I had an idea I thought I would share. When I’m gaming on the go, one hack I’ve used in the past is mounting a mouse pad to the right half of the laptop chassis, creating a small but sufficient area where I can use a gaming mouse to play games on a couch in comfort.
Here’s an old and only photo I have. That mousepad would fold over the keyboard when it was in use. Somehow, pressing keys under it just wasn’t an issue.
I think this could be done even better on the Framework by replacing the spacers on a left-aligned device with a mousepad material, granted it may be skinnier. Alternatively, there could be a gaming focused set of input modules where half the device is a mouse pad, the other half is a gaming keyboard, and no/reduced trackpad.
Just because some people here may find it interesting, this is what the back of the device looked like. Sager/Clevo was the closest I could get to a Framework back in 2013.
That is quite a monster you have frankenstein’d underneath. Necessity is the mother of invention.
I want to say I came across a mouse pad surface that slid over your thigh so you could mouse while in bed/couch/chair. It was an inexpensive plastic ‘tray’ that had friction fit semi-curved grip pieces on bottom to fit your leg snuggly enough to keep it from moving around too much. If I find it, I’ll post a link here.
I was probably thinking of one of these that I ordered before in the past. Or perhaps my mind had an humunculus of them both over time (any Full Metal Alchemist fans out there)? LOL
I’ll keep looking. I stil say there was a leg clamp or leg velcro style of one of the below.
If you can’t find one, I would think you could make something. There are trays with beanbag cushion bottoms. Add an elastic band & velcro and it could work I think.
Just don’t resort to human alchemy. Price is too high.
I have seen the products listed before and even made myself a wooden laptop board with dual mousepads. It’s legitimately great for at home, however the convenience of having it integrated with the laptop itself, while niche, may be achievable. I think the spacers themselves are likely too narrow to be of useful width on their own, so it’d require some clever trickery.
