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Optimus Keyboard With OLED Display Keys

Posted by Zonk on Thu Jul 14, 2005 12:53 PM
from the review-copy-please? dept.
Toys Input Devices Technology
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."
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Related Stories

[+] Hardware: Optimus OLED Keyboard Pre-Orders Start Dec. 12 289 comments
Jupix writes, "After almost a year and a half of public development, the Optimus OLED keyboard is nearing completion. According to the project blog, pre-orders for the Optimus-103 will start on December 12. The price is unspecified at this time, but Art Lebedev has said the keyboard will cost 'less than a good mobile phone' (probably about $400). Don't expect to see those 10 programmable function keys on the left on this first version, though, as they will not make their debut until the Optimus-113, released later."
[+] Apple: Apple Files for OLED Keyboard Patent 188 comments
pegdhcp writes to mention that Apple has applied for a patent on a 'dynamically controlled keyboard' with OLED keys. This may seem remarkably familiar, since an OLED keyboard has been bandied about by Art Lebedev studios for quite a while now. "while the Optimus Maximus is a bit expensive, Apple could certainly mass-produce something similar for less money, perhaps bringing the price into reality for most users. Lebedev has, however, apparently applied for several patents for the Optimus, so it's unclear just what Apple is up to, or what would happen if the company were ever to release such a product."
[+] Entertainment: Optimus Keyboard Starts Shipping 309 comments
Tom's Hardware is reporting that the Optimus keyboard that everyone was so anxious for (although maybe less so when they saw the price tag) started shipping this week. "According to an announcement made on the Optimus project blog, keyboards are now shipping to customers who pre-ordered the $1564 keyboard nine months ago. Keyboards with passive keys are delayed and will be shipping in about a month, the manufacturer said. [...] Earlier this month, one of the first Optimus Maximus keyboards was sold for $2750 on Ebay." Engadget even got the chance to test one of these expensive toys out.
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  • Good Idea, Bad Price (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:54PM (#13065014)
    Coral Cache Link [nyud.net]

    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.

    • Re:Good Idea, Bad Price (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Gnascher (645346) on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:59PM (#13065107)
      It's a great idea ... but utterly fake.

      These guys are digital artists ... not keyboard manufacturers.

      It's a really neat idea, and one that may even some day be created. I'd imagine that it would be prohibitively expensive to do today though.

      • Re:Good Idea, Bad Price (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Otter (3800) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:24PM (#13065453) Journal
        They do seem to make some real stuff [artlebedev.com], some of which is pretty sweet looking. (Although $125 for a whitebaord with a clock in the middle is a bit over my budget.)

        At any rate, I'm pleased to see people catching on that the keyboard isn't real, especially after the 1000 post argument a few days ago over a joke about executing virus writers...

    • Re:Good Idea, Bad Price (Score:5, Interesting)

      by drgonzo59 (747139) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:27PM (#13065486)
      Yeah but still they can get the patent on it first then they can start thinking about production. That is why it is just a design studio not a hardware company. I am sure this would look interesting to people at Alienware or Belkin or even Microsoft. It is good for games, would be great for an IDE, or Photoshop and many other uses.

      Actually I just thought of another idea, why not use the keyboard as a small console display as well. This could be used as a portable console in administering and fixing rack-mounted servers. The keyboard can have a small screen that will show about 10-20 lines of a terminal and also the keys would dynamically change to reflect various connection and management functions. For example after pressing "F1" the layout of the keyboard changes and now the keys to reflect a new submenu. If the key is not pressed but just slightly touched the console will display a short help message.

      This would be one expensive keyboard but people who have the money to blow might be interested...

    • e-Ink (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cryptochrome (303529) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:32PM (#13065534) Homepage Journal
      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.
      • I also was thinking about this, but only a few months ago. The thing is you'd have to have wires going up into every single key to have each one light up individually like that, which would seem like a pain in the ass to mass manufacture at an affordable price. Although there's probably a better method that uses some sort of connection that connects when you clip on th key, I don't really know much about this type of stuff. But if you were able to mass manufacture the keys with that printable OLED tech I

        • Re:Good Idea, Bad Price (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Talking Goat (645295) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:37PM (#13065590)
          Seems like you'd be better off making a flat keyboard, a la ST:TNG. OLED is flexible, so you could actually produce a single sheet, with indentations behind it that give a "flex". So, you get around the 100+ tiny OLEDS problem by now using a single OLED, and you also get something out of your flat input device that no one has been able to accomplish: tactile feedback.

          Plus, you can operate OLED in "lit" mode or plain LCD mode, giving you functionality in a wide range of ambient light situations.

          Let's go into production, damn it!

      • Re:Good idea, really? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by conigs (866121) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:56PM (#13065782) Homepage
        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).

      • Re:Good idea, really? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Ced_Ex (789138) on Thursday July 14 2005, @02:21PM (#13066049)
        What about multilanguage keyboards?

        Not everyone uses the Roman Alphanumerics system. Arabic and Asian languages come to mind.

        Plus, it would be cool to see what keys are mapped in games like the old school MechWarrior where you had to use pretty much every key.
      • Do you really have to check the keyboard shortcut for "Copy" in your text editor of choice?

        Ask Logitech and Microsoft. They seem to think that the F-keys are a playground. Thus, odd-shaped F-keys, tiny F-keys, and the ever-dreaded F-Lock, which leaves unsuspecting users wondering why F7 didn't send "Ready!" over the team channel.

        They think users are so stupid and/or lazy, that they need a button on the keyboard to launch Excel, regardless of the number of start menu/quick launch/desktop shortcuts Office places on install. Meanwhile, those of us with 1/16 of a clue are left double-checking the F-Lock LED all the time, because we'd rather get into the BIOS setup than try to launch Outlook Express before the bloody boot loader is read off the hard drive!

        Can you tell this is a pet peeve? My pre-F-Lock Logitech keyboard is becoming more precious by the minute. I'll be damned if I let these marketing-addled fools turn my Step Into Function debugger key into a PowerPoint launcher.

      • Re:Good idea, really? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by _damnit_ (1143) on Thursday July 14 2005, @02:54PM (#13066353) Journal
        When I saw this, the first thing I thought of was the Internet cafe I sat at near Place de Bastille in Paris. It took me a long time to write the simple email I needed to get off because I had no clue where the keys were on a French Keyboard. It occasionally did some strange stuff. Touch typing is out too! Something like this where a single button on the side could change the keyboard to several languages would be great even in the states where English really isn't the only language spoken (even though we tend to think so).
        Hell, the computer labs in school could use this for French, Spanish and other language labs. You know how hard it is to write a French paper without easy access to a cedilla or other diacritic marks?

      • Re:Good idea, really? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Excelsior (164338) on Thursday July 14 2005, @05:51PM (#13067966)
        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.

  • Optimus Keyboard? (Score:5, Funny)

    by American AC in Paris (230456) * on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:54PM (#13065018) Homepage
    A prime idea, that.

  • Get these into our highschools NOW! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Seumas (6865) * on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:55PM (#13065033)
    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..

  • Virtual Keyboards == LCARS? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bc90021 (43730) * <bc90021@@@bc90021...net> on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:55PM (#13065041) Homepage
    It will be handier and handier to have virtual keyboards, and in fact, they obviously already exist [alpern.org].

    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. ;)

    • Re:Virtual Keyboards == LCARS? (Score:4, Informative)

      by soundofthemoon (623369) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:37PM (#13065581)
      If you read Sternbach and Okuda's tech manual for the Enterprise-D [amazon.com], you'll find the LCARS terminals have an interface that includes not only dynamically shifting graphics but tactile feedback as well. All the soft button graphics and okudagrams are fronted by low-power force fields that let the user touch type, feeling the buttons by sense of touch and getting tactile feedback for button presses, slider movement, etc.

  • Licensing/Implications? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by shadowknot (853491) * on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:56PM (#13065047) Homepage
    If anyone reading works for Logitech or some other big peripheral manufacturer please let your R&D department know about this and maybe they can license the design and technology from the good people at art.lebedev [artlebedev.com].

    But seriously this technology could have huge implications for the future of peripheral manufacturing (on the high-end at least) purely because you can have it as QWERTY, AZERTY, DVORAK or any other english, arabic, cyrillic, sanscrit, klingon or other layout!

    For the cheapskates there's always Das Keyboard! [thinkgeek.com]

  • Viruses will have a field day! (Score:5, Funny)

    by garcia (6573) * on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:57PM (#13065073) Homepage
    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.

  • geez... (Score:5, Funny)

    by JoeLinux (20366) <joelinux@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:57PM (#13065076) Homepage
    I'll bet you the latest spyware would get the ability to run banner ads through the keyboard. "Hit the monkey now!"

  • Comment + mirror (Score:5, Interesting)

    by winkydink (650484) * <sv.dude@gmail.com> on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:58PM (#13065095) Homepage Journal
    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 [networkmirror.com]

  • I can't imagine... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ivan256 (17499) * on Thursday July 14 2005, @12:59PM (#13065111)
    How this thing won't have a manufacturing cost around $3-4 a key...

    That said... If they build these and they have good action, I'll drop $500 on one.

  • International users and public terminals (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ScArE2100 (663201) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:00PM (#13065120) Journal
    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...

  • Lottsa uses for this (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mr. Cancelled (572486) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:00PM (#13065128)
    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 want one of these NOW! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by concept10 (877921) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:01PM (#13065148) Homepage
    .. Is this just a proof of concept vaporware?

    I didnt see anything about purchase information.

  • Woo-Hoo! (Score:5, Funny)

    by hellomynameisclinton (796928) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:04PM (#13065187)
    I can finally get past the second step - I'll have an ANY KEY!

  • neat, but... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by greywire (78262) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:05PM (#13065207) Homepage
    This would have to be ungodly expensive for a keyboard. OLED's are definately the way to go, though, because LCD's (especialy in color) are way to bulky and expensive (each key would need a light source, lcd, and a driver chip). With an OLED, if I am not mistaken, you can have the whole display and drivers on one piece. No glass panels, no backlight.

    Still, until OLEDs are in mass (*MASS*) production, I dont see producing a keyboard like this for a reasonable price for some time yet.

    For all the people thinking "OH NO! this would be way to confusing! Bad, bad idea for UI design..".. what's the problem? We have windows full of icons now. What's the difference in putting some icons onto a keyboard? With something like photoshop I could see this being a real time saver. And I bet you will start to use and remember keyboard shortcuts much more often with this, since you only need to look, where now you have to hunt around and find out what the shortcut is..

  • that's good news (Score:4, Funny)

    by whovian (107062) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:06PM (#13065226)
    There really could be an 'Any' key.

  • "Patents pending"? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tepples (727027) <slash2006NO@SPAMpineight.com> on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:08PM (#13065258) Homepage Journal

    I sure hope the patent applies only to high-resolution or color displays inside the keyboard, as many Slashdot users have "published" (in patent jargon) a description of a reconfigurable keyboard with a small (e.g. 8x8 pixel) monochrome LCD under each key.

  • Anyway. I've always thought of a musical MIDI keyboard with glowing keys.

    Why? You give it the music, and it can teach you to play a specific piece of music. Just put your hands on the glowing keys, and ta-da! :)

  • OLED? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Pyrosz (469177) <amurray@stage1 1 . ca> on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:12PM (#13065315) Homepage
    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.

  • My concerns (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Penguin Programmer (241752) <awolfego@telusplanet.net> on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:12PM (#13065319) Homepage
    This looks like a very, very cool idea. However, I have a major concern that would need to be satisfied before I would buy one: Drivers.

    I'm a dedicated Linux user and I think that the complexity of the drivers required for a keyboard like this might mean that a Linux driver doesn't appear right away (I mean, what are the chances of them releasing one, and we all know how long it takes for community-started open-source drivers to become stable, although they're quicker now than ever). Also, that driver had better not put any load on my CPU or memory. I have better things to do with those.

    That said, when an open-source driver for it does emerge, you know it'll do all sorts of cool stuff. For those of us who don't need to look at the keys anyway, it could be programmed to show movies while I'm typing instead.

  • Won't someone please think of the children? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Webmonger (24302) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:14PM (#13065347) Homepage
    That's got to be the widest 'standard' keyboard I've ever seen in my life! Where will our obsession with function keys end? First the PC/XT layout put them on the left-hand side, then the AT layout put them along the top.

    This keyboard combines the two, so now we've got function keys across the top and (different ones) down the left, plus a numeric keypad that is completely redundant with other number and arrow keys.

    Where will it end? Will we someday be pair programming with both programmers working the keyboard and telling each other which keys to hit? Will fights break out over who gets to press 'Y' and 'B'?

    I'm sure there are children whose arms won't reach both ends of this thing! Won't someone please think of the children?

  • Useless (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Thaelon (250687) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:29PM (#13065502)
    How completely useless for us touch typists.

    Also, if you need to look down to see what key does what in an FPS game (Quake (III?) is depicted) you're already dead.

    • Re:Useless (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Hektor_Troy (262592) on Thursday July 14 2005, @02:12PM (#13065956)
      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?

  • OLED prices (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bperkins (12056) on Thursday July 14 2005, @02:24PM (#13066077) Homepage Journal
    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.

    • Re:a couple of questions before buying (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Rosco P. Coltrane (209368) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:08PM (#13065260)
      (for me), Is it reasonably quiet?

      All quiet keyboards I've ever had always turned out to be utter crap. Right now, I'm banging away on a IBM Modem M keyboard [scoutingaround.com] that is still doing fine after years of typing (obviously) but also coffee spilling (hot and cold), heavy banging, hurling across the room, and sitting on. Some of the heavily used keys are so worn out that the plastic surface feels smooth and the etching has gone, but it's still doing fine. These things sure were made to last.

      I've long since forgotten about the incredible racket noises it makes. My cat loves the feel and clicks when he stretches on it though, apparently.

    • Re:a couple of questions before buying (Score:5, Funny)

      by snorklewacker (836663) on Thursday July 14 2005, @01:08PM (#13065262)
      > last, but for me most importantly, are the pretty pictures on the left-hand column of keys configurable?

      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 ... wow.

    • last, but for me most importantly, are the pretty pictures on the left-hand column of keys configurable? There's no way in Hell I'm ever buying a keyboard with a picture of the IE icon on one of its keys! For less expensive keyboards I satisfied and content with ripping out the Microsoft menu keys (though it's landed me in hot water at work a couple of times), but for something this (probably) expensive, those pictures had better be configurable!

      I gte the distinct impression that since the keys are displ

      • These guys are obviously big mac fans. Itunes, quicktime, plus if you look at the mouse [artlebedev.com] that's designed for a mac. But I'd love this for photoshop and music programs. The big problems being having the program manufacturers map out programs for such a rare keyboard (assuming it ever made it to the public).

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