The OLED Optimus Keyboard

We have featured a few futuristic keyboards here at TFTS but as to whether they offer any hint concerning the future of keyboard design is quite another matter. Personally I cannot see either the Comibmouse or the Safetype as heralding a new dawn in keyboard design and, whilst Microsoft’s WED 8000 is undeniably cool, in actuality it is hardly a revelation, but merely an extension of the basic keyboard as we know it.

The same cannot be said about the Optimus Keyboard from Russian based company Art. Lebedev Studio, however, as there can be no doubt that it offers not only a giant leap forward in keyboard design, but also in keyboard functionality.

Does the Optimus light the way for the future of keyboard design? I sincerely hope so.

So what makes the Optimus stand apart from the crowd?

The answer lays in the design of its keys all of which are made from mini stand-alone OLED displays which means that not only can they be programmed independently to display icons and images, but that the entire keyboard can be adapted to suit the user’s exact requirements.

The obvious benefit is that the keyboard can be programmed according to any national and language layout on the fly but it doesn’t stop there. As each and every key can be programmed independently the entire keyboard can be tailored to suit your requirements on the fly. You could be typing a letter one minute using a standard QWERTY layout and then open Photoshop and have the entire keyboard adapt to a set of tools and editing buttons. And, if you are a gamer, a quick load of a software template could see your keyboard adapt to become entirely focused on the game with Run and Walk keys, Fire keys and so forth.

And, as the manufacturers have promised that they will make the keyboard’s SDK freely available, the possibilities are quite literally endless.

You can follow the development of the Optimus by visiting the official site via this link.