July 14, 2005

Typographer's Delight

The Optimus Keyboard, apart from having a very cool name, is one of the greatest pieces of product design I've seen in ages. While still only a prototype, the idea is to use OLEDs as keycaps, showing what each key is actually controlling at any particular time. This appears to range from simple language switching and odd characters (which would be a huge blessing for those of us who need to use characters not on your standard 104-key setup), into more functional symbology for playing games.

Sure, this update to the old concept of the keyboard overlay will probably cost thousands when released, but the cool factor alone will probably drive enough sales to cover costs. I know I'll want one. Go check out the renders and see if you don't agree.

Posted by Jason at July 14, 2005 01:29 PM to Tech

Comments

That's definitely the most brilliant and pragmatic keyboard I've ever seen. Being able to set the visual keyboard mappings on the fly ought to be extremely useful for most people - and a good way for us QWERTY'ists to learn Dvorak without taping on little pieces of paper!

I take it it stores mappings in ROM? Provided it doesn't need drivers, it'd be the ultimate travel keyboard; no need to hunt-n-peck on foreign mappings.

And it's drop-dead gorgeous. Here's hoping it's easily extensible. Great find!