Optimus Keyboard

Once in a while, a company comes up with a toy that is so cool, I need to have one. A few of them comes to mind, the Sony PSP, Optimal Optimus or the first logitech BlueTooth headset. I am, by no means a compulsive buyer. However, some gadgets are just too cool ;-)

Recently featured on Slashdot, the Optimus Keyboard is the next cool thing. It’s a keyboard where every single key is a mini-screen. When switching from on keyboard layout to another, the display of the key actually changes. But that’s not all. If your keyboard is configured for specific applications (like Photoshop for example), the keyboard can instead display the icon of the shortcut key. I’m a big fan of Blender, but the massive amount of shortcut keys make the application difficult to use. This would no longer be a problem with the Optimus keyboard. This also works for games with incredibly complicated key layout. And, best of all, the keyboard would be open source, so there would be ample support under Windows, Linux, MacOs X. Of course, as of this stage, the Optimus Keyboard is only a prototype and will not released before 2006. Well, I’m patient, especially if it’s for the next cool thing ;-)