Optimus Mini Three OLED keyboard reviewed

Robbedoeske writes "The first Optimums Mini Three keyboards have been shipped to Holland and Tweakers.net managed to lay hands on one of them to review this precious gem." Apparently the drivers crash a lot, consume way to much CPU, the device is capable of only 3 frames per second, and the packaging makes the images look far more crisp than the actual device. And with a price tag of over $100, I'm scared to imagine what the price of a full keyboard will actually be should it ever actually ship. But it still would be neat.

Packaging?

[conigs]

...and the packaging makes the images look far more crisp than the actual device.

I am shocked... shocked I tell you to learn that the image on the package looks better than the actual device. How could this possibly have happened? Who would dream of such a thing?

Onto the device itself. I'm glad to see it develop and that it's more than just a concept. The technology is still in its infancy and it will take time for it to improve and come down to an affordable level. I'm looking forward to the day I can get a full keyboard like this.

Huh? What exactly is this?

[rueger]

Am I alone in reading the blurb on Slashdot and not having a clue what it was about? Please folks, a three word description for the unititated would be nice.

Optimus was the Radio Shack speaker line at one time, so I immediately thought audio. Then I saw keyboard, then I saw three button, which sounds like a mouse. Then I saw excessive CPU usage, which doesn't sound like any keybaord OR mouse that I know of...

At which point it seemed that there wasn't whole lot of reasons to RTFA.

Re:Don't worry

[Anonymous Coward]

Or do we think this is hardware limitation?

Per the article, the software is constantly updating the images to make sure they have the correct images, this is surely driving the CPU load higher than it needs to be

Let me be the first to say thanks.

[Grendel Drago]

Thank you, to all the dorks who buy overpriced, half-baked, barely-functional products like this one. You fund the research and development that makes these things useful for the rest of us. We salute you.

Re:Slashdot stats in realtime!

[WoLpH]

Translation: "The MySQL server is sleeping..."

Simply put, the server can't take the enormous load of /.

Re:Don't worry

[rblancarte]

Then why not have some descent embedded controller built into the keyboard that controlled this? IE - the only real communication between the CPU and keyboard (outside of typing) is a refresh of what application is running. Then the keyboard micro-controller would be notified of the change and update the keys accordingly. Then the CPU doesn't even have to worry about what to display - just make sure that the keyboard is aware of current state. Heck, state changes like key-press (changing what the keys look like when you press ctrl or alt) wouldn't even touch the CPU - they would be known about by the controller, and it could modify they keys accordingly.

To me, this is a very cheap way to make the keyboard much more effecient, yet not raise the cost much at all ($10-20 max).

RonB

Re:Don't worry

[rblancarte]

BTW - the above statement is made without knowing the innards of this thing - they may already be doing this, so if they are - then CPU problems are really only a driver thing.

RonB

OLED Mouse

[DeadCatX2]

Why not make the OLED's mouse buttons instead?

Two OLED buttons would be just fine.

And they should be able to make a driverless interface using the HID class and USB. It's just silly to write your own drivers when USB drivers exist on all platforms to interface your hardware with.

Re:Packaging?

[Forseti]

It's their explanation, not mine. Besides, I think they wanted animated key icons to be a selling point, which certainly falls into the "Ooo shiny!" category. Though you have to admit, if it works, it's pretty cool!

Re:OLED Mouse

[backwardMechanic]

Why not make the OLED's mouse buttons instead?

Because your fingers would cover them up?

Re:Any Key

[green1]

memories from the old DOS days....

2 ways I saw of dealing with this stuff that were well done...

instead of "press any key to continue" pk-software (surely you remember pk-zip) used "press a key to continue" which meant that anyone with a brain would hit whatever they wanted, but those clueless types could press "a" and everything would be fine.

the second one was a keyboard I used to have, the main enter key was labelled "enter" but the one on the numeric keypad was labelled "return" (or vice-versa I can't remember) meaning that no matter which term a programmer had chosed to use, the user would find it written on the keyboard...

both of these were very simple solutions to this age old problem, I never understood why those practices didn't catch on...

Re:Any Key

[MrNonchalant]

That's one of the features already.

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-mini/ presentation/ [artlebedev.com]

Go there and click Any.