A friend of mine let me try his Clevatura recently and I was really impressed. I have a framework 16 and don’t really use a desktop, so I have much use for an external keyboard, but then I saw they sell their tech to companies if they want to build their own modules: Integrations of TouchOnKeys® | Clevetura
A full-sized ortholinear with a touchpad under the keys is pretty much a dream setup for me. You can use it like a split keyboard if you want since it spans the width of the laptop. Then you can get rid of the real touchpad completely, it’s always getting in the way of my palm and thumbs anyway, maybe add a thumb cluster down there instead.
Anyway, I just wanted to put that on the radar of people in this community, might be some potential there…
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for me I can’t stomach just slicing an ortho down the middle, I need some angle outwards. I suspect that kind of setup would limit the working area of a touchpad, but I’m also just unsure how willing cevetura would be to make modules. a framework licensed implementation would probably be standard ansi or iso layout, normal keyboard width to still accommodate numpad. alternatively I can imagine just a numpad/macropad clevetura, which might be decent (I’d love to put that in the middle once I can make a one-keys split keyboard)
I think some on the forums have already explored adding extra keys in the touchpad area, and there are a few issues with implementation. touchpad works over i2c rather than usb.
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Yeah, I guess I had assumed they had some sort of separable module(or maybe it’s a grid of sensors?) that you could integrate into your keyboard layout, and would probably require their proprietary software. They are pretty thin on the details there. Not having ortholinear is not a dealbreaker for me, but it would be really nice.
And I agree having some outward angle would be nice, but I have a hard time thinking of a practical way to integrate that into a laptop. I’ve had some fun with cardboard where you take that rectangular keyboard shape, split it in the middle and sort of origami it inward and upward– it’s a fun idea, but the engineering would be really challenging for a laptop. But just a full width grid of 1u keys could really give you a lot of layout options. And if you think about it, the further you move your hands to the edge of the laptop, the less inward angle they tend to need.