Originally published January 22 2006
Engineer offers alternative to QWERTY keyboard
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The standard QWERTY keyboard has been alphabetized by a 62-year-old electrical engineer. The New Standard Keyboards are arranged alphabetically, but the keyboard is split, with the first half on the left and the second half on the right.
One of a long line of entrepreneurs and scientists who have been outraged by the seeming illogic of the standard QWERTY keyboard, the 62-year-old electrical engineer is showing off a new, rival keyboard design next month at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
After years of hunt-and-peck typing, he's convinced that there is room for change and that if he can show the way, bigger companies might follow.
"For the longest time, I thought, like everyone else, there's nothing you can do about QWERTY," Parkinson said.
Like many of those that have come before, Parkinson's New Standard Keyboards are arranged alphabetically but with a twist.
The QWERTY keyboard itself--named after the position of the first six letters in the top left hand corner--is mostly an accident of mid-19th mechanical technology.
Modern typewriter inventor Christopher Sholes initially experimented with arranging the keys in alphabetical order but discovered that the bars holding the letters collided and jammed too often as they struck the paper.
The QWERTY user, a court reporter named Frank McGurrin, won hands down and went on a celebrity tour around the United States to show off his lightning-fast fingers.
The computer age has seen much more experimentation, from one-handed keyboards to virtual keys in which finger motion is read by lasers.
"There's pretty strong evidence that the split keyboard...has a health advantage and can help reduce hand and arm pain," said David Rempel, a professor of medicine and ergonomics at the University of San Francisco.
There's no substantial evidence, however, that simply rearranging the keys offers health benefits, Rempel said.
He concedes that earlier alphabetical designs have been even worse than QWERTY.
But by splitting the alphabet into two groups, the letters wind up being placed more efficiently, he said.
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