Best "other" input device

[webwit]

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Voters have a chance at winning a MasterKeys RGB keyboard from Cooler Master!

Winner:
The official nominees in the Best "other" input device category were:

• The Atreus Keyboard
• Microsoft Surface Dial
• Kinesis Advantage 2
• Dactyl Keyboard
• Planet 6 Keyboard

The Wingnut, as voted for by the keyboard community, goes to...

Spoiler:

Planet 6 Keyboard
The Planet 6 is a custom ergonomic keyboard with an embedded trackball, designed and machined by Kurplop. It's an amazing piece of craftsmanship, from its home-made PCBs to milled metal case and keycaps. This state-of-the-art project took 13 months to complete. Meh, I can do this. Wait, hold my beer.

The Making of Planet 6 - A quest for an ergonomic CAD friendly keyboard.

Runners-up:

Spoiler:

2nd place: Dactyl Keyboard
The open source Dactyl is a DIY, parameterized, split-hand, concave, columnar, ergonomic keyboard with mechanical switches. It's essentially a lovechild of the ErgoDox and Kinesis Advantage. Emphasis on child, as it isn't much larger than the Happy Hacking keyboard. For all the experienced builders out there looking for something different: is this going to be your next project?



3rd place: Microsoft Surface Dial
The Surface Dial is an attempt to create a new user interface concept for things like menu navigation and color selection in art programs. Microsoft, a company that isn't known for being hip, appears to be evolving. The Surface Studio introduction video, featuring the Surface Dial, was much better received than Apple's for its new MacBook Pro.

Honorable mentions:

Spoiler:

Atreus Keyboard
The Atreus is a small, innovative mechanical keyboard that accounts for the shape of the human hand. It combines the comfort of a split ergonomic keyboard with a small form factor. The DIY kit contains all the parts and detailed instructions you need to put together your own unique, handmade mechanical keyboard.

Kinesis Advantage 2
Kinesis updated their famous 24-year-old ergonomic Contoured/Advantage series. The Advantage 2 brings a lot of new features including user-friendly keymap/macro configuration, 2 MB of onboard memory, and the ability to share/back up layouts. They also replaced the rubber function keys with Cherry ML switches.

[Hking0036]

congrats to kurplop! It's an amazing project.

[chzel]

Congratulations for a beast of a project!

[CoffeeHamster]

Congrats! That thing is awesome, there's really nothing else like it.

[fohat]

Yes, this one was simply staggering in its scope and detail.

[Halvar]

Congrats kuplop! Well deserved. Perfect synthesis of ergonomics and aethetics.

[Kurplop]

I 'd like to express my humble thanks to those who liked my board enough to choose it above its very worthy competition. Also to each of you graciously offering congratulations and kind words. Thank you. I'm very happy to have won this award. And that says a lot about you, that is, the people at Deskthority as well as the larger keyboard community. It just wouldn't matter if I didn't value and respect the people behind the awards. You are a great bunch.

My congratulations to the DTA team who did an excellent job planning and running the 2016 awards. I've been involved in enough events like this to know how much time and work went into pulling this off so smoothly. Thank you.

[lot_lizard]

This really is SUCH a beautiful piece of art. For you to have evolved this design as a brainchild, and then actually produced it yourself... it really is a remarkable accomplishment. Couldn't be more impressed. Everyone should watch the video to appreciate this fully if you haven't already