I can never get tired of Japan's Gboard inventions that come out every October. Every year, the team manages to come up with something even more ridiculous than the previous iteration. Naturally, these inventions aren't real products you can buy, but they do a good job of driving interest in Google's Gboard app that many people use every day.

A new take

If you've never seen them before, we definitely recommend taking a look. This is a tradition that's been going on for 15 generations now, with the Google team in Japan showcasing a new type of keyboard that they imagine could be helpful for everyday use.

This year's "Rotating Keyboard" imagines users typing out words using just one hand or just a single finger. In order to make this viable, Google created a keyboard that moves, with keys that rotate. This allows the user's hand to remain stationary for typing, while the other is free to do other things.

Using machine translation, the team at Google explains on the announcement page that "this keyboard features keys that move along a conveyor belt. You type the desired character at the right time as each key moves by. Each belt has 29 keys, and you can directly input both uppercase and lowercase letters, allowing for intuitive operation."

Google shares that it did toy with the idea of different versions, like different color variants, one with a longer keyboard, another with a shorter one, and even one that rotates at high speed. Naturally, it's a complex situation, and one that needs deep thought in order for the team to proceed.

While Google will never release these products, it does provide a starting point if you ever want to build your own. In case you find this interesting, you can always check out all the previous models that Google has announced. Most are pretty tame, but there are some iterations that really push the limits.

Is Gboard your daily keyboard?

For most people, Gboard is the go-to keyboard on Android. Not only does it provide a fairly seamless typing experience, but Google has managed to introduce new and useful features that elevate the experience. Of course, in order to make the most of it, we always recommend applying some tweaks.

And despite it being the most popular, we always urge you to find a worthwhile alternative. We've explored some of these in the past and found that there are some worthy contenders. Some have even permanently jumped ship, relying on something completely different. Let us know what keyboard you use in the comments below.