A British inventor named David Baker has filed a patent for what he’s calling the Crocodile Keyboard, which is a touchscreen keyboard with upsidedown triangles for keys. Mr. Baker claims that this design will result in far less by way of typos. While Baker’s initial plan is to have Apple work with him so that he might have his design run on the iPhone, he would be wise to simply work with a designer (notice the lack of a back button?) and make a new keyboard for Android.
One of the big benefits of Android’s openness is that developers can have a go at redesigning even the native interface. Users of non-jailbroken iPhones do not have the luxury of installing custom skins, such as this nifty, Pipboy-esque Fallout 3 theme. But this sort of thing is fully possible on any Android device. There are already applications for Android which allow for a reworking of the keyboard. The folks behind Better Android Apps have made a tool to reskin the keyboard on Android, which does not just change look but also allows for wider keys. So rather than having to wait for a company more secretive than Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory to open up, Mr. Baker would be wise to just push out his own keyboard redux. I’d buy it.
