Inventions on reducing keyboard size: A TRIZ based analysis
This addresses inconvenience for portable computer users, but it appears incremental as it reviews existing inventions rather than proposing a new solution.
The article tackles the problem of reducing keyboard size for portable computers, which often compromises functionality and usability, by illustrating 10 inventions that aim to balance reduced size with typing comfort.
A conventional computer keyboard consists of as many as 101 keys. The keyboard has several sections, such as text entry section, navigation section, and numeric keypad etc. and each having several keys on the keyboard. The size of the keyboard is a major inconvenience for portable computers, as they cannot be carried easily. Thus there are certain circumstances which compels to reduce the size of a keyboard. Reducing the size of a keyboard leads to several problems. A reduced size keyboard may not contain all the keys available on a full size keyboard; a reduced size keyboard may not be convenient to operate, a reduced size keyboard may have a different key layout which is difficult to learn etc. This article illustrates 10 inventions on reducing the size of the keyboard. Various inventions have attempted to solve the contradictions so that the user achieves the benefits of both "reduced size" and "typing comfort".