Optimus Maximus Keyboard

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

USB keyboard from ArtLebedevStudios?. Each key has a backlit, colour 48-by-48 OrganicLed? display instead of a key-marking; the displayed image can be changed on the fly, and can even be animated. The keys are in a PeeCee-standard 104-key US-style physical layout with 10 extra function keys to the left. After years as a concept, Optimus Maximus first shipped in 2008, at a price of over $1500.

The 104-key physical layout is a significant drawback; it's compatible with the standard US layout but not with several other important language/country layouts. $1500 and you're still out of luck if you want a keyboard setup that can switch seamlessly between the standard layouts for, say, the US and France.

Modifier keys can change what symbols are available. This is how MacOs users have been typing accented letters for years. -- French PC users, on the other hand, have apparently been using their own 105-key French layout all those years. I can't imagine they'd be too happy to spend $1500 for the privilege of having to adjust to a different, non-standard layout. For that matter, spending $1500 for the privilege of having to switch from the 105-key UK layout seems like a pretty bad bargain to me. Extra fun if you're a TouchTypist? on the Hungarian or Thai layouts: those layouts put letters, not just symbols, on the "extra, 105th" key. (That key sits between left Shift and the key that's marked Z in (104- or 105-key) QWERTY layouts.)

I guess the answer to that problem would be the OptimusTactusKeyboard? (no physical keys, no physical limits on the layout) but I guess the problem then is the lack of feedback when hitting each key... (I wounder how could that be solved...)

CategoryKeyboard