What is "keyer"

n. 1 One who, or that which, keys. 2 A device for signalling by pressing keys or switches.

A keyer is a device for signaling by hand, by way of pressing one or more switches. Modern keyers typically have a large number of switches but not as many as a full-size keyboard; typically between four and fifty. A keyer differs from a keyboard in the sense that it lacks a traditional "board"; the keys are arranged in a cluster which is often held in the hand. An example of a very simple keyer is a single telegraph key which used for keying Morse code. In such a use, the term "to key" typically means to turn on and off a carrier wave. For example, it is said that one "keys the transmitter" by interrupting some stage of the amplification of a transmitter with a telegraph key.

Morse code was an early form of serial communication, which in modern times is usually automated. In a completely automated teleprinter system, the sender presses keys to send a character data stream to a receiver, and computation alleviates the need for timing to be done by the human operator. In this way, much higher typing speeds are possible.

Iambic keyers became popular, in telegraphy, in the 1960s. In these, the "dot" and the "dash" are separate keys. When this concept was introduced to inventor Steve Mann in the 1970, he mistakenly heard it as " biambic" which he then generalized to include various "polyambic" or "multiambic" keyers, such as a "pentambic" keyer (5 keys, one for each finger and one for the thumb), and "septambic" (3 thumb buttons on a handgrip). Man then utilized this concept for use with a portable backpack-based computer system which he invented for photographic lightvectoring.

Such keyers, often used in conjunction with wearable computers, are typically one-handed grips. Unlike keyboards, the wearable computer keyer has no board upon which the switches are mounted. Additionally, by providing some other function (such as simultaneous grip of flash light source and keying) the keyer is effectively hands free, in the sense one would still be holding the light source anyway.

Others have developed chording keyboards that are intended to be used while seated (multiple keys mounted to a board rather than a portable grip). One type of these, the so called half-QWERTY layout, uses only minimal chording, requiring the space bar to be pressed down if the alternate hand is used. It is otherwise a standard QWERTY keyboard of full size. It, and many other innovations in keyboard controls, were designed to deal with hand disabilities (e.g. one-armed or one-handed persons) in particular.