Mouseless Keyboard 2019

Our design research for the Stanchion Computer began with the development of the mouseless keyboard itself.  Our prototype plugs into any USB port, just as any other keyboard or mouse might. It offers an unconventional user experience, while respecting the conventions that most people are used to, making for an easy and comfortable user experience.

Since Douglas Engelbart’s famous demo in 1968 - the so-called “Mother of All Demos” – the keyboard, mouse, screen triad has been a fixed convention in interface design.  To this day, most desktop computers on the market use a combination of a mouse and a keyboard as part of their basic interface.  We have combined these interfaces by placing a keyboard on the top of a joystick. This allows the user to rock the keyboard around a pivot to select items that are displayed on a screen or projected onto a wall. The left and right buttons work the way any mouse does, but the red button allows the user to toggle between “mouse mode” and “keyboard mode.”

Gonsher I. (2022) Beyond the Keyboard, Mouse, and Screen: New Paradigms in Interface Design. In: Arai K. (eds) Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2021, Volume 1. FTC 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 358. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89906-6_8

Gonsher, I., Carber, F., Gallant, J., Ikeda, F., Lu, C., Poissonnier, a.  (2023). Building a Better Mouse App: New Modalities For Human-Computer Interaction. In: Tareq Ahram and Redha Taiar (eds) Human Interaction & Emerging Technologies (IHIET 2023): Artificial Intelligence & Future Applications. AHFE (2023) International Conference. AHFE Open Access, vol 111. AHFE International, USA. http://doi.org/10.54941/ahfe1004057


Development Team
(PI) Ian Gonsher
Izzy Brand


Brown Humanity Centered Robotics Initiative
https://hcri.brown.edu/