Tracy R Reed wrote:
Nicholas Wheeler wrote:
You could always get an optimus keyboard. Then you could mess with
their head big time.
This is a brilliant idea. Great for learning Dvorak, having a customized
vi/emacs keyboard, etc. If they could integrate it with the desktop so
that the displays on the keycaps changed according to what window had
focus it would be even better. Hopefully the price gets down to a
reasonable level. I have seen this hyped for a long time but still never
actually seen one for sale so I am a little bit afraid that it will just
be vaporware.
It's big-time vapor.
This is a combination of a hard technical problem with a "really good
idea that nobody will pay for".
The major problem is that you need to run wires into *each key*. This
is completely contrary to the way keyboards are made in which all the
wiring is on the backplane and the keys are just stupid hunks of plastic
that push on a rubber sheet with nipples (they really do look like
that). When a key squishes a nipple, it makes electrical contact with
the backplane.
OLED needs continuous power. That's going to be a non-starter. Imagine
threading ribbon cables to every single key. Shudder.
Something like E-Ink that doesn't need continuous power would be a
better choice. You might be able to injection mold the key around the
electronics and only need to intermittently power the key when you need
to change it. This could possibly even be done contactless.
In addition, nobody will pay for the keyboard. There are *very* few
people who actually need a keyboard which reconfigures on the fly.
This, in fact, goes against the usage of a keyboard which is completely
based upon muscle memory. So, you need the keyboard until muscle memory
kicks in, and then it's useless.
-a
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