I purchased a late-model Datahand in 2007. I was living in Phoenix at the time, and picked it up in-person. I paid around $700 for it.<p>What a waste of money.<p>It was impossible to learn how to use. Even the employee who gave me a demo could only type slowly with it. I&#x27;m sure some people mastered it, but for me, it just wasn&#x27;t worth the effort. But it sure looked cool. I wanted so bad to learn how to use it, but I also had to get work done. I ended up selling it on eBay a couple years later to (I think) a Google employee.<p>I took it apart a few times.<p>The switches were simple, but novel - optical beam (if memory serves) that broke when you pushed the switch away from the central mount (one &quot;mount&quot; per finger, four side switches one center switch.) If I remember correctly, the switches were magnetic, so that when you relaxed your finger, they&#x27;d snap back to the mount.<p>You could easily 3D print the switches nowadays. The device is a lot simpler than you&#x27;d think.