Science & Tech · Gadgets & EVs · 1 day ago
Google Japan unveils a DIY conveyor-belt keyboard
Google Japan's Gboard team has unveiled a desktop keyboard with keys mounted on four looping belts.
The belts carry 116 keys past the user's finger, so the person can press a character as it arrives.
Google presents it as a way to type with one hand or one finger without moving a hand across a conventional keyboard.
The design is part of a long-running series of unusual keyboard ideas that began in 2010.
These projects draw attention to Gboard, Google's keyboard app, and are intentionally playful rather than products for sale.
Google has published design files on GitHub for people who want to try building the conveyor-belt keyboard themselves.
Building it would require equipment such as a 3D printer, and how easy it is to type on remains unclear.
Google Japan's Gboard team unveiled a conveyor-belt keyboard that moves keys toward a waiting fingertip.
The design has four looping belts carrying 116 keys in total, with 29 keys on each belt.
Google describes the device as intended for one-handed or one-finger typing, though whether it makes typing easier remains uncertain.
Google has no plans to sell the keyboard, but it has published design files on GitHub for people who want to build it.
The project is the 15th in a series of deliberately unusual keyboard concepts that began in 2010.
- Who
- Google Japan's Gboard team
- What
- A DIY conveyor-belt keyboard with keys that move toward the user's finger
- When
- Announced in October 2026
- Where
- Not stated
- Why
- To make one-handed or one-finger typing easier and promote Gboard
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The keyboard should be the one that moves.
because we realized we weren't actually lying
This story does not have a timeline yet.
- Keys
- 116 keys across four looping belts, with 29 keys on each belt
- Project series
- The keyboard is the 15th entry in Google Japan's series of keyboard concepts
- Series began
- The series began with a drum-kit keyboard released on April 1, 2010
- Availability
- Google does not plan to market or sell the conveyor-belt keyboard
- Design files
- Google published the design files on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license
Sources
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