Optimus Tactus; the key-free keyboard
Art Lebedev’s concept design of an OLED screened keyboard can be simply described as jaw-dropping. There are no keys, instead a completely customizable, touchscreen surface. You can choose links to programs for quick-access, and judging by the pictures you can run video on it as well.
What makes this a great design is it’s multi-lingual compatibility. Different languages could simply be reprogrammed into the keyboard, meaning this Optimus Tactus could make it all round the world. Its a refreshing change to the keyboard design and the greatest upside I can see is that no food crumbs will ever get stuck in between the keys. It is still a concept, but we eagerly await the release date.
Keep reading for a few more pictures of the keyboard…
Product [Art Lebedev]
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Freakin Useless. Keyboards are tactie devices. This gives you zero feedback. How can you touch type, or even two-finger it, without any confirmation that you entered a character?
This is exactly the reason the iPhone isn’t selling like hotcakes (pasties?) in the UK. Without a clicking keyboard the teens and twenties can’t do their texting. That’s like trying to sell a TV without a remote control.
All this does is take a useful bit of technology that’s been around for a century, and turn it into a useless visual design exercise. You could achieve the same result with a removable membrane that slips over the key pegs.
And can anybody tell me what, if any, success they’ve had in industrial design? Especially human interface design.
on March 5, 2008 at 05:34 PM - LINK