Optimus OLED Keyboard Pre-Orders Start Dec. 12

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."

What key switching tech does it use?

[vistic]

Does anyone know what kind of switches it uses?

At that price I'd expect buckling spring switches (like the old IBM Model M) or mechanical Alps switches (like the old Apple Extended Keyboard II). Although I think only Unicomp makes buckling spring keyboards anymore.

I'd be disappointed if keys that look so nice, just have a squishy feel to them like a cheap rubber-dome membrane Dell keyboard.

Forced tilt?

[blitzrage]

Looks like the keyboard is force on an angle. Normally you're able to adjust the height of the keyboard. I generally like my keyboard as flat as possible and my desk/chair set to the right height so my wrists are in a comfortable and flat position instead of being tilted up. Too bad, looks like the keyboard has promise.

Functionality Display

[RetroGeek]

Overall changes are one thing (ala Quake), but what I want is to have the display change when I press the CTRL or ALT key.

So that CTRL changes the C key display to COPY and so on. Including the function and specialty keys (arrows, PrtSc).

And an editor that allows me to customize what the keys show, so when I am programming I can set up the display to match my key mapping preferences. With smart focus management to whatever program is in the foreground.

Under $400?

[kd5ujz]

After looking at the site, the Optimus mini three (three keys) runs for $160USD. I do not see how they can sell 103 keys for $400, when they are selling 3 for $160. I know that the price will get cheaper for the keyboard (still has only one usb controller), but at the 3 for $160 rate, the keyboard with 103 keys would run ~$5493USD. I seriously doubt it will be cheaper than a nice cell phone.

Re:Functionality Display

[hanssprudel]

And an editor that allows me to customize what the keys show, so when I am programming I can set up the display to match my key mapping preferences. With smart focus management to whatever program is in the foreground.

You shouldn't need an editor for this. Rather they should release a good API, so that is it is easy for every program to tell the keyboard what to display when that program is in focus. Since your IDE already knows your keymaps, you shouldn't have to tell the keyboard again (imagine what a mess).

This is beautiful technology, but as with so many other things, the difficulty will be in getting programs to support it.

Interesting.

[Windwraith]

Since I need to exchange keyboard setups (from Spanish (Spain setup) to English to Japanese and others at times, I can see usefulness in this thing. Looks flashy too, although looks like it's rather expensive.
I wonder if it works in Linux, too?

Re:Functionality Display

[Enselic]

As a hobbyist game programmer, I immediately began to think about what games you could write for the keyboard itself. My general idea is that you could make all the keys act as one big (low-res) screen.

You could have a Whack-a-Mole type game, where a mole would display on the keys and you'd have to whack him by pressing one of the keys the mole occupies.

Or you could make a Snake clone where you would maneuver the snake by tapping on the direction the snake would go.

Or some kind of piano game, á la Guitar Hero.

Optimus Prime?

[Majik Sheff]

Did anyone else notice that the model numbers are primes?

I've never really understood the obsession

[Sycraft-fu]

With the old IBM keyboards. There seems to be this kind of reverence for them on /. and I don't understand why. I used to have one (had an IBM desktop). It was noisy and hard to press the keys. I much prefer my current MS keyboard which has easy, quiet keys. The only potential argument I've heard for the old keyboards is durability. Ok, maybe so, but what kind of stress do you subject them to that makes them break? I have, thus far, never managed to wear out a key on a keyboard. I use the hell out of my computer too, it's pretty much all I do with my time.

So what's the deal with the old IBM keyboards? Is it just some kind of geek-tough guy thing? "Back in my day our keyboards could cause hearing damage and by god we liked it!" I just don't understand what the problem with modern, soft, quiet keyboards is. They don't seem to have problems with breaking even under heavy use, so what's up?

I'd like to see...

[Trevin]

... if this can support emacs. Just think of all the layouts it would have to have -- one for each prefix key in the global keymap and variants for each supported major and minor mode! And what would it do if any of those keymaps were customized?

Re:Staggered columns versus matrix keyboards

[Anonymous Coward]

OMG! They "destroyed it" by supporting the keyboard design the overwhelming majority of people are used to

Unfortunately not. If you check the actual keyboard layout for the Optimus 103, shown in this thread http://community.livejournal.com/optimus_project/ [livejournal.com] (6th comment down I think), you'll find that it doesn't match any commonly used layout. Not US, not European, not Russian. Everyone will find a key missing somewhere.

Following just one common layout and leaving everyone else to cope, I could understand. Putting in "too many" keys so that a number of common layouts could be essentially emulated, I could understand. Putting in too few for everyone is just stupid.

nice for use in voting machines

[galaad2]

they also have another nice project in the works... the Optimus Upravlator

they should think to introduce the Optimus Upravlator to Diebold, ES&S, Sequioa and the other voting machine manufacturers

The Optimus Upravlator seems to have ample space on each key to display a candidate's name directly on each button ( and left-right scroll arrows maybe on the bottom left and bottom right keys, if the list is longer than the available keys can display ).

Moreover, for voting machines you don't need all the electronics for five functions on a single button, one electrical contact per button might be enough, or keep all the electromechanical contacts on a button, for redundancy and button balancing, but wire them together.

This would solve the problems they have with touch screen voting machines that constantly need re-aligning the touchscreen with the display contents.

You would not end up with the machine selecting the wrong candidate, a different one than the one you tried to highlight on the screen.

Re:I've never really understood the obsession

[espilce]

I think it's something akin to the preference of vinyl recordings over CD or other digital methods. Purely a personal aesthetic. I love my keyboard taken from an IBM PS/2 gas station server. I've had it for 10 years now and the thing was made in 1986. I dread the day when I may have to purchase another desktop keyboard. For me, even Apple or Happy Hacking keyboards don't come close to the nice springy click of the IBM PS/2 board.

Re:Buckling springs have ergonomic advantages.

[ben there...]

Let's see: average programmer in the US in 2001 produced 6200 lines of code per year [msdn.com], according to Gartner.

6200 lines/year * 10 words/line = 62000 words/year

62000 words/year / 1080 hours/year = 57 words/hour

57 words/hour / 60 mins/hour = 1 wpm

Apparently, considering no coder types at anywhere near 1 wpm, writing code is bottlenecked by thinking, not typing.

Re:I've never really understood the obsession

[dubbreak]

As a pianist I enjoy the feel of the buckling spring keyboards, although I haven't owned one in years. I might compare it to the difference between a classic piano and a electronic substitue: there's an intricate tactical sensation when playing on an acoustic piano due to the mechanics. But that may be going to far on drawing a parallel. I also find that I can't type as fast with some of the squishy quiet keyboards. There is an exact point at which the key is pressed that I can recognize with the old clicky keyboards that is consistent, while with the squishy ones I am never sure if I hit it right.. something like that. Of course now I rarely play a real piano and rarely used a clicky keyboard, so it may just be nostalgia. There's a lot to be said for tactile feel though, I love the feeling of putting a minidisk into a player, or a 3.5" floppy into a drive.

No scaling up

[Kris_J]

Their 3-button model didn't get a brilliant review [xbitlabs.com]; It had a 3 FPS refresh rate, gave off an annoying whine and appeared to use 10% of the CPU on a powerful PC.

Now for the keyboard they've dropped OLED, dropped the extra function keys and moved back to LCD meaning that you'll need an external power brick to power it.

Touch Typists

[chris_sawtell]

What a load of expensive dung. No decent touch typist ever looks at the keys! So what's the point?

Re:Buckling springs have ergonomic advantages.

[hey!]

Well, if you want to keep in the spirit of this keyboard's design, the audible "click" feedback should be programmable -- on a key by key basis.