Alternative keyboards available today

Consumer keyboards

Microsoft Natural

Cherry ErgoPlus

When, in the mid and late 1980's, the problem of computer overuse related RSI became recognised, a number of keyboards appeared on the market purporting to be ergonomically superior. Some were marginal improvements on the classical flat keyboard, although they all introduced new problems and none addressed all the known issues. Remarkably, none of these innovations was based on an research arising from an integrated analysis of seating, desk and keyboard design; nor of a profound understanding of the causes of repetitive strain injury. Typically a computer oriented engineer would introduce some intuitively derived improvements to his model and call it ergonomic. The Kinesis was designed by a zoologist without any specialist knowledge in ergonomics or biomechanics. The DataHand keyboard was designed by a lawyer.

Kinesis Sculpted

Comfort Adjustable

Commonly known among the more successful keyboards are the Microsoft Natural keyboard and the ErgoPlus, developed jointly by Cherry and Siemens. Among the class of so called sculpted keyboards, the Kinesis manufactured in the USA, and the Maltron made in the UK (not shown) have achieved some degree of acceptance. The Comfort keyboard was is highly adjustable; and is not longer manufactured. With the exception of the Microsoft keyboard, none has achieved significant market penetration.

Custom made keyboards for professional use

Siemens Electrocom

Data entry, transaction processing and mail sorting

Postal sorting and bank transaction processing centra are faced with the most acute problems in data entry ergonomics. Workers are occupied with monotonous tasks which are machine paced. This kind of work carries the highest risk RSI. Accordingly, it is not surprising that a number of firms have manufactured their own in house Available keyboards.

Siemens Electrocom

Numeric keyboard designed by Siemens Electrocom for the Hong Kong Post Airmail Centre. Three digit codes input to the right side for each sortation. The left hand keys provide operational controls.

UK Royal Mail

UK Royal Mail

This chord keyboard has been designed for situations where a modest number of sort categories are needed; currently in use by AN Post, Ireland, for extremely fast coding of less than 200 outgoing destinations. The original design was made by UK Royal Mail. Training time on this keyboard is relatively long, but the yield in productivity enhancement is very high.

Hi-Port NEC

Hi-Port/NEC

This is a very simple, very fast, heavy duty alpha keyboard for postal work from Hi-Port UK and later adapted by NEC for video coding in Korea and Thailand. It is currently used extensively by Hong Kong Post to enter postcodes and special 'extract' codes.

This is far from an exhaustive list of consumer keyboards. More information about alternative keyboards is readily found on the Internet.