Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite TEARDOWN 1994
108Natural Keyboard Elite Teardown. This keyboard was found in my late computer guru's junk pile. His widow asked me to liquidate the hardware assets and this was something I took particular interest in. I used to be able to find these at second hand stores all the time. Not so much these days. The idea is that its supposed to help you from getting carpal tunnel syndrome and make life easier for you if you have it. I'm not sure if it actually helps but I do love doing things a little bit different.
Since 1994, Microsoft has designed and sold a variety of ergonomic keyboards for computers. The oldest is the Microsoft Natural Keyboard. The newest are the Sculpt ergonomic keyboard (2013) and the Surface Ergonomic Keyboard (2016).
In general, ergonomic keyboards are designed to keep the user's arms and wrists in a near-neutral position, which means the slant angle (the lateral rotation angle for the keys in each half relative to the axis of the home row in a conventional keyboard) is approximately 10 to 12.5Β°, the slope (the angle of the keytop surfaces starting from the front edge closer to the user towards the top of the keyboard, relative to a horizontal plane) is -7.5Β°, and the tent or gable angle of each half (the angle of the keytops from the center of the keyboard towards its left and right edges, relative to the horizontal desk surface) is 20 to 30Β°
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite
The Microsoft Natural Keyboard has had several upgrades and refreshes since its introduction. The first of these was the Natural Keyboard Elite, introduced in February 1998 at a retail price of US$64.95 (equivalent to $102 in 2019).[34] Like the original Natural Keyboard, the Elite was manufactured by Key Tronic, who also assisted in its development.[31]
The Elite features a nonstandard layout of the six-key navigation/edit key cluster normally found above the cursor keys (Ins/Del, Home/End, and PgUp/PgDn). Another common criticism of the Elite is that the arrow keys' inverted-T layout has been changed into a cross-like layout, with left/right arrows keys side by side and up/down keys bracketing them from above and below, increasing the distance between the vertical keys. Another significant change was the keyboard's adjustable feet. While the original Microsoft Natural Keyboard had feet in the front to generate reverse tilt, the Elite and its successors have their feet in the back. The Natural Keyboard Elite was manufactured in at least two different color schemes; white with black lettering and black with white lettering.