With the release of its Mini Keyboard, Penclic, the Swedish company best known for its ergonomic re-think of the computer mouse, goes on to address the second most important cause for computer-related injuries: poor keyboard design.
Injuries caused by prolonged and repetitive use of computer keyboards and mice are very real and widely recognised health problems. Perhaps lesser known, is that women are three times more likely than men to develop and suffer such injuries. And a chief reason for this is poorly designed computer peripherals, unsuitable – even harmful – for most women users.
“The design of today’s peripheral computer devices is not entirely optimal for women. Keyboards are generally made too wide, requiring women to work outside the span of their shoulders, while most computer mice add unnecessary muscle strain due to their weight,” explains physiotherapist Marianne Ahlberg.
The new Penclic Mini Keyboard’s design therefore incorporates the science community’s latest findings about gender-specific aspects of computer work to provide a keyboard that works just as well for women as for men.
The narrowed down dimensions of the device facilitate an ergonomically correct working position that centres the keyboard in front of the user, allowing both arms to be aligned within the user’s shoulder width. The frame has also been made considerably thinner – just 6 mm – than for most keyboards, reducing the need of slanting the wrists to a minimum.
The Penclic Mini Keyboard is equipped with normal-sized, Quiet-touch keys that give a silent but firm response with measured resistance for superior writing comfort.
The people at Penclic have even taken visual ergonomics into consideration by giving the keyboard a matte, non-reflective tone, with distinctly contrasting colours for central function keys providing optimal clarity and eye comfort. The stylish keyboard has a modern, minimalistic, Scandinavian design and its compact space-saving size, frees up room on cluttered desktops.
The Penclic Mini Keyboard is available in two models: with USB connection or wireless. It is compatible with all operating systems that support HID 1.1, among these Windows XP, MacOS X and Linux/BND.