Google Japan built a keyboard with four moving conveyor belts
Google Japan has built a keyboard where the keys come to you. You wait for the letter you want to roll past your finger, then press it. The Gboard Conveyor Belt Version has four motorised belts and 116 keys in total. You can't buy it, but Google has put the build files online, so anyone with a 3D printer can try.
The concept
Every year on October 1, Google Japan's engineers show off an intentionally odd Gboard keyboard. Last year's entry swapped keys for disc dials. This year's model puts 29 keys on each of four conveyor belts, according to the Google Japan Blog.
Google pitches it as ideal for typing with one hand. A small mechanism drives the belts, and the keys travel to your fingertip rather than your hand travelling to the keys. The catch is obvious. You need patience, because the character you want only arrives when its turn comes round.
Build it yourself
This is not a product and Google says so. The company labels it as not official, and there are no plans for a retail version, so there is no price or release date to track.
What Google has shared is the full kit. The design files, firmware and 3D-printable parts are on GitHub. Documentation is in English and Japanese-language project pages, so expect to work out some details yourself. Anyone who wants a keyboard that moves on its own can print the parts and assemble it.
One hand, played for laughs
One-handed typing is a real need. People with limb differences, injuries or other conditions often struggle with standard layouts. A keyboard that makes you wait for each letter is unlikely to help them. Google presents this one as a joke, and nothing suggests it will become an accessibility tool.
What it does show is how much room engineers have when nobody expects a product. A slow, silly keyboard on a conveyor belt is a harmless way to test mechanical ideas. Past Gboard concepts from the same series are collected on Google Japan's site, and the page makes for a decent tour of the company's stranger side projects.
If you want a weekend project, the files are free. If you want to type faster, a normal keyboard is still the better bet.
