design flaw?

[Dimitri]

Not sure if anyone has brought this up, but what's the deal with recovering your fingers after pressing a key?

E.g., with my hands on home row, if I press the letter 'T' and then recover my finger back to 'F', it is supposed to NOT register that 'F' as a keystroke... but it does. This inserts (what equates to) jibberish. Instead of 'trouble', it writes 'trfouljbgle'. Unacceptable.

This forces me to go back to my "pecking" days, before I new how to type at normal speed.

And I can foresee your response... you're going to say "give it time to adjust"... but I don't see this problem ever going away, unless the software that runs the keyboard is corrected.

Currently, I have to recover multiple fingers back to home row in order to make it realize that I'm trying to merely recover my fingers. But who types like that? Nobody I've ever known in my life.

How difficult would it be for the software to be able to recognize a recovered finger, versus an actual keystroke? The suggestion I read in another thread may be just the solution that's needed. Make a softer surface that can prevent recovered fingers from being mistaken for actual keystrokes.

Cheers.
Dimitri

[fingerworks]

The 'mode' of typing you're attempting is only meant for the severely injured who can't yet stand to hover fingers over the surface at all.

But you can't type very quickly at all in this mode with most fingers pinned to the surface. That's why hovering with rests between words is the recommended normal mode of typing on the TouchStream.

There is a trick that will allow you to 'recover' fingers to home row without them typing...set them down VERY gently on home row. You'll see that if put down very gently 'recovering' fingers won't issue keystrokes.

[Dimitri]

So, what you're saying is: type one word and look back down to see that your fingers are still hovering over the correct areas. Then look back up at the screen and type another word, and look back down again to see if your fingers are hovering over the right keys, then look up again and.....

I mean... come one dude :) I'm quite willing to give this keyboard a fair trial (I WANT to use this keyboard), but if you're saying that that is the best I can ever hope to do on this keyboard (look up, look down, look up, look down...), then I think I need to reconsider my recent purchase.

The touchpad, which I also own, is absolutely amazing. Looks like I'll have to keep that, and go back to a regular keyboard.

Cheers, and thanks for the candid answers.
Dimitri

[t3ffreak]

Another explanation of the process:

- rest all fingers - using the raised dots to find the home positions;
- lift all fingers, type a word;
- repeat.

I find that I type phrases or sentences before resting. The rest between words is more concerned with relocating the home positions than actually resting. Doing it every word helps to train your fingers to return to the home position every time.

The raised buttons under the home keys mean that there's no need to look at the keyboard.

[-jeffB]

Originally posted by Dimitri
I mean... come one dude :) I'm quite willing to give this keyboard a fair trial (I WANT to use this keyboard), but if you're saying that that is the best I can ever hope to do on this keyboard (look up, look down, look up, look down...), then I think I need to reconsider my recent purchase.


For what it's worth, I don't believe anyone else has raised this particular issue on the forum. That's not to say that it isn't a problem for you, of course. I can say, though, that you "can hope to do" much better on the keyboard -- all of us here do.

As Fingerworks sternly warns in its promotional material, it does take some time to re-learn touch typing on the Touchstream. If you can't afford to spend a couple of weeks climbing the learning curve, or if you can't afford to type any slower than you do on a standard keyboard, you probably should return the keyboard.

Rest assured, though, that it does get better. :)

[ken]

You'll make it, don't worry.
When first started, I was concerened about finger-drift but I found that after about 2 weeks that that I was much more concerned about it than I shoould have been. Using my hands as anchors (and I mean ANCHORS), I have very little problems with my fingers drifting (well, that may very well be to the fact that I also use Dvorak so I'm forced to "reach" much less than with a Qwerty layout).

Hang in there, it will get better... the worst thing you can do is to go back to a regular keyboard now.... Trust me the hover thing will work for you.

Also, don't forget that you can drop all 5 fingers at the same time without causing an input error.

[Dimitri]

The hover thing makes much more sense now that you've all said it and explain it. I was going about it the wrong way before.
Cheers.
Dimitri

[Bone]

I've had the TS for almost 2 weeks now. I'm learning Dvorak and TS at the same time. That said I was only non-productive for 3 days or so. My speed is still slow but more than enough to get the job done. I'm a DBA for a local news channel, we also have a web presence.

I bring the TS back and forth between work and home. After a while you just adjust to it. I'm not perfect, but 99.9% of my errors come from Dvorak - QWERTY crosstalk. I bought the QWERTY version. Peeking at the keys messes me up.;)

Stick with it. TS is AWESOME!!