My next keyboard

[alexander]

dude it would be better if that wasnt just an artist mockup. also it will have open-sourced drivers and will be designed to work initially from under unix oses. and the OLED array is amazing, cant wait to get one of those keyboards :)

[alxian]

*speechless* re: optimus

 

yeah.. so clear keys and wireless?

[Dark Mind]

There's a free touch typing practice program here that may help.

:)

 

Reminded me of Mario Teaches Typing without all the colors :evil:.

[Dark Mind]

Perhaps you guys can come up with some money and buy me one of these: http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/ keyboards when they come out, for my birthday :)

Hey, my birthday's coming up before yours :). Mine's in eight days... yours is in eight-teen :). If they haven't already spent all their money on my presents, I'm sure they'll be able to get you something :evil:.

[Tormod]

dude it would be better if that wasnt just an artist mockup. also it will have open-sourced drivers and will be designed to work initially from under unix oses.

 

From their Answers page:

 

It will be OS-independent (at least it’s going to be able to work in some default state with any OS).

 

Talk about clouded talk...But I guess they're saying "at least we think you can type with it". :)

[Dark Mind]

That is pretty vague :).

 

"We hope the keys work on your machine." is what I'm getting from it :).

[CraigD]

It will be OS-independent (at least it’s going to be able to work in some default state with any OS).

I suspect what the funny Russian folk at Art Lebedev mean by this is that, in the absence of any specific driver for it, the Optimus keyboard will work like an ordinary keyboard: send the usual scancodes for the usual keys, have its OLED keycaps display the usual English letters and symbols, etc.

 

In order to really make use of the pretty thing, I get the impression you’ll need some jazzy driver software on your machine, and who-knows what kind of integration with apps. When it comes to who-knows-what, it really helps to have the source code for you apps, so the best uses of this keyboard will probably be on open source Linux boxes. Fiddling with the Win32 APIs keyboard map is not for the faint of heart, or even for the vaguely sensible – I’ve personally been to scared to touch it since it was the Win16 API!

 

I’m a little discouraged that nothing in its scant literature indicates that it’s especially programmable. If this were the case, anybody with a compiler (or just a script interpreter) and a little bit of knowledge could write little apps to remap and reface the keys to their hearts content. Possibly it is, and their just being coy, or maybe a separate little box to do this will become available, but for now, I fear this is a piece of coolness that will look better to me as an artists rendering than anything I’ll be able to install or implement.

[Buffy]

I’m a little discouraged that nothing in its scant literature indicates that it’s especially programmable....

I suspect that its really just a "great idea" currently implemented with a mocked-up, clear key keyboard with photoshoped "keytops" inserted. I don't get the impression they've done any implementation. They look like an industrial design shop with no actual mechanical/electronic skills... Let them prove me wrong though! I suspect tho' also, that some smart person in China or Malaysia or South Korea has found the thing and is already trying to implement it, but won't bother with niceties like licensing, and certainly will come down on the side of "affordable" rather than "all the bells an whistles we're reading into it."

 

Cheers,

Buffy

[Dark Mind]

Love the last lines of the last two posts :).

[GAHD]

If you like having a keyboard sans-writing: why not just unplug it and take some thin enamel paint to i yourself? Spraypaint if you don't mind it being sticky forever afterwards (why I laugh at that scene from Hackers).

 

I still like my keyboard, it's relatively clear and made of a flexable plastic.

[alexander]

Too bad not many people here can read russian, their website is quite interesting :hihi:

 

Ok here are some answers:

First of all the main development is going towards drivers for Mac OS X, so that is where it will work first, but they have said on their website, there will be a Linux and Windows drivers written for it. What they mean by the fact that it will work with most oses by default is that it will display default, english layout by default and be fully compliant with default keyboard drivers. But the drivers will be open-source, and linux community will make sure that they work with their favorite flavors. Anyways, i dont know if there are oleds in the mockup, but they must already have a prototype or a mostly developed version since they are wating for pattents. Also it wont be all that different from the led disco dance floor made by MIT students, so i dont see why it wont be possible to make one..

peace :D