There’s an interesting company named Matias. They create various products, but some of their keyboards are especially interesting because of the special layouts they’re using.
Their Optimizer layout used in the Matias Optimizer Keyboard hits home for me. The idea is good, but they’re not the first to invent such a layout, and probably neither am I. I saw a similar X11 layout that uses the IJKL keys and the Windows key as a shifting key to produce handy cursor navigation. I saw this X11 layout after I came up with the Ultimate layout which is similar to these layouts. The core idea of the Optimizer layout is very good, but its implementation is suboptimal because the Optimize key is accessible with the pinky, our weakest digit.
On the other hand, the Half-QWERTY layout that is used in Matias Half-QWERTY One-Handed Keyboard and Matias Half Keyboard is new to me, and I haven’t heard about it yet. It may be their own invention, although it doesn’t take a genius to come up with the idea. I think the Half-QWERTY layout works well because it’s easy for the human mind to mirror the keys of one half of the keyboard. The $600 price tag, however, is unjustified, even for such a niche product.