Weird 90s PC Keyboards - The Scanner & 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗨𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘

I've covered many weird old computer mice before, but keyboards? We've barely scratched the surface! So let's take a look at ̶t̶h̶r̶e̶e̶ TWO strange PC keyboards from the mid 1990s this time on LGR. The Future split ergonomic board from Acer and the PaperPort Scanner Keyboard by Compatibles by Compaq.
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00:00 A trio of odd keyboards
00:47 Compaq Scanner Keyboard
16:22 Acer Future Keyboard
28:41 The trio became a duo
#LGR #retro #computer #keyboard #oddware

[@ingusmant]

"Maybe it'll work now" was the average PC user experience in the 90s.

[@renakunisaki]

Not much has changed.

[@TimmehJay]

Sometimes you just had to take a break, let both parties calm down, and just try again later

[@WESTMPLS]

"Ill get those backed up on Internet Archive if they arent already" was the instant reaction. What a class act.

[@camotech1314]

I mean what else would you expect a retro tech obsessed man to do? 🤣

[@alexrekzu4079]

Clint's sworn duty

[@NicholasTobolski]

@@camotech1314there are people who will hog it all for themself.

[@MontyDotharl]

Yeah, Clint is great at helping preserve obscure software. It's really admirable

[@MrWolfSnack]

I've got some old floppy disks of old software that cannot even be found in google, as well as some internal software on floppy from American Airlines. I wonder if I should make an IA account and do that too? I just always assumed it was illegal to do that and it would just get you banned for copyright infringement.

[@RMPANDA964]

LGR’s definition of relaxing: Installing a crazy scanner and trying to get it to work LOL

[@vxpdx]

I can sympathize, heh. It's like taking on a puzzle

[@guardiane]

That would be relaxing for sure - especially if I had justification to do so...otherwise, I just feel guilt for all the time I'm wasting lol. To be able to do this for a living is the dream.

[@jr2904]

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks haha

[@existenceisrelative]

I spent my 1995 spring break getting microsoft flight simulator to work. Like, the entire break. No internet, no one who had the knowledge to help me; just me, windows, and a discount bin copy of an old game that wouldn't work. It's really one of my favorite memories.

[@cardboardsnail]

Compared to the experience with printers, I'd say it's pretty relaxing lol

[@tsufordman]

I'm just imagining sibling shenanigans. One immersed in a game, another sneaking up with a piece of paper in hand.

[@BrendonGreenNZL]

We had one of those. You don't even need the piece of paper, because the green "PaperPort" button will do the same thing.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

My thought exactly. Would have been fun. :)

[@Zodroo_Tint]

@@BrendonGreenNZL No man, let it stay a challange. You write a message on a paper and you made his computer scan it.

[@IanZainea1990]

13:52 if your job in '95 or whatever was to digitize a paper database, this would have been invaluable. Or even just a secretary where your boss kept handing you things and saying "scan this and send it to the team" or whatever business nonsense

[@thesteelrodent1796]

if you were told to scan a box of paper one page at a time, you'd quit. Thay made scanners specifically for that, with automatic stack feeders and handsfree operation. Load up stack of paper, hit go, have lunch, come back and you've got 500 pages freshly OCR'er that you have to read through to correct all the mistakes. It was not a fun task, so most places only did it as needed

[@polocatfan]

​@@thesteelrodent1796ok then they'll hire someone for less money.

[@vicroc4]

Medical receptionist scanning patient forms. I know a couple offices even today that would love that thing

[@Zodroo_Tint]

Especially with a boss who have zero knowledge about computers and ask things expecting immediate results because computers are magic. This keyboard may made someones life thousand times better in the 90's.

[@mialemon6186]

@@vicroc4there’s still a shocking amount of paper in medical offices. This would be brilliant instead of having to run halfway across the office to use the copy machine.

[@the-bizzy-bee]

Lgr I beg you, fill the lamp with mouse balls

[@winterwatson6437]

instructions unclear: filled with rodent testicles

[@LGR]

Tempting

[@opiniononion919]

heh. balls.

[@buildyourcomputer]

balls of steel would be better.

[@hoilst265]

@@LGR One way to stop them breeding, I guess.

[@ozzie_goat]

The paperless office is one of the four horsemen of the IT apocalypse. The other three are "full IPv6 adoption", "quantum computing", and "Half Life 3"

[@ten132]

What even is that analogy? With lame movie references? And filling it with half life 3? Lol anything goes huh?

[@ozzie_goat]

@@ten132 I find your lack of philosophy disturbing

[@GrooveSpaceArk]

​@@ten132It's biblical...

[@Finnisher_DAD]

Haha 😂

[@Thiesi]

Three of which we will almost certainly experience during our lifetime, but I have little hope for _Half-Life 3._

[@LOVE-jq9fr]

*_>Buy the keyboard and get $10 as long as you do it by May 31st, '98._* Great Scott! Marty, we just missed it.

[@MrWolfSnack]

"'98 gon' be that year" ~OutKast

[@spongerobert]

Now I want to watch back to the future again.

[@ScooterinAB]

"Acer was trying things." A perfect descriptor of the 90s and 2000s. Which is honestly something I miss. Tech at the time was quite something, and companies were certainly trying things. It is disappointing that now everything is just the same. Everything basically looks the same now and no one is actually actively trying to compete anymore. For as weird as stuff like this was, it at least tried to have an identity.

[@laurencefraser]

Some of that is because the 'trying things' phase identified a lot of stuff that Didn't work, and a few things that Did, and Why... there's not a lot left Too try except when someone come sup with some legitimately New tech (or finally nails down a way to make an old idea viable).

[@mayhem4masses363]

Everything was unique back then. Everything looks the same now. All Tvs look the same, computers look the same, phones look the same, there's no innovation anymore, just updates and versions.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

@@laurencefraser Not true, there is still things they didn't tried, just like in gaming independent can be very creative while AAA are not anymore, sadly in tech independent is not as common as in programming. There are no new ideas not because they found out what is working and what is not but because they found out what is the most profitable way to create products. Just an example. There should be a keyboard already where a sensor can detect how far you pushed the key, it could have been awesome for driving games but also for any character movement.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

@@laurencefraser Oh one more thing, a mouse with touch sensor on the buttons so we could change stance in a sword game. This is just two examples but I'm sure there is more.

[@Rayjacker]

@@Zodroo_Tint Analogue keyboards exists already, one of the main users of it are Wooting keyboards.

[@bcsb]

"There you go, now they're both broken." Perfectly balanced. As all things should be.

[@GPSC998]

just hope Clint never becomes a doctor

[@myrandom603]

here comes my stupid question of the day. Did they break from becoming brittle over time or would this have happened on day one as well?

[@MrWolfSnack]

@@myrandom603 ABS plastic becomes like Ming dynasty china over time. The slightest bump and you've smashed a hole in it. My cat knocked a vintage Dustbuster I had off a stack of boxes in the garage and it only fell half a foot and the thing smashed into 100 pieces.

[@rommix0]

@@GPSC998 He already failed when he did that X10 home automation video years ago. I'm sure the switch box switched off the next door neighbors life support lol.

[@DragonNexus]

My heart clenched at that.

[@kepuexe1]

The integrated scanner in the Compaq keyboard is really neat and handy. Could be a cool collector item.

[@billybollockhead5628]

Yeah, I would’ve loved it back in the day. Takes up far less desk space.. super cool

[@MrMega200]

The Acer Future Keyboard has one seller on eBay, for $264. That's certainly not a cheap purchase. The scanner keyboard is close at around $200 and these are all new in box examples.

[@hyperturbotechnomike]

I know someone who had ths keyboard. It was broken after a month.

[@Obscusion2]

If Clint is still running LGR Foods, he should totally try out that recipe for "Grandma's Fudge Frosting" at 6:24 & see if Compaq actually knew how to make good frosting or not.

[@override7486]

it's a recipe for crystal meth bro.

[@MrSkeltal268]

@@override7486Grandma, we need to cook!

[@AiLoveAidoru]

I mean it’s probably a recipe one of the software developers had lying around

[@adamclark9552]

​@@override7486make it anyway

[@mialemon6186]

I need the channel revived purely for this. 😂

[@brennyn]

It's astounding how many ergonomic products from the 90s totally missed the point and were seemingly designed by people that thought that "ergonomic" simply meant to make it as weird shaped as possible.

[@MrWolfSnack]

Ergonomic = impossible to use on a daily basis just to save 10 seconds of time in your mundane cubicle job

[@adampope5107]

They also seemed to have been designed by people who have both massively over and under sized hands and arms.

[@fus132]

@@MrWolfSnack That's not the purpose of ergonomic design.

[@guymcperson9300]

The same could be said today, too. The sad truth is ergonomics have been used as an easy excuse for cash grabs forever.

[@thesteelrodent1796]

"ergonomic" literally means it's made to fit you. Slapping "ergonomic" on anything that is weirdly shaped is misleading, because it's only ergonomic if you happen to have the exact shape and size of the person it's designed for, otherwise it can be the most painfull and damaging thing you've ever used - like pressure zone mattresses, curvy mice, "ergonomic" seats, and so on. Companies really should be required to list on the products what person they're designed for, like they have to do on children's car seats

[@michaelturner2806]

Scan documents with your keyboard, listen to the radio on your mouse, have a cigarette lighter and ashtray in a drive bay; what's next, use your monitor tilt as a joystick, read CDs with your tinny 2.0 speakers, change channels on your TV with foot pedals?

[@LGR]

Oddly enough the foot pedals changing channels _is_ entirely a thing using a Foot Mouse and a TV tuner card 😄

[@MrSkeltal268]

@@LGRPlaying Duke Nukem with foot pedals video when?!?

[@lazlopanaflex777]

@@MrSkeltal268 LOL, Clint you gotta make that happen! And when are we getting a video of the sweet Raiden II cab, stop teasing! :-D

[@powerchordgamer]

In the show Metalocalypse they use a series of guitar pedals as their tv remote, so close enough

[@hyperturbotechnomike]

I have built foot pedals for team speak push to talk once.

[@ChrisLincoln]

The jankiness of Windows 9x computers is why I learned so much about PCs and how to troubleshoot them. I know ME/2000 weren't really better, but we kept 98 until XP came along

[@cmdraftbrn]

hated 98. it run for about three months before you had to reformat your hdd and spend a day reinstalling everything.

[@guymontag5]

For something that came out in 96, the scanner keyboard is an incredibly impressive product!

[@Brianybug]

Acer: "Know what our new keyboard needs? Huge wrist-rest kidneys."

[@anonymouschicken20]

Who needs wristrests, the other day, I saw some guy's ergonomic solution: Tilting the whole keyboard and placing it on a tablet stand.

[@Finnisher_DAD]

Yes I like your thinking, you have a future here at Acer

[@D0NU75]

it's the kind of kb that you touch inappropriately whether you want it or not.

[@first__last]

Looks more like butt cheeks to me. The circular trackpad in the center doesn't help.

[@MisterErts]

That's just a excuse to get a goatse shape. Once you see it you can't unsee it.

[@Brazbit]

Pinky! Are you thinking what I'm thinking? I think so Brain... But if it is the keyboard for the paperless office, what are you going to scan?

[@GillesVandenoostende]

Installing drivers and getting printers/scanners/soundcards to work on early windows always felt like a bit like voodoo. Sometimes it works, sometimes it works briefly and then ceases to work until you restart your PC between 5 and 7 times.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

Never understood this back then, why are the PC not working in the exact same way every time, this supposed to be a machine based on logic, and even the experts couldn't answer my question. So when windows became the basic operation system I was like: _Oh, great! So this will here to stay for decades._

[@lazlopanaflex777]

Nothing has changed, good sir...where I work, Win 10 big Pharma lab PCs that have weird issues sometimes magically fix themselves after several reboots... 🤷‍♂

[@SSofIreland]

"Oh no, I've already broken the darn thing! I guess this wasn't supposed to come out all the way." *not even 20 seconds later* "I wonder if this bit opens up...?"

[@LARKXHIN]

"'empowers your PC' now they're just making stuff up" nice to know cringe copy is as old as time itself.

[@BoisegangGaming]

I really appreciate that there's subtitles here and that they're also Netflix levels of quality. "General unboxing noises" "Unnecessary grunting"

[@andresbravo2003]

Finally, a new series from the makers of Weird Mices.

[@kadnhart6661]

No joke, I've been digitizing a bunch of typewriter pages and took a break to watch this, because dealing with my crap Canon flatbed scanner is the most annoying part of the whole process BY FAR. That scanner keyboard would be a legit improvement!

[@Zodroo_Tint]

Yes, people like to crap on things not even considering it might be useful for someone.

[@LeinaDZiur]

This is a gadget I'd actually use today, because having an easy to access scanner without taking the space a scanner takes would be extremely convenient.

[@jamesphillips4009]

Plus that degree of accuracy is just good enough for office work. Gets all the details you need with little fuss; and a little extra for playing around when you have spare time.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

@@jamesphillips4009 Just imagine someone gives you a code and you scan it into the computer within a minute so now you have double chance to not lose the code. Scanner keyboard is useful.

[@seoulpurpose]

I love the early attempts at ergo split keyboards from this era, even though some of them actually required you to place your hands in ways that were ergonomically terrible

[@laurencefraser]

Pesonally, I wish an affordable fully split (two seperate halves, connected by a wire, position them however works for your actual proportions) keyboard had actually been enough of a thing to become standard. I have one now... it was Very expensive. Largely because it's also an ortholinier, programable, mechanical keyboard (and I am getting noticeable benefit from all of those traits), but still, cost me over NZD500... your bog standard cheap PC keyboard is generally (last I looked) around NZD80.

[@vladv5126]

What's NZD?

[@dcnick3]

@@vladv5126 New Zealand Dollars, I would guess

[@DanLink9000]

I live for that B🤓B drip.

[@rommix0]

One of the few times that nerd emoji was used in a non harassing way. I commend you sir.

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

@@rommix0 it's the google one where he's not bucktoothed either lol, always thought that was the cooler nerd emoji

[@rommix0]

@@amirpourghoureiyan1637 I never really thought of that but yeah you would be right.

[@boontube860]

The pure joy in your voice as you grab anything to scan combined with the old windows sounds made me feel like a kid again playing around with some cool tech in the computer lab at school. What a neat little scanner keyboard thing!

[@DarkeningDemise]

Hey LGR, long time fan since about 2011/2012 really. Just wanted to say thanks for all the entertainment for all these years. You inspired me and many others over time to get into things like The Sims, thrifting, and technology. You helped me find out what Sims DLC I wanted to buy first back in the day and the strange tech videos were always great. Your snarky soothing voice was relaxing as well. Good luck to you man.

[@leavemealone6969]

Same. Im not even sure if this account was my original account i first found him since YT got together with Google and messed up my login emails but i always seem to gravitate and find lgr in the algorithm Always a good time whenever i stumble into his vids

[@al3k]

oh my gosh.. I thought I'd seen it all but a scanner in a keyboard? Just, come on... why the HELL isn't that in every house???? 🤣 I want one!

[@Outmind01]

Sure beats having to buy a printer and have it turn into an oversized scanner anyway because the ink dries out.

[@dsallen7914]

For real though, tt's actually a perfect form factor for when you have a big pile of documents to scan. Makes the workflow a lot easier than pivot to flatbed, place doc on flatbed, wait for scan, pivot back to monitor, check if scan looks good, pivot back to flatbed, repeat. With this you can just sit in one place and do everything.

[@enihi]

​@@dsallen7914much prefer a feeder tray for scanning a lot of documents

[@simmadpaul2880]

Still doesn't make the coffee, tidy the office, and tuck you in at night. That's tuck you dirty minded nerd

[@MrWolfSnack]

@@Outmind01 Imagine being someone that doesn't know how to buy new ink.

[@tegandetermann3299]

I love your childlike wonder when you're trying out stuff like this. Seeing exactly what it can scan by grabbing everything within reach and trying it out. It makes your vidoes a hundred times more fun to watch than a dry product review. Also, after heaing you say "Future!" as you did, I'm now feeling the need to go watch you're TS3 final review (for the hundredth time.)

[@oddojaggins]

Something about LGR just grabbing random pieces of paper and giggling when it took it from him was so endearing

[@HR-wd6cw]

Well, I could see something like a doctor's office or dentist's office perhaps finding something like this useful. The client fills out their form and the secretary can scan it from their desk while working on the person's profile on the computer. But I mean compared to scanners of the day it was probably quite compact (as I think scanners from that time were either only flatbed or they were about the size of a paper shredder).

[@paul_boddie]

It makes complete sense from the perspective of any kind of clerical "front desk" job where space is at a premium and where they just want to take papers from the client and process them immediately. These days, people in those jobs end up wandering over to the office scanner/copier/printer, waiting their turn amongst all the other functionaries, messing around with the control panel, and hoping that the scans end up in the right network folder. And that is if the thing actually works at all. There were some fairly compact scanners like this back in the day that ran sheets through the unit, just like the feeder unit does on some multifunction devices. They followed on from those handheld scanners which were wide enough to scan photographs but needed the user to steadily drag the unit over the materials.

[@Toonrick12]

To be fair to the Compaq Scanner Keyboard, just because Windows 95 can run a Windows 3.1 driver doesn't mean it works well with it. The box said "Windows 95 Ready" not "Windows 95 Compatible". That's a tell that the program "Runs" on 95, doesn't mean it "Works" on 95. Yes, it does have the Windows keys on the keyboard, but I'm pretty sure that during development, the prototype didn't have those keys. Of course they couldn't just say it only works on 3.1 in 1996, Windows 95 was THE buzzword back then. Maybe a latter version of this keyboard had a actual driver for Windows 95, assuming it did have a latter version made. In short, a Windows 3.1 driver can run in Windows 95, but no one will be happy. The user, the computer, the OS, and the device will be equally angry at each other.

[@KingGameReview]

You had me at "Weird 90s".

[@Redhotsmasher]

Had me at 90s + future.

[@artchic528]

Clint is getting PTSD flashbacks to the printer video with the scanner keyboard. Poor guy.

[@rommix0]

While that video was enjoyable, I can imagine the pain getting that (useless) printer to work.

[@MrSirViking]

The scanner keyboard was actually cooler than i thought it would be. It is actually an easy way to scan things. get a document and then plop it into the slot on the keyboard and it get scanned right away. No need to open anything. And it did it fairly quickly too. So pretty awesome. Looking forward to more keyboard videos :)

[@Many_Sparrows]

Ah the days of stuff not working then just working fine, unlocked some memories!

[@gwalla]

That keyboard/scanner combo actually seems like a pretty good idea. And yeah, compared to a regular keyboard it's not "compact", but compared to a keyboard and stand-alone scanner it takes up way less desk space. It's just too bad that was the pre-USB age of driver install jank. In an office that had to do a lot of document scanning, it would probably have been pretty handy.

[@twithnell]

Having a scanner right at your keyboard that you can use at will would have been useful back in the day. It's still absurdly ridiculous though. If it works that is. lol

[@anonymouschicken20]

I have to walk to another room to reach my scanner, whereas with this gadget, I could have a scanner right on top of my keyb. That'd be neat.

[@AmaroqStarwind]

And don’t forget the scanner mouse.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

Why is it ridiculous if it is useful?

[@AmaroqStarwind]

@@Zodroo_Tint “Useful” and “ridiculous”aren’t mutually exclusive.

[@mar4kl]

1:38, "Easy to use - no on/off switch..." - 🤣Because we all know that the hardest thing about using a scanner is operating the on/off switch! 17:02, odd split layout - Those were supposed to be ergonomic, good for reducing the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome for those who had it, and for reducing the chances of developing carpal tunnel syndrome for those who didn't. A number of split/curved/angled keyboards were introduced in the early 1990s. I was interested, as I found that day after day of programming and other keyboarding I had to do for my job brought on painful tendonitis. Alas, those supposedly ergonomic keyboards were expensive, there seemed to be little authoritative research to prove the concept, and I wasn't sure I could get used to typing with my hands at those angles, so I didn't think my employer would be willing to spring for one. But the one thing that article after article I read on the topic all said was that the cause of manual pain from typing was the unnatural angles that people's hands made with their wrists as they positioned themselves to reach the keyboard. Examining my sitting position at my desk, I realized that my relatively short stature made it impossible for me to sit high enough at the desk to type with straight wrists without having the chair so high that my feet would be dangling several inches above the floor, which can lead to circulation problems and lower back pain. Armed with that knowledge (ooh, sorry, couldn't resist!), I devised a basically free solution to my problem that required no new hardware or furniture acquisitions. If I couldn't raise myself high enough to type with my wrists straight, maybe I could angle up the keyboard so I could keep my wrists straight while sitting at my normal height. So, I went to the storage closet and helped myself to a spare keyboard tray with a soft palmrest, and began collecting waste paper from the printer, which I stacked up under the back edge of the keyboard to angle it up. I stopped collecting waste paper when I had a stack about an inch and a half high, and the keyboard and tray and my forearms were at about a 40-degree angle from the desktop. My forearms, wrists and hands were perfectly straight, the soft palmrest kept this position comfortable, and there was no new hand positioning to get used to, although this setup looked a bit strange. The tendonitis went away, and I never developed carpal tunnel syndrome. The only detriment was to some poor ergonomic keyboard maker who was denied a ~$250 sale due to my ingenuity. (I cried guilty tears all the way from the doctor's office to the bank over that.)

[@W4iteFlame]

I want to see how it looked

[@laurencefraser]

Turns out, most of those ergonomic keyboards were of... questionable.. benefit. Not because the logic was wrong, exactly, but because they were still locked into a fixed, non-adjustable position, and for most people that position would be the Wrong position. On the other hand, if you could track down a Fully split keyboard, where the two halves were connected by a Wire, (you can get them, they are expensive but that's because, to my understanding, most of the manufacturers willing to actually do it are also specifically there to make fancy mechanical keyboards, so you're paying for that too), you can get a lot more benefit out of them, because you can actually put the two halves the right distance apart for your shoulders (you can end up with really bad wrist pain because nerves in your shoulders/neck/upper back are getting screwed up by your shoulder/arm position with a normal keyboard, quite independent of the Actual wrist problems it can cause) and at the right angle for your wrists' natural resting positions. Ortholinier key layouts can help somewhat too, because you're not stretching your fingers out sideways all the time. Then you get into the absolute disaster that is Chairs, and the standard, non-adjustable office desk (designed so that standard filing cabinets fit under it, not to be ergonomic to humans in Any Way... unless they're well over six feet tall, at least)... and the fun lack of compatibility between the two.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

Next time don't separate your comment into two part, just write it into one part so it will be even harder to read! Thanks!

[@kirbyyasha]

I have that Compaq scanner keyboard. Such a honker.

[@Dukefazon]

I reeeally had to force myself not to pick a scanner keyboard like that off of ebay! It probably won't work right on moder machines with the driver issues but every time you inserted a paper and it started to work on it instantly it heightened my need to buy one. It's such a cool little device! I have a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard that has similar color scheme to that one you have here. At first it was weird, I don't know why my seller gave me that but I quickly grew fond of it. I used it for a couple of years before switched to Mac, it was nice, comfy, a bit bulky but I had a huge table back then. Neat keyboards, keep 'em coming!

[@MrWolfSnack]

I have windows 7 and 7 works fine with archaic drivers. I know for a fact that 10 and 11 do not work with drivers older than XP because of the way they programmed the OS to be for inept toddlers and anti-user for experienced Windows users. Currently using a barcode scanner from 1989 on my 7 PC with some generic Windows 95 serial driver for a random commercial barcode device and it's working just fine.

[@Markimark151]

That scanner keyboard is so cool, it’s a space saver! Too bad Compaq never focused on the software driver for that keyboard, it would’ve been successful!

[@lemagreengreen]

The packaging for that weird Compaq keyboard scanner pleases me, not seen that yellow cardboard since the 90s.

[@poikochan87]

the scanner keyboard is really neat! I'd have loved to have something like it back in the day :D

[@GameDesignerJDG]

Man. That printer messed you up. I'm detecting no small amount of anxiety around the Compaq scanner keyboard. God rest that printer's soul.

[@LotoTheHero]

Remember, it was multiple models of the same printer, all non working. XD Three of them in all if I remember correctly.

[@NFM1337]

​@@LotoTheHero i think if he just gives it two or three more videos worth of effort, he'll get there. He shouldn't give up. I believe in him.

[@sanityormadness]

@@LotoTheHero Well, two the same and one close relation.

[@renakunisaki]

Printers are Satan.

[@LordHonkInc]

OCR on a '90s scanner? Did not expect that... okay, looking at wikipedia it's not as exciting as I thought, the first commercial use going back to the '50s. Dunno why my brain thought OCR only became practical in the early 2000s. Either way, I'm pretty impressed; I have to do a lot of letterdigital correspondence even today, so I'd totally get good use out of that thing.

[@Cherijo78]

My first experience with OCR was in the late '80s, Maybe very early '90s, on a Compaq Deskpro 286 with a Logitech handheld grayscale Palm scanner. There was OCR with it. I remember what a trip it was to see this happening in front of me on a computer at the time.

[@IOSARBX]

LGR, Subscribed because your videos always make me smile!

[@Andy-pu2iv]

I just love your channel, Clint. My trial by fire into computing was in the '90s, and it was pretty much this. All the time. Every day. I tip my hat to you, why you would want to torture yourself trying to get prehistoric gear to work "for fun" is beyond me. But I salute you for it! Great videos and very entertaining.

[@JMVos]

Oh wow dude, you look so fresh! You've evolved. Not sure how long I've been following, but it's been a while. Saw you produced 1200+ vids in total. That's quite the number. Love the stuff, keep it up!

[@LGR]

Thank you, it’s been one heckuva journey all these years!

[@tcaldwe]

OMG the mere mention of the Paperport software triggered my PTSD from working for Packard Bell Support in the 1990's. some of the longest support calls were dealing with the BSOD caused in win 95 and Paperport and only takes number two in the worst over the Aztec sound card modem combo. /shudder/

[@RetroTechRestoration]

Patient registration staff at our hospital ER use small stick-style scanners with their mobile computer workstations everyday. This built-in scanner would accomplish the same purpose.

[@DennisBottaro]

Seeing PaperPort in action after all these years brings back the memories. I had a stand-alone roll scanner quite like that one velcroed to the top of my CRT back in the day to scan into PaperPort. Did letters, bills, and all sorts of documents to create my "paperless home office of the future". Needless to say, that didn't really stick and now I have paper everywhere in my "office of the present"!

[@mbirth]

Back then, I had a keyboard that had a calculator (with display) integrated into the numpad. And there was a key to turn the currently displayed result into keypresses. And it also had 20 macro keys that could be programmed with up to 20 keypresses each. Pretty awesome for the time.

[@shocktnc]

7:24 These sounds truly convey the emotions of tech support issues.

[@BigDrewski1000]

Ikr? Lol. Laughed way harder than I probably should've because you just know he's having PTSD flashbacks to trying to get the printer working. 😂

[@user-em6ww6pn8q]

I watch LGR right before bed. It's so relaxing and I sleep well after. Thanks bro. One of the best on KZbin.

[@Cherijo78]

I had one of those Green Acer Aspire desktops when I went to college in 1997! Bought it during my senior HS year while working. It was reasonably compact and not just beige. Mine had a Cyrix 6x86 in it. I played so much Quake on it lol! Sold it when I bought a Gateway Essentials P3-450 with Voodoo3 3000 with DVD player and mpeg 2 card a few years later. Good little machine!

[@TehSmokeyMan]

Yeah, don't worry; this is plenty enjoyable😄 Heck you could start a series where you just grab a random thing from your Vault (...Hoard? Treasure Pile? Retro and Oldskool Awesomeness Room? Storage of Wildly Eclectic and Epic Treasures?) and talk about it and I'd like it (retro stuff and a great host? What's not to like?)😁

[@BobWiersema]

For scanning business cards and thicker things flip the door in the back (at 4:56) up so things pass straight through. Yes I have one. Used it all the time and was so disappointed when I couldn't find any drivers past Win98. Mine was made by Visioneer. Also if Win95 or 98 is having a hard time finding it that's because it likes the com ports to be on the default IRQ's.

[@Petertronic]

Loved that scanner keyboard, a neat idea I never saw before!

[@J45yu456]

LGR. Thanks for the great videos and Bird video stream !

[@wereedbooks]

28:52 will live in my head for the rest of my life, thank you!!

[@devonwilliams5738]

More weird keyboards, please.

[@squidlover7615]

I love tech like this, awesome vid

[@wijjit]

i love doing my little hobby jobs listening to you and your hobbies. Thanks!

[@DS9TREK]

MS Bob is taking over the channel..😮

[@asystole_]

"Ms Bob"??? Even software has gone woke!!!!!! 😡 /s

[@blackjack9612]

The bobfit goes hard

[@borjesvensson8661]

Love these videos

[@CHIPCORNFIELD]

I love your videos Clint, been a huge fan for years i really hope youre doing well man world is scary out there. Take care my friend

[@battlepants5818]

Hello Clint! You are a KZbinr that makes cozy videos about old computer stuff. That is good!

[@Madpegasusmax]

I can imagine the scanner keyboard used on a deskfront office that asks for a document to scan it , like a bank, assurances, and so on ... but I guess paper clips and staples killed the idea very quickly ...

[@spiral_space]

Was not expecting to see an I-Ninja mention in an LGR video, even if it was just an ad. Thanks for showing us these wacky things!

[@jbeamer11tv]

Was going through a moment of loneliness, and was honestly on the brink of tears until that goofy sound you made at 7:31 which cheered me up a lot and made me laugh. Thank you a lot LGR, I love your videos ❤

[@AndrewKatzmakes]

Oh my, ancient PaperPort! Still around today, and a great piece of scanning software. Fascinating to see this older version

[@stephenbaker2709]

This is great cant wait to see more the scanner keyboard needs a comeback!!

[@Velo1010]

I do love the verbiage companies used to advertise their products. Miss those days of the late 90’s to early 2000’s.

[@Armadill0h]

Early morning LGR is the best way to start my day.☺️

[@HiddenRefuge]

Thanks for covering these! The scanner keyboard is a surprisingly decent piece of hardware for it's time, if not for the drivers. But then again, most of hardware used to be like that - you plugged it in hoping it will work and it didn't, while running just fine on your friend's pc which often didn't even met all the spec requirements 🙃

[@Brunosky_Inc]

Is there any chance the keyboard scanner could be made to work on a modern device? It'd be pretty wild if modern computers could somehow detect that silly scanner by default

[@GWN_Garage]

New LGR and some lunch.... my day is perfect!

[@janneaalto3956]

I had a MS Natural keyboard and loved it, as I had bad CTS at the time. The only negative was the stiff and awkward Space bar.

[@8LegoVogel8]

_Scanners and keyboards together at last._ 🎵 _They type kinda funny and don't print very fast._ 🎶 Is that a bacon & rocket reference or am I too deep into the internet?

[@CheapCheerful]

On holiday in Thailand. Eating lollies for breakfast. New LGR video. Wonderful :)

[@umbrellacorp.]

Nothing better than an LGR video after a hard week's work. Now I can kick back and relax. ☕️☺️👍💯 If I can get my kids to go out and play.😏

[@spongerobert]

A scanner keyboard isn't the absolute worst idea. I'd actually like one for my computer. If you really think about it, it's one of those things that could have changed the industry (think text input via handwritten pages for instance) but maybe it wasn't marketed correctly/technical issues.

[@AdvancePlays]

Interesting to see a full size keyboard scanner - I use one at work (in a bank) that scans small, wide aspect ratio papers like cheques and giro credits. What amazes me about it is just how good the keyboard itself is. It is a super chunky mechanical deal, no idea what switch mechanism it uses and don't want to risk hurting it to find out, but it's so nice to use. And the numpad is squarely *under* the alphabet keys.

[@override7486]

no switch. It's membrane thing. NES pad style... or ZX Spectrum. Carbon conductive layer but with springs and other sci-fi.

[@AdvancePlays]

@@override7486 I'm talking about the one I work with, not the one featured in the video 🙂

[@Rocky1138]

Thanks so much for calling out how great those Compaq keyboards felt to type on. My first computer was a Compaq and I loved that keyboard. It was broken so I lost it (or maybe threw it away?) and only just recently found a replacement. It needs a new membrane and I'm not sure if there are aftermarket membranes available or not.

[@StevenGuderian14]

WOOHOOO NEW LGR VIDEO !!! YAAAAAASSSS

[@thedeegee1601]

Gotta love all these 90's box visuals.

[@HadesTimer]

As someone who has had some bad experiences with synaptic drivers I can say that alot of windows programs at the time had trouble with that. I had this problem with my touchpad on my laptop at the time. I hated it, I just used a regular mouse and bypassed it completely. This was windows 95-Windows 7.

[@jason3fc]

It seems like a weird thing to do, putting a scanner as a keyboard, but in 2024 I keep an Epson portable wireless scanner right behind my keyboard to scan in bills and other paper I want to just keep digital. Basically the same setup as the scanner keyboard.

[@bearserk4151]

I would unironically love to have a keyboard/scanner hybrid, really cool stuff.

[@LotoTheHero]

That Compaq keyboard/scanner was better than I expected (once you were able to get it set up). Pretty cool! 👍 I had a keyboard that had a touchpad in the late 90's/early 00's and it was quite decent! That Acer though... that thing looks like an abomination to me. lol. Doesn't sound good to type on either, but maybe it's okay in person.

[@jameshorigan3322]

Thanks for another great video! Here's one for the algorithm! :^)

[@rastas_4221]

You can hype mechanical keyboards to death for me, but my old Packard Bell laptop keyboard still feels absolutely magical to me and gives me the best WPM. 10+ years of using it for serious work did that.

[@Electronics-Rocks]

Brings back memories of struggling with driver installation. We take it for granted now as it has been so simple over the last 4 versions of windows. As long as the device came out with that version of windows & newer!

[@jasonritner9662]

I remember trying to use scanners back in the day, and this is incomparably easy, intuitive, and fast (once setup).

[@senilyDeluxe]

15:45 that's the best Boss Key I've ever seen!