A Physical Flick Bluetooth Keyboard by Google

https://www.google.co.jp/ime/furikku/

by indream • 10 years ago

103 45 10 years ago

google.co.jp

Zikes2• 10 years ago

I fell for it, right up until the "Flick Sensor".

Happy April 1st, Japan.

zodPod• 10 years ago

Dammit. I was all excited. This looked really cool. I wanted one in English.

pklausler2• 10 years ago

It's that time of the year again, isn't it.

This year, I've been telling people that it's rude not to rewind YouTube videos when you're done watching them, so that they'll load faster for the next person.

josefdlange• 10 years ago

I like this one. There are a number of people who'd not quite fall for it, but go on wondering if you're telling the truth or not.

Palomides2• 10 years ago

you could add another level to get more technical people by saying it's an artifact of their buffering system

pklausler2• 10 years ago

I like that, but actually I've been telling them that playing a video that isn't rewound causes an exception to be thrown, and that's slow.

Zikes2• 10 years ago

When I was younger and DVDs were new I did manage to convince my aunt that they needed rewinding.

pcl• 10 years ago

http://www.dvdrewinder.com/

colept• 10 years ago

I just spit-taked my mint, thank you.

dang• 10 years ago

It's that time of the year again, isn't it.

Yes, the time of year when the April 1 arms race takes yet another chunk out of March 31.

joering2• 10 years ago

Come to think wouldn't the keyboard that each keys give you 3 or 4 chars with one single action (push) speed up writing process tremendously??

T9 doesnt even come close!!!

emeraldd• 10 years ago

This used to be a thing....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrogPad

I'm not sure they ever made it too far but I always wanted to get one.

skykooler• 10 years ago

I remember seeing those in Popular Science and being vaguely interested.

cstross• 10 years ago

I bought one, so I can attest that the hardware was real (bluetooth, left-handed model). Alas, it's lost somewhere in a pile of boxes left still-not-unpacked from my last move, and they went bust some years ago -- rumours of a new low-profile version similar to the Apple chiclet keyboard have failed to materialize as hardware so far.

The thing worked, and worked surprisingly well for single-hand typing (if, for example, you had an injury to the other paw). Trouble is, it cost more than a regular QWERTY keyboard, was slower (all those chording shift-states), and wasn't ambidextrous (left-handed and right-handed models had differing layouts, IIRC).

wodenokoto• 10 years ago

In case you don't know this is actually how smartphone keyboards work in Japan.

djrogers• 10 years ago

Thanks for the reminder to stay off the internet tomorrow...

snuxoll• 10 years ago

And now I'm sad again that the DataHand is dead.

saboot• 10 years ago

There is a keyboard similar to this, except it's even more strange. Introducing the DataHand : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DataHand

livingparadox• 10 years ago

I'd consider buying one if they were still selling...

OctoberVlahos• 10 years ago

The Twiddler 3 chording keyboard seems like something you might find useful. http://twiddler.tekgear.com/

kyrra• 10 years ago

It's worth pointing out that they actually built the device and have a rough guide on how to build your own: https://github.com/google/mozc-devices/tree/master/mozc-furi...

It looks like they have the code to make it work with an arduino.

edit: edited to indicate it's real (instead of saying "may have built"). They aren't selling it, but you could build your own.

Palomides2• 10 years ago

it looks like little lasercut plates sitting on some joystick modules you can get on ebay, seems technologically very feasible

Washuu• 10 years ago

The README.md actually lists all the part names and numbers. This is something that can be built.

Everyone in here is joking about this being an "April Fool Joke", but this an actual device that can be created by anyone with the tools. This hardly classifies as a joke.

Adafruit has the joystick modules for cheaper for USA customers.

tlrobinson2• 10 years ago

The only April Fools jokes I enjoy are absurd things that someone has actually implemented in code/hardware/etc. Anyone can write a ridiculous fake blog post about being acquired by $ARCHENEMY_COMPETITOR in 5 minutes, but it's been done before dozens of times and is just a waste of everyone's time.

You could also see this as wasted effort, but they probably had a lot of fun working on it.

ProblemFactory• 10 years ago

You might enjoy http://www.stupidhackathon.com/

awinter-py• 10 years ago

this would be 1e6 better with e-ink keys

chickenbane• 10 years ago

Direct link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LI1PysAlkU

enobrev• 10 years ago

This is amazing. Ever since I was a boy, I've wanted to type on a half-eaten chocolate bar.

natchiketa• 10 years ago

I'm going with the Drum Set version: https://www.google.co.jp/intl/ja/landing/drumsetkeyboard/

PascLeRasc• 10 years ago

If there's a competition to how long it took to recognize the joke, I believed it up until the chocolate bar. Then again, I don't know any of these kind of syllabic languages.

nerfhammer• 10 years ago

Emojis are turning English into an ideographic language. Look at Kappa for example.

jedmeyers• 10 years ago

Last time I saw those kind of buttons in software in the Gambit REPL app for iOS. They are gimmicky but kinda useful.

http://i.imgur.com/5sVU3z1.png

EdiX• 10 years ago

I don't get it. Not even as an april fools joke.

xmfcx• 10 years ago

It didn't really feel impossible, did it? With today's technology, typing over chocolate bars seems natural ;)

j0e1• 10 years ago

I wish it was true. Tap dancing while typing. Humph..

rcarmo• 10 years ago

Loved it. Regardless of the yearly madness that pervades tech circles on this date, it was cute (perchance whimsical), well conceived, and executed with a lot of polish.

Kudos.

obilgic• 10 years ago

I would actually use that emoji keyboard.

kbd• 10 years ago

This actually looks very similar to the MessagEase keyboard (which is a real thing)

https://www.exideas.com/

Edit: here's their video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45gR-J0Yj6M

cs702• 10 years ago

Make sure to watch the video -- especially the part in which the team introduces a way to use half-eaten chocolate bars for keyboard input... it gets even more surreal after that.

shogun21• 10 years ago

It begins...

Man, though, I would actually like to buy and use that!

Terribledactyl• 10 years ago

I don't think the joke is the keyboard itself, not really. But I have weird fascination with mechanical computing combos.

Rather the startup, absurd change the world with chocolate, city blocks, and radical version changes video.

Disrupt keyboards.

Tiksi• 10 years ago

I'm probably strange in wanting this, but I wish there was a bluetooth 3x4 T9 keypad with a small lcd that shows the content of the input box. Basically a Nokia 3310 as an input device to a smartphone. For whatever reason I found t9 input a lot nicer than swyping/tapping on a touchscreen keyboard. I didn't have to watch my fingers or pay attention at all to type like I do with touchscreen querty keyboards. I've toyed with the idea of building something like that but it would likely be too bulky without professional tooling that requires $EXPENSIVE_PRODUCION_RUN

A Physical Flick Bluetooth Keyboard by Google

Related Stories