyboard and the only thing that has to move are the finger tops; the thumbs do a little more work. The tenting angle is nice but the inclination is a bit to steep for my taste. As a matter of fact, it should be the other way round: the highest point should be the wrist rest. A further critique is that the four finger keys are a bit too far apart in my opinion.
The BAT keyboard makes use of ordinary Cherry profile key caps in A,S,D row profile except for the pinky which has number row profile. They are mounted upside down.
An interesting thing is the switch type: modified Cherry MX blacks. Original blacks would be way too hard to press especially if activating five of them at the same time might be required. Infogrip has exchanged the springs for much lighter ones. The result is kind of a "ghetto red" switch but the actuation force is even lower than that of modern reds (see pic in next post).
I can imagine using the BAT as a supplementary keyboard for CAD and other programs where a mouse is the main input but where keying in some basic characters is also required.

More pictures behind the spoiler.

The key caps. A,S,D profile except for the pinky in number row profile. Shiny ABS. Even more pictures behind the spoiler. The springs. Clearly different from either red or black switches. Much lighter. Red wins against BAT black.

Khaaaaaaaaan!

Sorry, I mean Kurrrrrrrrrrrk!

Anyway, the BAT's a truly intriguing keyboard. Extreme chording. I like the way the DataHand approaches the problem (by using multi-lateral "switches" with several directions of input at each finger) but the BAT looks mean and must take some mental muscle to use. What's it like for navigation and everyday tasks besides text entry I wonder?

Interesting chording according to the quick reference guide. Seem somewhat possible to get the basic alpha/numeric keys down (when you are not using the actual keyboard:))

Website navigation is ok, the arrow functions and things like Page up/down, home, end are easily memorized. But more advanced navigation like Ctrl+arrow or shift+arrow is very cumbersome.
The basic alphas and, with a bit effort, the numbers are easily memorized. As I said, it has its charms as a supplementary keyboard.