wow coolest mac keyboard ever... without a question...

zfmtzfmt
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/



sweet eh! but does anyonw know if it has the usb ports in the keyboard?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 35
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by zfmt

    http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/



    sweet eh! but does anyonw know if it has the usb ports in the keyboard?



    really old news.
  • Reply 2 of 35
    bigbluebigblue Posts: 341member
    It's there for a while, yeah, but man, what a keyboard ! I want one !!

    How about pricing ? I couldn't find any. Must be a prototype or something ...
  • Reply 3 of 35
    zfmtzfmt Posts: 53member
    according to thier site it will be available in 2006. if it costs less then 100$ im buying
  • Reply 4 of 35
    cybermonkeycybermonkey Posts: 604member
    OML, Can that lightshow be programmed for any app or are there just presets only?



    Can see some linuxer getting ASCII DVD playing on those keys
  • Reply 5 of 35
    kwsanderskwsanders Posts: 327member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by zfmt

    http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/



    sweet eh! but does anyonw know if it has the usb ports in the keyboard?



    This is so three or four weeks ago.
  • Reply 6 of 35
    igrantigrant Posts: 180member
    That is freaking sweet, I have not heard of it, but does anyone know an exact date that it is going to be released?
  • Reply 7 of 35
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member
    The site said it hoped to be released in 2006. Also those pics are renders, hence the credit to the modeller on the PR page and comment "It will be real". And the last bit of disappointment is this is a Russian design firm. Lots of great ideas come from over there, but not many comercially get off the ground due to social and economic issues.



    It will be nice if it hapens, but expensive, like the quote "less than a good mobile phone". That could put it in the $300+ category, I doubt less than $150.



    [my bold]
  • Reply 8 of 35
    tidelwavtidelwav Posts: 118member
    It may be Russian, but some better Japanese or American company will take it and make it better.
  • Reply 9 of 35
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    It ain't going to exist as advertised. I sent the designers an email a few months ago about how difficult it will be to manufacture even if they use a much more appropriate solution, such as electronic-ink. OLEDs are simply out of the question: too much power consumption, too many components required, and way too expensive.
  • Reply 10 of 35
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Even if it was produced exactly as designed...



    What's the target market? People who are not touch typists, but use multiple keyboard layouts?



    Useless.
  • Reply 11 of 35
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Let me guess, you're american and don't have to deal with other languages much. Same for me, but perhaps we should take off our mid north american blinders for a bit.



    Try watching somebody attempt to type accented characters. It's an exercise in futility even in many people's native languages. The option key, accented characters, and a keyboard like this could make many user's lives simpler.



    Oh... and god have mercy on the greeks.
  • Reply 12 of 35
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gon

    Even if it was produced exactly as designed...



    What's the target market? People who are not touch typists, but use multiple keyboard layouts?



    Useless.



    Somebody needs to buy a can of imagination juice.



    My god, anyone who uses their keyboard as anything other than strictly a text interface. That captures just about every GUI program ever written for Mac OS, OS X and Windows.



    A secondary key display showing keyboard shortcuts will exponentially lead folks to better use of their time. And just about any non-text intensive app aggressively uses keyboard combos for basic functionality, thus a boon to amost any entry level professional, and by extension to the folks hiring those entry level professionals who get more work done faster.
  • Reply 13 of 35
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    va*por*ware



    But sexy.
  • Reply 14 of 35
    trick falltrick fall Posts: 1,271member
    I don't know how doable it is to make, but would be very cool. Would be great for pro tools, logic etc. I remember once having to take the keys off of a new keyboard to put on the "avid" keys.
  • Reply 15 of 35
    joeyjoey Posts: 236member
    I'd imagine it would handle all the keys as one display and map the individual keys (picture a regular monitor with a picture of a keyboard on it... but sending each key image to an actual key)... even with that, there's quite a bit of engineering to do. Right down to things like how the keys connect to the keyboard, back lighting, etc. How would it be driven? If it has its own built in display controller, would USB be enough to power and control it? Perhaps a proprietary controller PCI card that the keyboard would plug into?



    It's a great concept (and pretty stupid to announce if they're not close to something because some very large company could come up with something similar and get it out first).
  • Reply 16 of 35
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dfiler

    Let me guess, you're american and don't have to deal with other languages much. Same for me, but perhaps we should take off our mid north american blinders for a bit.



    Actually, no. I'm from Scandinavia, and switch between my native layout and US layout tens of times a day with the cmd-opt-space shortcut. I'll soon be needing Mac OS' Japanese input too.



    Consider that the amount of people who switch layouts is really small. And from that you have to subtract everyone who can touch type. That's the target market for this keyboard as I see it.
  • Reply 17 of 35
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    I don't care about language support, but that Photoshop keyboard is sexy. If it was context-sensitive, that would be even sexier (keys are greyed out when an operation can't be performed; it switches back to letters when you're editing a text box, etc)
  • Reply 18 of 35
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Joey

    I'd imagine it would handle all the keys as one display and map the individual keys (picture a regular monitor with a picture of a keyboard on it... but sending each key image to an actual key)... even with that, there's quite a bit of engineering to do. Right down to things like how the keys connect to the keyboard, back lighting, etc. How would it be driven? If it has its own built in display controller, would USB be enough to power and control it? Perhaps a proprietary controller PCI card that the keyboard would plug into?



    A keyboard really has to work without drivers and extra hardware. I'd prefer it if the computer saw a standard USB keyboard which works without drivers with default keys, and another virtual device to control the display functions.



    USB 2.0 would certainly give it enough bandwidth, dunno about the power.
  • Reply 19 of 35
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    If it uses OLEDs, it shouldn't use much power at all. And even if it needs a AC adapter, that's cool with me.
  • Reply 20 of 35
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gon

    Actually, no. I'm from Scandinavia, and switch between my native layout and US layout tens of times a day with the cmd-opt-space shortcut. I'll soon be needing Mac OS' Japanese input too.



    Consider that the amount of people who switch layouts is really small. And from that you have to subtract everyone who can touch type. That's the target market for this keyboard as I see it.



    Heheh. Woops... sorry for calling you american.



    While this keyboard will probably be extremely expensive, I do see it as helpfull. Whether the utility is worth the price, I guess is something that everyone will have to answer themselves.



    However, we shouldn't underestimate the bennefits for people who need to type seldomly used characters or characters that require chording of multiple keys.



    Certainly people posting to this board are above average in computer skills. So I'm not suprised that you have no difficulty typing in foreign languages. However, in my college years, I saw many an exchange student struggling with how to type special characters and accented symbols. At work I routinely see designers struggle with doing the same in quark.



    Also, high end AV studios tend to have specialized keyboards hooked to expensive hardware. Keys frequently have multiple labels and it is neccessary to know which mode you're in to know what pressing that key will do.



    I suspect that some day, all keyboards will have more sophisticated ways of communicating key functionality.
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