Results of using a Touchstream LP

A few months ago I bought a Fingerworks Touchstream LP keyboard. I am a little bit fanatical about keyboards, even more so since I started having problems with my wrists.

Touchstream on Flickr

If you've not heard of it, the Touchstream is a keyboard like none you have ever seen. If you can imagine that little area of touch sensitive mousing surface used on laptops, blown up into two massive totally touch sensitive surfaces, printed with keys, and then given a usb interface. That's what this keyboard is.

Frequently asked questions that I will answer immediately:

• There is no tactile feedback that you have touched a key.
• Yes it is very hard to type on.
• No, you cannot buy these keyboards, you have to get them second hand, usually from the cold dead hands of their previous owners.

I was quite lucky that I had a friend who found that his RSI problems were not exacerbated by his usage of a laptop keyboard and trackpad, so he was kind enough to sell his to me for what he bought it for.

I love my touchstream. My typo rate has gone up considerably, but I no longer have RSI problems linked to my work. I only really have problems when I have marathon gaming sessions at home. Previously, playing GTA for 3 hours was enough to give me wrist pain for a week. Now playing a game for 8 hours means that I'm a little sore the next day, and that's it.

I give it 6/10 for being a keyboard, 11/10 for being a mouse.