Keyboard with 10 dials aims to revolutionize typing: Google showcases Gboard Dial
Google's Gboard team regularly develops keyboards that may not be practical, but are all the more charming for it. In 2022, for example, Google unveiled Gboard Stick, a keyboard with all the keys placed side by side, and in 2019, the company even demonstrated a spoon that bends to type.
The Gboard team's latest masterpiece is called Gboard Dial. It's a keyboard with a total of ten dials, three of which can be combined to speed up letter selection. Its functionality was apparently inspired by old-fashioned rotary-dial telephones – users simply place their finger in the slot above the desired character and rotate the dial until they reach the stop.
The character is then registered and the dial automatically returns to its starting position. All letters, the most important punctuation marks and the spacebar are located on the large triple dial. The Alt, Ctrl, Fn and Shift keys are quickly accessible via a small dial on the bottom left. Escape and Tab are located on the top left, while the right half of the keyboard contains dials for arrow keys, numbers, mathematical symbols and shortcuts.
Typing on the Gboard Dial may not be particularly efficient, but for those paid by the hour, this keyboard can at least pass the time. While Google doesn't offer the Gboard Dial for sale, the company has published the necessary data open source on GitHub so that hobbyists can build their own model of the keyboard using a 3D printer.
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