Introduction: The U-Key

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About: I'm a senior high school student that aspires to become an entrepreneur/ inventor. I do little projects here and there, and try to give back to the coding community in the small ways I can.

The U-Key is a prototype typing utility that allows its user to type with only one hand on the computer, provided their keyboard can discriminate between 5 different keys being pressed at once. Though still being improved, I wanted to share with the world my application - it not only grants users (whom can use the language sub-fluently) the opportunity to dramatically increase their typing speed, but a chance to explore the digital world for those who could not.

NOTICE: Maybe because I don't own a developing company or I'm using the Java robot class or something, my program gets flagged by anti-virus programs (IM NOT TRYING TO DO ANY CRAZY HACKING THING)

Step 1: Finding Out If Your Keyboard Will Work

https://www.microsoft.com/appliedsciences/content/...

This is the first and most difficult step of the process. Using the application from the link above, find out which five keys work for you. For me, the keys "Space," "u," "i," "o," "p" worked. Once you figure that out, take note of the keys.

If "Space," "u," "i," "o," and "p" did work, good news- you don't have to do anything. "y" is set as the shift key.

Otherwise, you will have to go into the application folder, go into "data" where you will find a text file called "charconfig.txt"

There you will see seven comma separated characters (which includes space). The first five are where you put in the keys that worked in the order that you would have you hand on them conveniently (right hand would go from left keys to right keys), and the sixth is the shift toggle key. The number controls how long you have to have your hand on a combination of keys for letters to be recognized, the lower the value, the more skilled you have to be with the language (lowest is 1, I keep mine at five, whole numbers only).

Attachments

Step 2: Using It

You should short-cut or pin the application (exe file if windows) to the task bar for convenience. You will see a white window with a blinking underscore, and when you click the window you can type what you want. An image of the combination-to-key translation is in the data file as well as the zip file. I have found that shifting windows from the program with the cursor over the typing area works best in terms of efficiency.


Troubleshooting details can be found in the README.txt file.

I would like to thank MIT and the people that created "Processing" and made it free to use. Also, thank you to the creators of the open source libraries.

You can find the code behind my little program in the source file I think (I'm not too good with computers) but if you need to, I can send individually the code or put it on GitHub.

Some tips:

Make sure that when you click, you just tap the area you want the text to go into.

If you end up getting shift-locked because of the program, just click shift again.

If it crashes or doesn't load, just hit the escape button and try again.

If all else fails, just contact me through yu.key.e.shi.mu.ra@gmail.com, or post on instructables. I'm in the process of starting a business, and I'm also a Senior high school student, so I might not be able to respond immediately, but I'll try.

FYI, I typed half of this with the program (the other half I typed because I wanted to provide this to all that may be interested).