For a keyboard that only lasts 2 to 3 years, I would be willing to pay no more than $20. Get real. OLEDs aren't THAT cheap, and there's going to be a bunch of proprietary software for loading the images, a processor, memory... I'd be surprised if they can make this for $500, even if the displays were FREE.
(soapbox) A touch-typist never looks at his hands. What I'd REALLY like is a standard layout for all keyboards, Mac and Windows, so that I'd never hit the stupid Home key by accident! :-( (/soapbox)
Right on about oleds. They are nice, but aren't the holy grail that the fanboy community thinks they are.
Quote:
Originally posted by spyder
And yes, OLED's aren't that cheap, yet. In a few years they will be. . . . I look at this kind of keyboard like that, as an eventuality.
Even STN displays, which have been around for years (think B&W iPod screen) haven't gotten to a price point that would make sense for this. The trouble isn't only in the displays themselves (which are too expensive anyway) but also in the fact that something on the order of 64 wires will have to run to each key. I suppose you could have high speed serializers built right into the display silicon on each key (COG - "chip on glass" manufacturing), but in order for COG to make sense you'd need to make sure you're going to sell a shit-ton of 32x32 STN micro displays with onboard serializers, in one market or another. If you didn't use serializers, it would be possible to run a 64wire daisy-chained data bus to each of the keys and have multiplexers that allow sequential key updating, but more of the problem and cost here exists in the ultra-low tolerance flexible cabling that runs to each key.
Either way, there's a lot of difficulty and cost in just getting data to the keys, and these technologies are mature and have leveled out as far as unit costs.
Moving on, if there is a technology that could make it work, it would be electronic ink. You'd still need some sort of integrated serializers, but by 2010 I bet that could be printed on the back of the display substrate, along with I2C logic for elegant multiplexing. That might allow the cost to be acceptable and, more importantly, would allow it to be feasible electrically. A USB bus only has so much current, for even if you're running LiIons, it's going to burn through them real fast if oleds, stns, or anything else on the market today is used for the display elements.
Google "electronic ink" (also, eink.com) and see for yourself.
Comments
Originally posted by cubist
For a keyboard that only lasts 2 to 3 years, I would be willing to pay no more than $20. Get real. OLEDs aren't THAT cheap, and there's going to be a bunch of proprietary software for loading the images, a processor, memory... I'd be surprised if they can make this for $500, even if the displays were FREE.
(soapbox) A touch-typist never looks at his hands. What I'd REALLY like is a standard layout for all keyboards, Mac and Windows, so that I'd never hit the stupid Home key by accident! :-( (/soapbox)
Right on about oleds. They are nice, but aren't the holy grail that the fanboy community thinks they are.
Originally posted by spyder
And yes, OLED's aren't that cheap, yet. In a few years they will be. . . . I look at this kind of keyboard like that, as an eventuality.
Even STN displays, which have been around for years (think B&W iPod screen) haven't gotten to a price point that would make sense for this. The trouble isn't only in the displays themselves (which are too expensive anyway) but also in the fact that something on the order of 64 wires will have to run to each key. I suppose you could have high speed serializers built right into the display silicon on each key (COG - "chip on glass" manufacturing), but in order for COG to make sense you'd need to make sure you're going to sell a shit-ton of 32x32 STN micro displays with onboard serializers, in one market or another. If you didn't use serializers, it would be possible to run a 64wire daisy-chained data bus to each of the keys and have multiplexers that allow sequential key updating, but more of the problem and cost here exists in the ultra-low tolerance flexible cabling that runs to each key.
Either way, there's a lot of difficulty and cost in just getting data to the keys, and these technologies are mature and have leveled out as far as unit costs.
Moving on, if there is a technology that could make it work, it would be electronic ink. You'd still need some sort of integrated serializers, but by 2010 I bet that could be printed on the back of the display substrate, along with I2C logic for elegant multiplexing. That might allow the cost to be acceptable and, more importantly, would allow it to be feasible electrically. A USB bus only has so much current, for even if you're running LiIons, it's going to burn through them real fast if oleds, stns, or anything else on the market today is used for the display elements.
Google "electronic ink" (also, eink.com) and see for yourself.