Google Japan’s Gboard Conveyor Belt Version Rolls the Alphabet to a Stationary Hand

Google Japan marked October 1 with the fifteenth entry in a running series of keyboard proposals from the Gboard team. The date is a small joke on its own. Read as 101, it points at the old full-size layout with a number pad, and the team has used that reading since the company retired its April Fools posts in 2021. This year’s object is called Gboard Conveyor Belt Version, and the name matches the hardware.

A typical keyboard expects your hand to move all over the place, across a set field of letters, however this one holds your hand motionless in one position while loading up the characters for you to choose from. Four belts are arranged in staggered rows, each carrying 29 keys. That adds up to 116 keys in all, with a mix of upper and lower case, and because a shift key doesn’t really change anything, you may type away without worrying about it. A motor in the base of the contraption rotates the belts, so when the letter you want appears under your finger, simply press it. If you miss the moment, however, you must sit tight and wait for the next round to come around again.

Google is positioning this layout as a potential solution for one-handed typing, as conventional keyboards presume you have two hands accessible at the same time, and using only one finger can make it difficult to cover a wide range, with the wrist doing all the heavy lifting. However, in this case, the keys are intended to be performing the hard work. According to a team post, you should stay in the middle and the keyboard will conveniently come to you, so you can maintain a cup of tea in your other hand while working or use a mouse in your other hand for different tasks. Set a second unit adjacent to the first so that both hands can work on separate belts.

There’s no real plan to sell this device. All they’ve done is upload a batch of design files to GitHub, where they also store all of their Japanese input trials. Printable parts, a build guide, circuit designs, and firmware are all contained in the same folder. People who have reviewed the files report seeing 3D-printed chain links, low-profile switches, and a flexible circuit board that bends when the belt revolves. The guide still leaves off the part about how a keypress actually gets to your computer, so you’re still a long way from having a functional desk model, not just a short weekend download.

This isn’t the group’s first bizarre keyboard design; they’ve also offered a keyboard that can be worn as a hat and one based on a rotary phone dial. However, they are discussing plans for different color options, a speedier belt, and possibly a shorter loop that can be used on a phone. They’ve even floated the concept of stone keycaps, but confessed that the weight would pretty well ensure they’d get pushed off the track. Typing on the thing is all about timing, however. If you hit backspace after making a mistake, you must wait for the next round to come around before attempting again, and if you mistakenly enter a double letter, you must either wait for it to come around again or hope that the key has made a second appearance down the belt.
[Source]