Keyboard Octodon: Throwing and Metamorphosis

Hello, Habr.

After a painfully long break, the Oktodon project team returns to the prosaic genre. We have been asked carefully several times about how our project is doing, implying whether it is alive at all, and with this post I want to disperse the curtain of fog, simultaneously raising the edge of the curtain that is now hiding the product that we are preparing for release.
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The beginning of the story can be read here: Oktodon: What should be a comfortable keyboard for smartphones .
And in subsequent posts of our blog.

Introduction

Keyboard Octodon is a new mobile input device that can be an alternative to a full-size keyboard and bring comfort to text with smartphones and tablets. This task is solved by involving all fingers in the printing process by placing input elements on the back of the device. This technology is sometimes called back-typing .

The key advantages of the Oktodon keyboard are compactness, good ergonomics and an intuitive input process:



Last time, we left readers of our blog in the place where the heroes of the Octodon team rebuilt a compact and fast device illustrating all the advantages of the new keyboard concept, beat the swype record , and began to prepare for the crowdfunding campaign and production, without losing speeding up the process of additional investment.

What happened next?

And then this is what happened. We were close, nose to nose, rested on the question, which diligently closed their eyes so far. Even, rather, they didn’t close, but simply hoped that it would not be for us to solve it, but for some large player, for example, a Samsung player or an Elger player of the market who, shocked by the unimaginable coolness of the prototype of our gadget, would immediately throw the best forces on its production, and its engineers will cry out in delight: "Wow, now we will refine this design, so that you will not find it safer and more beautiful in the world!"

But, alas, nothing of this happened, and the question, meanwhile, was very simple:
"What exactly are we going to produce?"

The zoo android-smartphones and tablets grew and continues to grow, and our product (for now) is very niche, and losing precious users just because they prefer phone X, while our case is designed for phone Y - unusually hurt . And even if we develop a universal case Z (which in itself is very difficult, given the assortment of screen diagonals), then it is likely that the user of smartphone Y, having pulled the universal case Z on him, will see that his phone now looks like X. It will spoil he will enjoy all the joy of using an innovative gadget, he will remove the cover and put it on a dark and dusty shelf, forever losing faith in the scientific and technological progress in the field of octodon construction.

Fortunately, around this moment a ray of light pierced the clouds: Apple announced that ordinary mortals were now allowed to develop on-screen iOS keyboards.

There is no other phone that has such circulations as the iPhone, which means that if we release one model, then it definitely should be an apple model.

We urgently modeled the concept for the fifth iPhone that was relevant at the time (narrow for the octodon, but what to do), simplifying the mechanics and, finally, completely abandoning the cables connecting our mobile magnetic joysticks . Renders have turned out well:



And prototype mechanics, too, is nothing:



Then came a pair of iPhones 6 and 6+, beautiful, thin and wide, as if created for Octodon, and we began to count the production to launch the campaign on the kickstarter.

Production of accessories, sharpened for a specific phone model - a task that requires power and speed. Kickstarter is full of examples of how even the most simple accessories projects filled up the deadlines and released the product when he was already not interested in anyone, or entered into a hopeless race with the smartphone manufacturer, always lagging one step behind.

After I read the stories in the updates of the project of a minimalist case, consisting of five parts and four cogs and the history of a similar set of four protective corners for the iPhone , I got worried.

Even despite the simplified mechanics of the new prototype, our project still turned out to be incomparably more complicated than these simple accessories, and the presence of moving parts seriously contributed to reflections on reliability. The disappointing statistics of accessory projects tied to a specific phone model indicated that projects that would leave their creators and backers happy are almost non-existent in nature.

We did not succeed in getting into hardware accelerators that could reduce our risks by supplying us with the missing production competencies, and therefore our concern about this statistic was quite natural.

In the air, of course, it was the thought that the founders of those projects were slobs, and only we, certainly, the musketeers, but we resolutely drove her away with our friendly swords.

So our enthusiasm for an unexpected gift from Apple is a little worse. Even with the success of a fundraising, real risks emerged:
• Tighten the release of the accessory and release it after the release of the next model of iPhone.
• Release an accessory that does not meet the high quality bar of the target device.

Both risks were quite real, because we had not yet had the final design of the device ready for production. This required several more iterations of prototyping, and for which we simply did not have enough resources.

The only solution in these conditions is the immediate release of a sufficiently high-quality product that we are able to produce in a reasonable time. And whenever possible - universal, so as not to lose potential users.
For this, definitely, something needs to be sacrificed.

Since we have already made a choice in favor of versatility, the first decision was quite simple: we decided not to produce an accessory that resides on a smartphone. The idea of ​​constantly carrying a device on the phone that does not coincide with it in form and size is not very attractive.

Instead, our new device should allow a very fast attachment of the phone to it for work.

Simplification of mechanics was also required. With a pain in the heart, we abandoned the valves and tricky tilts of the planes with input elements, because These thin knots of the structure had to bear substantial loads, withstand accidental drops, and, among other things, give a pleasant feeling of unfolding / folding.

Of course, this all means neither the final rejection of the release of stylish covers for top-end phones, or the rejection of the ultra-compact performance of the device. These are just difficult decisions about the release of the first product on your own.
Instead of some of the lost features of the original concept, we added new ones, the implementation of which was made possible thanks to the selected device format.

Such decisions require verification and criticism, therefore, we present what happened as a result of our thoughts on your court, reader.

Octodon Square

The new octodon has the shape of a square with a side of 128mm and a thickness of 6mm. That is comparable to the size of the box for the CD and in principle compatible with the pocket of his jacket. The corners, according to the current trend in the design, are rounded (yes, it's easier to keep it :).

Thus, even with the rejection of complex transformations, the oktodon still remains the most compact solution among such input devices.

This flat design unfolds and with a pleasant click is fixed in the unfolded state, in which it is easier to hold. At the same time, the front joysticks move back from the phone case, which gives freedom of movement to the thumbs, and allows you to avoid touching the phone case with a diagonal of more than five inches.



On the two deviating planes are located platforms for the placement of input elements. Two large platforms are located on the back side of the folding parts, 4 input elements can be magnetized on them in arbitrary places (in principle, iron allows magnetising five and six, it is a matter of expediency and software support). Magnets and friction gaskets provide enough force to ensure that when printing, the input elements do not move. If the oktodon is planned to be dropped frequently, then it is possible to fix the input elements from running away when they hit the floor with the help of stickers from a special double-sided tape.

In the new concept, the face joysticks are also located on magnetic surfaces and also have some freedom of movement. On the front surfaces, by the way, two joysticks fit perfectly, which quite makes sense and will certainly be supported by software. For example, you can have a dedicated joystick to navigate through the text under the right thumb and an additional set of modes under the left thumb.



Such a system allows one of the main competitive advantages of the octodone to be realized - the ergonomics correspond to an arbitrary hand size. In addition, the bonus is the ability to quickly change input elements, for example, the selection of input elements with the optimum degree of rigidity for each finger. Reflections on what else can be done using this input system, I will share below.

Now to the important issue. How will be attached to this design smartphone. To do this, a special metal sticker will be pasted on the back cover of the phone or cover of the phone on the correct double-sided adhesive tape (in the prototype it is a rectangle 50 by 10 mm with rounded short sides). This sticker snaps into one of two magnetic holders: one for the standard, portrait orientation of the phone, and the second, for more appropriate in gaming applications, landscape. The second holder is located at such an angle that the smartphone, although it acts to the sides above the thumbs, does not limit their mobility.






Thus, the first oktodon can be used with almost all smartphones and phablets in both portrait and landscape orientation. Landscape location is another bonus of the refusal of execution in the form of an accessory cover.
This design, with some refinement (which we are planning), will allow the use of oktodon in landscape orientation and with lightweight tablets, such as the Nexus 7 or iPad mini.

What are the prospects for the development of this input platform?

Perspectives

Gaming development

Quite real is the use of oktodon as an advanced gaming controller. Although so far only a large number of discrete input elements are available, technologically we can support analog sticks in limited quantities (however, they are not needed in large quantities).

Support for alternative layouts and alternative input elements

Often we are asked whether it is possible to use the existing skill of blind typing on a standard keyboard for working with octodone. Until now, we were forced to answer: only to the extent that physical separation of the input elements of the octodon allows for four directions per finger, which quantitatively does not correspond to the distribution of input elements on the fingers with a blind ten-finger print. But now for a device with interchangeable input elements it is possible to create an alternative set of input elements - six-position for index fingers and three- or four-position for others, in order to preserve the usual area of ​​the fingers.

If such a scenario attracts you - I will be grateful if you write about it.
In light of this, we can speak not just about the new keyboard, but about the new expandable input platform. On the basis of oktodon, you can implement many existing chord input methods. For example, chord GKOS , using instead of eight four-way buttons, six ordinary ones.

Instead of conclusion

Naturally, the whole development of the oktodon as an alternative input platform for mobile devices will be faster if it is supported by the developer community. The more applications will support the use of this controller, the more attractive it will be for the user. As soon as we decide on the final architecture, we plan to open both the software and hardware specifications for the octodon.
So, if you have an interest as software developers, an interest in creating your own oktodon, or requests for expanding functionality / compatibility as potential users, or maybe you want to purchase magnetic buttons for your project - your comments, messages and letters categorically welcome!

We will be glad to see you on our website octodon.mobi (although today it doesn’t keep up with our habr).

Thank!