Optimus Keyboard, From Russia With Love !!! Options

[NickTheGreek]

These Russians made a keyboard with OLED display buttons!!!

Imagine a keyboard where each key is a small TFT screen ; you change the language, the display changes, you press CAPS LOCK, you see CAPITALS, you go to play MAME, you see direction pad signs instead of keys !!!

FANTASTIC !

[NickTheGreek]

It’s in the initial stage of production.

We hope it will be released in 2006.

It will cost less than a good mobile phone.

It will be real.

It will be OS-independent (at least it’s going to be able to work in some default state with any OS).

It will support any language or layout.

Moscow is the capital of Russia.

Each key could be programmed to produce any sequence.

It will be an open-source keyboard, SDK will be available.

Some day it will be split (and made β€œergonomic”).

It will most likely use the OLED technology (e-paper is sooo slow).

Our studio is located two blocks from the Kremlin.

It will feature a key-saver.

Keys could be animated when needed.

It has a numeric keypad because we love it.

There’s no snow in Moscow in summer.

It will be available worldwide (why not?)

OEM is possible (why not?)

[IIIARSHAA]

omfg, its like the ultimate keybord

[NickTheGreek]

The Russians are having patent problems... in the US

read this :

Artemy Lebedev might have some trouble
selling his attention-grabbing Optimus keyboard
here in the States β€” turns out some dude by the
name of Elkin Acevedo beat him to the punch and
received a patent for a β€œDisplay keyboard” way
back in 1998. The patent abstract describes the
Optimus almost exactly, too:

    A display keyboard including a conventional
keyboard having an upper edge, lower edge,
and pair of side edges. A plurality of display
keys are situated on the keyboard. Each display
key has a liquid crystal display, light emitting
diode display, or any future state of the art
display invention situated thereon for depicting
alphanumeric characters and indicia. Finally, for
controlling the operation of the present invention,
a conventional computer is connected to the keyboard
and adapted to depict via the display keys characters
and indicia relevant to the function of the key during a
current software application. To prevent confusion and
eliminate clutter, the display keys that are not relevant
to the software are rendered blank. In essence, all of
the keys of the display keyboard have display capabilities,
but it is at the discretion of the manufacture which keys
should be able to display.

Supposedly Elkin is trying to commercialize the Display keyboard, we’re trying to get in touch with him to find out how far along he might be with that

[NickTheGreek]

Read the interview from the creators :

First Look: The Optimus Keyboard

Author: Alex Petraglia

Date: Friday, July 15, 2005

When a Russian design firm broke the news of its OLED keyboard on Thursday, July 14, geeks everywhere were tickled with delight. Rather than tradition keys that feature printed characters, each key on the Optimus keyboard contains a small OLED display that can be set to display whatever the user requires. Want to seamlessly switch between English and Chinese characters? Go from Photoshop shortcuts to Quake inputs in a flash? Art. Lebedev, the company behind the Optimus keyboard, is the biggest design firm in Russia, with work in website promotion, corporate identities, and product design. We chatted with its founder and director of development for the Optimus, Artemy Lebedev, to get some answers to everyone’s most burning questions.

Primotech: First off, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. The biggest concern that was raised yesterday was whether or not this product will ever see the light of day. Can you allay those fears?

Artemy Lebedv: We're in the process of negotiations with several technology providers and manufacturers.

PT: Any names for manufacturers? If not, can you tell me if they'd be Russian and/or American?

AL: As of now we are going to produce it under our own brand, Art. Lebedev. No doubt manufacturing will be in China or Korea.

[Ed.- To clarify the difference between these first two questions, as of now, the company will hold the rights to the keyboard (as opposed to selling the design) and have it produced by another company overseas]

PT: How is the display of characters handled? Does the board come equipped with built in icons? Are packages downloaded over time?

AL: We've thought about the first "open-source keyboard". There will be an SDK and some user "keyboard studio" application which will allow keyboard to be customized for any mode or application in any way imaginable, from DVORAK to arranging letters in alphabetical order.

PT: In addition to handling the external design, is your company working on the wiring, electronics, and schematics as well?

AL: We do the industrial design and interface engineering on our part. These two are of our specialties.

PT: Will it be wireless, Bluetooth, or USB only?

AL: USB 2.0 for sure…FireWire - probably. Possibly it will have an external power supply. No need for Bluetooth.

PT: Any word on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux compatibility?

AL: I see no reason to make keyboard OS-dependant. As you can see from the current layout we have enough keys for Win or Mac control keys. As well, we made the keyboard several keys larger than usual QWERTY to comfortable fit all the Cyrillic letters (there are 33 of them).

PT: Will it be geared more to industry at first or consumers?

AL: We were keeping in mind typesetting professionals first. But without forgetting all kind of users, especially gamers. It will also be of great use to sound and movie pros.

PT: What kind of material is the Optimus made out of?

AL: The body is aluminum-wrapped.

PT: How long has the Optimus been in design?

AL: About a year.

PT: Any approximations on cost yet?

AL: I can hardly imagine it to be less than $200 to $300 (USD). Sounds like a lot for a keyboard, but most modern mobile phones cost about that.

PT: And a release date?

AL: Hopefully our keyboard will show the light in a year or so.

[IIIARSHAA]

hopefuly ittl see the light of day, its well worth Β£120-Β£200. not just for practical value it looks cool aswell

[NickTheGreek]

add to the cool aspect the enormous practical benefit of using this...

it can be programmed via SDK to show EACH FONT character on the buttons...

for example : you use Word and set your font to WingDings > it will show all keys as the font images !

[DarkRaven]

...DIVINE!!!

[sidis]

I'm waiting for the release date....
It's not the ultimate keyboard, it is also a state of art!

[cdpanos]

good

[hlias_gr]

Fantastic!
Cant wait 2 b released!

[DRUG ADDICT]

i dont have the money to buy it...


-.-

[NickTheGreek]

well, in your case, i would sell my body to buy something like that !

[IIIARSHAA]

or your children.

[thcbrent]

looka awsome