The Russian design company, Art. Lebedev, recently released a concept keyboard building on their previous models of customizable keyboards. What sets the Optimus Tactus apart is that instead of just allowing the physical key to have a custom face, the entire keyboard becomes a touchscreen. No more size, color or layout constraints, just a clean keyboard slate. The concept envisions the ability to utilize the keyboard as a screen, enabling an expandable visual experience.
Concept Keyboard Without Physical Keys
5 comments
July 15, 2008
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
You're reading PSFK.
Inspiration to make things better.
The iPhone?
July 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Yeah, because throughout 20 years of computer use what has always bugged me is keys on a keyboard :)
How would it work? Would software vendors have to incorporate support into their product or would it work as a separate application? Would any measurable improvement in ease of use and productivity be worth the sacrifice of processing cycles necessary to drive it? Can we assume, in view of the screenshot of the Photoshop colour picker, that the screen will be able to be calibrated in the same way as a monitor, even though it’s going to be touched by oily fingers a lot more than a monitor screen? To get the kind of quality you’d need to make it appealing, it’d have to retail for like the equivalent of ten standard keyboards - is it really going to change your life enough to justify the expense?
Don’t get me wrong - I like the idea, and it’d be great not to have to hoover sandwich crumbs out of the keyboard. But I think this is one for the gadget n’ gimmick fanatics only. My rattley old keyboard and Wacom tablet do just fine.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:08 am