Optimus Keyboard With OLED Display Keys

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."

Optimus Keyboard?

[American AC in Paris]

A prime idea, that.

Get these into our highschools NOW!

[Seumas]

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..

FlickerKey

[el_jake]

Can't wait to watch my favorit divx on the Windoze key !

Viruses will have a field day!

[garcia]

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...

[JoeLinux]

I'll bet you the latest spyware would get the ability to run banner ads through the keyboard. "Hit the monkey now!"

Re:Optimus Keyboard?

[JoshRosenbaum]

I don't think there's a "+1 Transformer's Reference", but if there was, I'd give it to ya. ;)

Re:Optimus Keyboard?

[sik0fewl]

I wonder if it autobotically transforms the keyboard for whatever application is active.

Woo-Hoo!

[hellomynameisclinton]

I can finally get past the second step - I'll have an ANY KEY!

that's good news

[whovian]

There really could be an 'Any' key.

Re:a couple of questions before buying

[snorklewacker]

> 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.

Re:Optimus Keyboard?

[GoodNicsTken]

Just think, with a little programming to group keys, you could have porn on screen and on the keyboard at the same time.

Re:Optimus Keyboard?

[minus_273]

You should also note that when this keyboard transforms, large parts materialize out of nowhere and then disappear when it transforms back. The designers havent been able to explain why that is.

So much for touch typing (without looking)

[Wilk4]

So much for touch typing (without looking).... though I presume you'd still be used to standards sets for 'normal' use.

wonder what the 'feel' is like? that matters.

have to admit, the displays are pretty cool looking, but I'd sure hate to think what happens to it when you spill your coffee into it... ;-)

New type of Trojan

[Blindman]

You could install a keyboard game like Whack-a-mole, and the user unwittingly types in code to destroy their own system.

Re:Optimus Keyboard?

[Takara]

Woosh.

Yes, every key would change...

[Omega]

That would be really funny if the prompt read, "Press any key" and every key on the keyboard changed to read "Any". :)

...and the downside.

[AtariAmarok]

Doubleclick.net/etc and others exploit IE security loopholes and deliver little click-here icon ads to your keyboard without you asking.

Or, visit a page with a banner, and watch the whole "click the monkey" or "Shoot the duck" bannergame display in your function key row, begging you to hit the right key to win that iPod.

pff, take your pitiful Optimus Prime

[Anonymous Coward]

A Mega keyboard should have a mega name - perhaps worthy enough for Megatron

..if it was called "tron"

The megatron keyboard would of course feature a "SPAM them MOTHAS" key, and a "Sasser this"

ohh, and it would have a keystroke logger by default. A keyboard it NOT evil enough until it can turn on it's own master by recording his/her keystrokes and sending them off to the Ukrainian mafia.

Also, it has a blue IE (e) key, so it's tailored for Windows, yet there is NO BSOD key and NO "anykey". Windows home users will not be amused.

As an aside: Should an anonymous user have to wait 44+ minutes to post. Come on crapDOT I used to respect you before you were taken over by Chinese government officials..

Actually I never had this problem in Europe. Maybe the internet should be regulated by an international bosy!

Re:Good Idea, Bad Price

[moonbender]

Yes, if only LCD/OLEDs weren't so heavy, they sure would be useful to have on mobile devices...

Us DIY people have been doing this for years!!

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

We just use tiny little slide projectors behind each key. When you hear this sound: "Bink!", go to the next key image.

It costs a fortune changing all those light bulbs though, but it keeps your fingers warm.

Re:Good Idea, Bad Price

[Leroy_Brown242]

You could use it on mobile devices.

But it'd require a harness. :)

Re:OLED?

[RobertB-DC]

I would think that the new e-paper technologies would be better suited as they maintain the image with the power off.

Now there's a real-world problem.

Tech Support: Welcome to Bombay Computer Support, how may I help you?

Consumer: When I turn on my computer, it says 'BIOS ERROR, Press F1 to configure'.

TS: What happens when you press the F1 key?

Con: I don't have an F1 key! My keyboard is blank!

TS: Tell your roommate to give you back your key caps.

Con: ?!?

Re:Virtual Keyboards == LCARS?

[stephenry]

Your confusing Star Trek with reality...

Re:Optimus Keyboard?

[Anonymous Coward]

And I wonder what would happen if you sent a Star Wars lightsaber through a Star Trek transporter.

That's easy. The demolecularization of the focusing crystal in the lightsaber would cause the dilithium crystals to destabilize causing a power surge that destroys the primary transporter matrix. This would of course leave Picard and two anonymous security officers stranded on the planet just as they are being chased by a Borg army with the Borg Queen and Darth Vader at the lead. Back on enterprise, Riker has ordered the transporter system repaired. While several anonymous engineers suffered massive facial burns from consoles exploding, they are able to bring the transporters online by reconfiguring an EPS conduit to draw power from the tertiary backup to the auxiliary antimatter storage system. Meanwhile back on the planet, the two security officers have been assimilated while being force choked but they have helped Picard destroy half the Borg army. Just as Picard is surrounded with the Queen begging for Locutus, the enterprise launches a spread of photon torpedoes in a delta pattern into the Borg army while simultaneously beaming Picard back on board. As the torpedoes tear through the Borg army, Vader screams "NOOOOOOOO!"

... duh.

Let's sing a little song

[Jesus_666]

The Transkeyboards...
More than meets the eye.

Qwertybots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of...
The Dvorakons.

The Transkeyboards...
Keyboards in disguise.

The Transkeyboards...
More than meets the eye.

The Transkeyboards.

Re:Yes, every key would change...

[eth1]

"That would be really funny if the prompt read, "Press any key" and every key on the keyboard changed to read "Any". :)"

Tech Support: Hello, how may I help you?
Customer: Hi, it says to press the 'Any' key, but I see 104 'Any' keys... which one do I press?
Tech Support: *blam*

Re:Good idea, really?

[i wanted another nam]

1 shit-ton is equivalent to 2.74 metric fuckloads