
With a Ball!
OOH! I want an IBM Selectric version! What a blissful machine!
(Paris, 'cause she is still sad that she failed secretarial school)
The personal computer may have consigned the typewriter to the dustbin of history, but some vintage models are being reborn as USB keyboards. Jack Zylkin, an enterprising tinkerer and the mind behind USB Typewriter, developed his typewriter conversion system at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Hive 76. This self-described " …
But the reality may be trickier. Our old bog-standard Remington Quietwriter did not distinguish between the digit 1 and lower case L, or the digit 0 and letter O. As for typing exclamation marks, which had to be entered as apostrophe, backspace, full-stop (and a similar issue with dollar signs etc)... Actually, the latter could be sorted in clever firmware, but the doubled up digits would be a potential show stopper.
I'd be more impressed if they replaced the roller with a metal one and placed an electrical contact on the end of the typebars (the moving bits) (some insulation required of course). Then the keypress can be registered by the typebars hitting the roller, exactly as when using paper (audio feedback from clack is then at the right time). The carriage return lever also needs wiring up to the appropriate key.
...is right here:
http://www.multipledigression.com/type/
It's said to work well after some trial and error, right down to the action of hitting the carriage return bar for enter. And it still works as a typewriter.
I've seen another one that someone emptied all the typewriter parts out of and put a mini-ITX computer inside...cheating, but kind of cool nevertheless.
Mine's the one filled with Model M's...your choice: big or space-saver...get 'em while they're hot...
Hah, when the iPhone was still just internet rumors I speculated that it would look much like an iPod, but with numbers and a retractable stop on the click wheel to provide a rotary dial.
I want one of these typewriters, but my wife would KILL me the first night I kept her up (and woke up the grandbaby) using it.