This ortholinear Mobius Strip keeb is twisting the melon in my hand, man

It seems that my morning coffee contained something psychedelic because I seem to be hallucinating the Mobius Strip keyboard created by Google Japan. That can't be true. It's been a stressful few days. Normal service will resume shortly.

This thing seems to exist, although I don't think it will ever be on the shelves. This mind-bending keeb is made up of 26 modules, each with eight key switches. That's a total of 208 keys. (Source: Hackaday). Why, you may ask? It's because the keyboard is bilingual. Half of it is QWERTY and the other half in Japanese.

The accompanying video shows multiple hands stroking the keyboard like a friendly Labrador at a party.

Google Japan is no stranger to this kind of thing. It has previously shown a teacup keeb and a "physical writing" keyboard. They also showed an electronic spoon which selects letters depending on the angle it's flexed at. Google Japan has its tongue firmly in cheek with these suggestions, but it appears to have built a working prototype, along with a highly entertaining video showing it in a variety scenarios.

My favorite is someone using it "in space", or at least being dangled from wires in front a green screen. Or the uncanny appearance of a dog on the right side of the frame, while someone in a hood seems to be making the Mobius Keeb levitate. There are so many that I won't even try to list them all.

I like the idea of a "keyboard with a twist", both literally and figuratively. It has RGB lighting and the modular design is really clever. This looks like the work of a group of engineering interns who were allowed to run wild with their design software. I love it.

But what about gaming then? It's said that it's great for coding, but I'd like to try it out to see how much havoc I can cause in DCS World where key binding choices are crucial.

Portability is also a major advantage, since you can hang it from your wrist to go for a stroll, as shown above. Handy!

It's a little like the April Fools Day jokes that aren't very funny, but I have to give Google Japan credit for making me laugh out loud on a Friday. What about the "dimensional portal" feature on the team's road map? I am eagerly awaiting it.