This ortholinear Mobius strip keeb is twisting my melon, man

Apparently my morning coffee today contained something psychedelic, because I appear to be hallucinating a Mobius strip keyboard created by Google Japan, and that can’t be right. What can I say, it’s been a stressful week. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Oh wait, this thing actually seems to exist—although I wouldn’t expect it ever to hit the shelves. This mind-bending keeb consists of 26 modules with eight key switches each, making for a grand total of 208 keys (via Hackaday). Why, you ask? Well, half of the keyboard is QWERTY, with the other half being in Japanese, making it perhaps the first truly bilingual keyboard.

Not only bilingual, but multiple user friendly it seems, as the accompanying video has plenty of shots of multiple hands caressing this keyboard like a friendly labrador at a house party.

Google Japan has form for this sort of thing, having previously shown off a teacup keeb, a “physical handwriting” keyboard, and an electronic spoon that selects letters based on the angle at which it’s flexed. Google Japan’s tongue is firmly in its cheek with all of these suggestions, of course, but it does appear to have built at least a working prototype here—along with a highly amusing video showing it off in a variety of scenarios.

My favourite is someone using it in “space”, or at the very least, being dangled by wires in front of a green screen. Or the inexplicable appearance of a dog in the right of the frame while someone in a hood appears to make the Mobius keeb levitate. Really, there are too many to choose from, so I’ll let you watch it for yourself.

I particularly like the idea of “a keyboard with a twist”, both figuratively and literally. Plus it’s even got RGB lighting, and the snap-on modular design is genuinely clever. This seems like the brainchild of a bunch of engineering interns allowed to go wild with their design software, and I’m all for it.

But what about gaming? We’re told that it’s perfect for coding (insert LA Noire “doubt” meme here), but I’d love to get hold of one just to see what sort of havoc I could cause for myself in something like DCS World, where key bind choices are everything—although I don’t think it’d be making any of our best gaming keyboards quake in their respective boots. 

Of course, portability is a major benefit, as while it’s a particularly bulky beast you can simply hang it off your wrist and go for a walk, as demonstrated above. Handy!

OK, ok, so it’s more than a little reminiscent of not-very-funny April Fools Day tech jokes, but all credit to Google Japan for actually making me laugh on a Friday morning. As for the “dimensional portal feature” on the team’s roadmap? I await it with bated breath.

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