10 Unconventional Keyboards

10. Roll-up Keyboard

The same size and layout as a standard desktop keyboard, the roll-up keyboard has one vital difference and it’s in the name. This useful feature means you can stick it in your back pocket and take it to your friends house, to work, or whatever. With both PS/2 and USB connection you can patch into most devices.

9. Wrist Keyboard

For the Preditor wanna-be’s out there comes the WristPC, again in standard qwerty layout, but less than half the size. Fully waterproof and illuminated with adjustable backlighting, the WristPC also comes in a variety of see-through colors. Cool as it looks, WristPC isn’t really value for money. The cheapest one rolls in at $229 and doesn’t have a USB interface. Still, it makes you feel like a cyber warrior ultra hacker.

8. SafeType

Just looking at this thing gives me a headache, it’s like something out of hellraiser. The idea is that your arms lie on the table and you hold the two ends like joysticks. While it definately looks out of the ordinary and is a good conversation piece, the practicalities seem limited, and it aint cheap neither. At $179 before postage and packing, it doesn’t even have a USB interface. Although they do offer a 30-day money back guarentee.

7. KYBX-300-PM – Indestructable

Stealth Computer (www.stealthcomputer.com) sell a wide range of top performing keyboards to the industrial world, medical world, public sector and even the military. As such, some of their keyboards need to be not only virtually indestructable but failsafe too. At $625 USD the KYBX-300-PM doesn’t come cheap but then its pretty hard to break. Designed to stand up to the abuses suffered in public access, kiosks and harsh environments, the KYBX-300-PM claims it is Vandal proof, Abrasion proof, Dismantle proof and Indestructable!

6. Das Keyboard

Das Keyboard is the same shape, size and layout as a QWERTY keyboard. In fact it is a QWERTY keyboard. With one subtle difference: the keys aren’t marked. They’re completely black. Das keyboard is obviously designed to appeal to the computer geek ego and it does it well offering awe-inspiring typing. While pretty expensive at $79.00 (I can spray over my $9.99 Black Dell keyboard for however much a can of spray paint costs), it’s still an impressive yet simple idea and never fails to produce a smirk on the face of any would-be hacker.

5. Wolf King

This awesome looking circular keyboard comes is aimed at pro gamers. It features a total of 55 keys (all controlled with the left hand), onboard volume control, silent keys and USB connection. None of that matters in comparison with just how cool it looks, coming in an array of colors and styles, this is by far the coolest looking single handed keyboard.

4. DX1 Input System

This ominous sounding keyboard is essentially the most customizable keyboard currently in existence. Every key (except two) can be placed wherever you want on the board and can be assigned any value from a single keystroke to a list of commands. The two permanent buttons bring up the DX1 control panel and allow you to assign and edit macros on the fly, meaning you can be WoWing away and realize you need a new macro, add a key, assign a value, then continue playing. Awesome! Not only that but you can assign different keysets to different programs (that are remembered). Finally, the tray is see-through so you can add your own backgrounds and the keys come blank but labels are provided. This is pretty amazing, and pretty affordable at $140.

3. Professional II DataHand

Pretty unique, this ergonomically designed keyboard is designed to fit your hands and claims zero hand movement and a reduction of finger travel of 88%. It hosts a huge variety of features including vertical and horizontal adjusting keys, include of 10 degrees, built in programmable mouse, custom key layouts and functions available on request. It’s also plug and play and features macro programmable keys, re-mappable key layout, programmable 3 button mouse, instant DVORAK layout option, and optional foot pedals!

At $700 the Datahand is one of the most expensive keyboards out there but damn if it isn’t one of the coolest, weirdest looking keyboard on the market.

2. Optimus LED Keyboard

While still in production, Optimus is already one of the most famous keyboards on the net. Each one of the keys is a 24×24 pixel LED display screen. The re-programmable nature of this keyboard means you can assign any icon or image you like to each and every key, giving endless possibility. A Quake typeset, Adobe Photoshop typeset and Flash typeset are just 3 of the many examples proposed, not to mention the breakthrough implications of Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and other foreign type faces.

1. Laser Keyboard

Though it looks like the monolith from 2001 A Space Oddysy, this is my favorite keyboard simply because of its unique technology enabling virtually anything to act as a keyboard. The Laser Keyboard broadcasts a laser image of a QWERTY keyboard onto any flat surface which you can then type upon with your bare fingers. The keystrokes are picked up and transmitted to whichever device you have it connected to allowing for an amazing take-anywhere keyboard. Unfortunately it currently costs $1564.37 (USD) but the price is expected to drop as demand levels off. In the meantime we’ll have to console ourselves with dreams of scrolling text space bars and winking babes for tab buttons.

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