The Anatomy of a Keyboard: A blog written around the anatomy of a keyboard, how the keys work and why they are where they are.
The Anatomy of a Keyboard: A blog written around the anatomy of a keyboard, how the keys work and why they are where they are.
The Anatomy of a Keyboard: A blog written around the anatomy of a keyboard, how the keys work and why they are where they are.
The Anatomy of a Keyboard: A blog written around the anatomy of a keyboard, how the keys work and why they are where they are.
While the keyboard is probably one of the most used pieces of tech today (even more than our mobile phones!) we don’t really know much about them. The keyboard is such an integral part of our lives that it’s often hard to imagine living without it. It’s so commonplace that we take it for granted, not knowing why the keys are placed in a certain way or what goes into making it.
In this blog post, we’ll attempt to understand what makes up a keyboard, how they’re made and who invented them.
The Anatomy of a Keyboard:
A blog written around the anatomy of a keyboard, how the keys work and why they are where they are.
The Anatomy of a Keyboard is a blog about the design and engineering of keyboards. Most posts will be brief, as I haven’t had time to write more:
How Keyboards Work – An introduction to what’s going on inside your keyboard and why we need all those keys. (Under construction)
Keyboard Layouts – A look at the many different ways that keyboards have been designed over the years and how different layouts can affect you. (Under construction)
What’s with the Numpad? – Why do we have two different areas for numbers, and how did we end up with that weird arrangement? (Under construction)
For many years I have been fascinated by the keyboard. I have wondered why certain keys are where they are, why certain keys were added or removed, and so forth.
I used to be a big fan of the industrial design of keyboards, but now I am more interested in their anatomy and how they work.
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Some time ago I had to explain to a friend of mine how keyboards work. It was something I had never given a second thought to, but it turns out that keyboards are more complicated than one might think. This post is a summary of the different parts of a keyboard and their functions, as well as an attempt at explaining some of the history behind why keyboards are designed the way they are.
The keyboard matrix
If you remove the keys from your keyboard and take a look at the circuit underneath, you’ll see something similar to this:
![keyboard_matrix](images/keyboard_matrix.png)
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