Slashdot Mirror
Optimus Keyboard With OLED Display Keys
Koskun writes "What appears to be a Russian design company has on their website a keyboard in which the keys are using OLED to display what function the keys represent. The product is Art. Lebedev Studio's Optimus Keyboard. The uses of this could be amazing. They have pictures of layouts for Photoshop and Quake, as well as a QWERTY and Russian. Here's hoping that this will make it to a production model and not just a design model."
Coral Cache Link
It's not even a "design model". It's a "rendered model". Sweet concept. You'd spend a bloody fortune on 116 individual color OLED displays - in several sizes - and all the circuitry, interfacing, and drivers to run them. I see that they are Macintosh fans, though.
A prime idea, that.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Since all of our jobs are being outsourced to other countries, this keyboard will be perfect for public schools where they will need to teach children to function in the wonderful world of order-taking at fast food restaurants on those nifty little picture-only cash-registers..
It will be handier and handier to have virtual keyboards, and in fact, they obviously already exist.
;)
However, soon enough, as with other inventions, it just may be that we get a glass panel in front of us, and the display/input conforms to the user and his/her function, instead of the other way around.
libertarianswag.com
Cool, not only could viruses switch what appears on your screen when you type you could also wake up and find a huge picture of goatse on your keyboard.
I'll bet you the latest spyware would get the ability to run banner ads through the keyboard. "Hit the monkey now!"
It looks like most of their portfolio makes it into production, but I can't
help but wonder just how much a keyboard like this would cost?
Also, OLED's have a short life. 1-2 years.
Mirror here
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
This is an amazing idea for international users at public terminals. Just sit down and select your character set and you're off and running with a keyboard taylored to your needs. I forsee this being in airports and trainstations; even somewhat computer illiterate people could use it to be able to seemlessly type in there language.
Although the price might render this idea problematic...
But the one that intrigues me the most is the fact that I share a keyboard between a Mac and a PC using Synergy, and the keys aren't mapped identically between both machines. This would be very handy to have my keyboard visually show me what's what, dependant upon which computer has the keyboards focus at that time.
Not to mention that I'm a shortcut junkie, and a visual kinda guy... This has "productivity increase" written all over it!
But the bad news is that the keyboard appears to be just a prototype at this point. Hopefully demand will quickly bring it to market soon! (preferably at less than $200 - It looks kinda expensive). There's a rather good thread on it over at digg, from earlier today.
I can finally get past the second step - I'll have an ANY KEY!
There really could be an 'Any' key.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
> last, but for me most importantly, are the pretty pictures on the left-hand column of keys configurable?
... wow.
No. After all, the whole point of a super-expensive keyboard with keys that can dynamically change their labels is to hardwire their function in. It was just cheaper to use an OLED display than to silkscreen them on.
You even rip off the MS menu keys on your work PC? Just
I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
I would think that the new e-paper technologies would be better suited as they maintain the image with the power off. This would enable the keyboard to only use power while the keys are changed (or if they are animated), and of course the wireless portion would use power.
If they get these out on the market (using e-paper tech) for under $300 CAN I would buy one asap.
An optimist believes we live in the best world possible; a pessimist fears this is true.
Um, nobody claimed it was a product, did you bother to read the post or look past that one page on the website? This is a design concept by a russian company who does industrial design. many of their other design concepts have made it to production.
That would be really funny if the prompt read, "Press any key" and every key on the keyboard changed to read "Any". :)
I think e-ink would be a cheaper, less power-hungry option for the keys. Also, making the keys contoured would be a good idea.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
I beg to differ that this is not practical. This would be especially useful to video editors or anyone in media that uses a shit-ton of keyboard hotkeys/shortcuts. Take video for example... Avid and FCP keyboards are all over the place. Imagine having a kayboard like this which avid or fcp could send the user's keyboard layout to, and presto! Instant, accurate representation of all the keyboard short-cuts. This is far better than buying a pre-manufactured keyboard that has the shortcuts printed on the keys... especially if you change the layout (as many do on avid and fcp and many other programs).
Slashdot: where repeating an article in a post is "+5 Insightful"
Sure. I can touchtype, and I've been able to do that for the last 13 years at least. But it'd still be VERY handy.
When I'm using a new program, I'd love for my keyboard to show me what keys do what. Hold down shift and a new set of functions pop up on the keyboard. Other modifiers and you get more.
Touch typing is useless when you don't know that pressing Ctrl+Shift+Space will do what you're trying to find in Tools->More->Neat->Macro->Experimental->Do not touch.
Or are you just somehow magically able to know just what each and every key combination does in a program you've never used before?
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Everyone thinks that this would be expensice. but does anyone out here actually know what OLED prices are for something like this?
If it's feasible to integrate the OLED and the display driver using all organic semiconductors, maybe this isn't as expensive an idea as people think. The first screens don't necessarily have to have super fast refresh rates.
After all, most of the tiny screens are identical, and my best guess is that OLED production costs go as the area of the screen, which isn't really that large in this case. If one manages to combine the push signal, display signal and the OLED power in two wires, the wiring wouldn't be much more complex than a standard keyboard.
This is a fun idea, sure, and might have some genuine use in a few niches, but I doubt it's going anywhere as a mainstream idea.
Nothing like thinking completely within the box. Free your mind, my friend.
How about an application that changes your keyboard functions as you proceed through steps? For instance, using an IDE, different key functions would show when I'm editing or debugging.
What if you had toggle keys that, when pressed, the keyboard would show you a visual indication of a completely different set of key-functions? So your keyboard is in its normal state most of the time, but gives you alternate setups as you request them.
What if in games, when you get shot, your keyboard pulses red. When you swim, your keyboard looks like water, with bubbles floating past. Keys show pictures of the weapons they would switch you to, and how much ammo they hold. Keys show the spells they would cast.
What if applications and desktops could now eliminate widgets because a key can be set to represent them as needed? No more row of buttons at the top of every web browser, word processor, and email client. Perhaps they could add a row of keys along the top of the keyboard to replace the window taskbar. These buttons would show your apps, and you could press them to minimize windows, restore them, or bring them to the front.
Or, we could just keep thinking in the box, poo-pooing ideas, and leave the innovation to others.