The most awesome keyboard ever

[Midknight]

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/

Stumbled upon this early. It's an LCD keyboard, with each key being a mini LCD screen that changes dependant on what you're doing. Utterly kick ass. It's not been released yet, nor has an estimated price been thought about. Seems like it was made by a small group of folks that haven't gotten around to getting the measures ready for world wide mass production, although they are working on it

The keys are programable, you can add macros to it, etc.
Here's a shot of the photoshop mode to entice you into looking =P

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/psd.jpg

[Sree]

Holy crap. That looks awesome. Probably will cause a shitload though. Still, I can see how this could be useful to people, especially international people that want to write in different languages.

[Midknight]

Holy crap. That looks awesome. Probably will cause a shitload though. Still, I can see how this could be useful to people, especially international people that want to write in different languages.

Aye I know it'd be great for me for gaming, the language bit looks like it'd kick ass I agree.

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/rus.jpg

[Sree]

Yeah, but if it's expensive, which it'll probably be, I don't think people'll buy it just for gaming.

[Midknight]

You'd be suprised, I've run gaming clans for DAOC, and for Tribes that had folks buying 200$ "ergonomic" "programmable" keyboards. Currently quite alot of the gamers I know are using the very uncomfortable Z-boards that sell for 40-50$ a pop, then 20$ per game insert. Paying 200$ for a fully programmable keyboard will be a steal to those guys.


I know I'll eventually buy one if I have money at the time, or be able to find one someone hates off of ebay =)

I figure it'll cost at least $150ish if not a bit more, and as the manufacturing process gets better for them when sales take off, it'll plummet.

[Sree]

Wow, yeah, I'm not that much of a hard-core PC gamer. Mostly PS2 games for me. So I probably can't imagine what lengths people will go to. :)

[Mordecai]

The FAQ for it says it will cost less than a good mobile phone.

That said my own comment on it "me waaaaaaant"

~goes into a zombie like trance~ must have keyboard, must have keyboard

[Xiph0]

Less then a good mobile? <200 then? Yay! ^^

Was that greek midknight?

[Midknight]

Russian for the foreign language pic if that's what you mean, but it can do any language

[IndoGhost]

All i can say is "WOW". I use a laptop so it wouldn't help me...but if i had a PC i would buy it without a second thought.

[Forfie]

I didn't read to indepth, but is it a wireless model or not? Other than that, me and my gamer Roomie think it's pretty sweet. If it had a Hebrew and Arabic function on it, I know I would buy it in a second because I'm studying those in college. I'm kinda wanting it real bad, even just for my home desktop.

[UnholyWarlord]

GOD! must..have..the..persious

[Midknight]

I didn't read to indepth, but is it a wireless model or not? Other than that, me and my gamer Roomie think it's pretty sweet. If it had a Hebrew and Arabic function on it, I know I would buy it in a second because I'm studying those in college. I'm kinda wanting it real bad, even just for my home desktop.

ptimus is good for any layouts—Cyrillic, Ancient Greek, Georgian, Arabic—and so on to infinity: notes, numerals, special symbols, HTML codes, mathematical functions.

Anything you want to put on it is possible. A simple matter of programming it according to various forums

[ChuckDaTruck]

OH MY GOD!!!


:begins to drool: I am buying that SHIT!!

I'm studying film and dabbling in Spanish, so....lots of shorthand phrases used in film at least. Plus games and shit.
YO LO QUIERO!!! :D :D :D

[nonjon]

Love the idea.

Just wonder how well the first few will work.
If there is a wireless version it probably drains batteries when you think every key is a programmable LCD. Even wired it might need a power source. And for so many of the gamers who get the ergonomic ones to help with cramping, this would be just as bad, unless it's split or ergonomic or highly adjustable as well.

Until I actually see one in use and see how effective it is, I'd think those cheesy keyboard overlays would be every bit as good. Because once you get comfortable enough with the keyboard and the layout, you spend very little time looking at it, other than to check your hand placement. I mean like if I look down and see my left index finger is on "G" then I'm more confident that my pinky is on the letter "A" even though I can't see through my hand and see the "A".

But it would be slick if changing the character set, actually changed what characters were displayed on the keyboard, no doubt about that. Espcially when it's learning time, or you have to write papers in foreign languages. Hell, maybe we could even get the keys to display the different fonts on them. Upper and lower case. Special characters showing up. Would make dingbat searches easier. But this would be still a ways down the line and probably would need to be application specific, like it's built in to M$ Word, or Photoshop to work with these keyboards.

[Antivash]

o_O... sweeeeeet... i need one of those...wireless model preferably...

[LINKed up]

Pish, I dont need that thing. W/ my iBook, I just change the language setting and hit keyboard viewer, and it has all of the letters there for me. And as I have a mac, I cant game (which sucks), so another reason not to get it. And money. Low on that. But, not counting those things, it does look really, really, really cool.

[Antivash]

The three key mini is 100 until after April 2, 2006, after which the price will rise... meaning the full keyboard is gonna be some uber bucks..

[Midknight]

Eh rather harsh pricing on the 100$ 3 LCd screen model and that's expected to go up once they launch. The keyboard is still end of 2006. Hopefully I'll have cash when they go on sale

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus-mini/

[Skykes]

The quake pic looks really cool, If i can afford It at the time ill probably get it.

[Xantam]

I'm glad you felt the need to bump an 11 month old topic to tell us that.

[Midknight]

alright it's more of a fishing for opinion thread.


The board is supposedly almost ready to be shipped. they changed the stuff that makes the LCDs work to something more sturdy, thats why the delay

[huntedorange]

Jesus man your a third year and you are still necro posting, thats unforgiveable, completly.

[Midknight]

... I just posted above that it was a fishing for opinion thread, and okayed it.

[Legion]

I'm so getting that thing.

[Aekiel]

Looks pretty useful for gaming & the likes, but I really don't look at my keyboard anymore so I'll probably not buy it. Touch Typing ftw!