The Morse Code Keyboard, my thesis project, and the object of my attention for the past six months is finally complete. This device uses a touch-based slider interface to communicate with a computer as a standard USB keyboard. It works like a regular keyboard, except instead of typing letters you make gestures that get decoded as morse code.
The project involved the design of a custom printed circuit board for handling USB and touch sensor operation. The two-part case was cast in urethane resin from a silicone mold of a CNC milled wax model. In the coming weeks I will be releasing the PCB files, stereolithography and AutoCAD files for the case, source code for the firmware, and instructions on how to make your very own morse code keyboard.
If you’re asking yourself, “What use is a morse code keyboard?”, I’ll tell you. You can use it with one hand. You can use it without looking at it. Moreover, it uses a coding scheme that is over a century old and still being used by amateur radio operators. Now think forward to when a slider interface of this kind is available on your mobile phone. Morse code might be a very useful way of entering text where other methods fail.
For more details, refer to this informative (yet delightfully short) movie clip documenting the project.
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[...] The Morse Code Keyboard We seem to always assume that there’s only one way to make a keyboard (aside from dvorak). The Morse Code Keyboard is a very non-conventional design that allows for one handed typing with a lot of flexibility and few constraints of typical keyboards. PyroFactor: Read Peramlink | Email This Post [...]