There are as many various kinds of keyboards and mice as there are flavors of ice cream. Whether or not you’re out there for a mechanical keyboard with customizable RGB lighting or an ergonomic mouse designed to cut back wrist pressure, the choices are seemingly limitless. Yow will discover compact keyboards for tight areas, gaming mice with adjustable DPI settings for precision, and even wi-fi setups for a clutter-free desk. For many who sort lots, there are keyboards with completely different swap sorts that supply numerous tactile suggestions and sound ranges. Likewise, mice are available numerous styles and sizes to suit completely different hand grips and preferences.
However by and huge, these units are all designed to sit down instantly in entrance of the consumer at a desk. For quite a lot of causes, like aches and pains attributable to arthritis or a repetitive pressure harm, that’s not at all times the very best resolution for everybody. Generally you might want to chill on the sofa or in a recliner, however nonetheless get some work executed. And in these conditions, discovering an enter gadget to your laptop that really works nicely is usually a huge problem.
An outline of the {hardware} design (📷: S. Dai)
A Hackaday.io consumer named Sophia Dai is aware of this ache all too nicely, so Dai determined to create a wearable interface gadget that’s each nice to work with and usable from anyplace it’s wanted. The result’s a comparatively small keyboard-mouse ring known as ErgO. It’s composed of a handful of cheap off-the-shelf parts and can be utilized to regulate a pc or about another Bluetooth-enabled gadget.
Powering the gadget is a Seeed Studio XIAO nRF52840 Sense microcontroller improvement board, which supplies processing energy in addition to an inertial measurement unit and a Bluetooth transceiver. That is paired with a Pimoroni Trackball, just a few buttons and switches, and a small, rechargeable battery. These parts are match into the bottom of a 3D-printed ring that allows the wearer to regulate units with their pointer finger and thumb.
ErgO operates in two completely different modes — mouse and keyboard. In mouse mode, finger motions translate instantly into on-screen cursor actions. There’s additionally a tiny trackball that may be manipulated with the thumb when larger precision is required. With a button press, ErgO could be put into keyboard mode. With a view to sort, the consumer holds down a button, then traces the letter that they need to sort within the air. The trackball can also be repurposed to work like arrow keys on a conventional keyboard.
The mouse mode appears to be essentially the most interesting perform of ErgO. Dai admitted that typing is a bit of bit awkward, however the place mouse work is primarily wanted, with simply occasional typing, the ring actually shines. Apart from that, the ring is a bit bigger than ideally suited due to using business improvement boards, however a redesign is definitely potential with a customized PCB and minimal record of parts which are truly utilized.
In any case, ErgO appears like it might be loads of enjoyable to play with, and possibly even helpful. If you want to attempt it out for your self, take a look at the complete, step-by-step construct directions to get began by yourself copy of the gadget.