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Hand-held typing device - UK - Mid 1980s.?

Back in the 1980s I knew someone who used a hand-held typing device which worked by pressing 5 keys (one for each finger + thumb) to form characters.  The stored text could then be downloaded via (I think) serial link to a PC.  He used to infuriate lecturers by appearing to be sitting idly and not taking notes when he could actually operate this device at normal speaking speed and could print off a whole lecture transcript afterwards.
What was this device called and who made it?


4 answers
Apr 22, 2010. 7:00 AMsteveastrouk says:
Your looking for a thing called a chording keyboard
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard
the UK one you are thinking of is
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwriter

There are some neat open source ones  too!

Apr 22, 2010. 7:24 AMsteveastrouk says:
"Chordite" ???
Apr 22, 2010. 2:07 PMrickharris says:
The finger patterns can be found here In the 90's I had an agenda with the same key pad type. It worked for me with very little practice.

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