The Tampa Bay Inventors Council makes their annual appearance at Gulf Coast MakerCon 2024, with featured inventor
IN10DID, Inc. to share the latest version of the DecaTxt keyboard along with samples showing the extensive product development of the design from model to prototype to different versions of the product and some other designs that were attempted to provide keyboard input in unique and novel ways.
TBIC chair and DecaTxt inventor Wayne Rasanen tells us more about what he’ll be sharing at MakerCon and how local inventors can get involved with the Inventors Council.
The keyboard design started when I discovered a simple way to represent 26 letters with our fingers by using a single press (10) or a thumb shift (8+8) and an easy way to shift to uppercase by pressing both thumbs. This meant that with just 10 keys, I could provide every keystroke by using each key as a shift for the other functions. This would reduce the current keyboard by over 90% and provide a simple way to touch-type without looking. Through different attempts at commercialization, we finally decided to provide everything with just one hand in a product called DecaTxt.
Probably the nicest thing about this project is that it can aid people with various disabilities and give them better control than what is currently available. It was recognized by a panel of 40 judges as one of the most technologically significant new products of the year in 2017 and won an R&D 100 Award.
I will have it available for folks to try on a PC along with a new design I’ve been working on called MicroTxt. You can learn more about the keyboard at in10did.com and see the links for videos of different versions.
Meanwhile, be sure to join the Tampa Bay Inventors Council for our monthly meeting each 2nd Wednesday night from 6-7:30 pm at AMRoC Fab Lab to connect with local inventors and interesting speakers discussing the world of inventing and turning an idea into a product. Join us on meetup for meeting information at meetup.com/TBIC-us .
You can meet Wayne, try out DecaTxT and learn about the Tampa Bay Inventors Council at MakerCon June 8 from 10 am to 5 pm. Click HERE to get your FREE tickets to attend Gulf Coast MakerCon or HERE if you want to join Wayne and TBIC as exhibitor or vendor!