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The company that created the Optimus Maximus, a keyboard with keys featuring a stand-alone display that shows the function currently assigned to it has just announced that it has another pioneering innovation in the works – the Optimus Popularis.

Art Lebedev stated that they are working on a new, sub-$1000 model to be called the Optimus Popularis – this time without the OLED screens in the keys.

The announcement promised that the device “will be based on a totally different principle.” The keyboard is shorter than the Maximus, with an extra row of keys above the function keys.  Most probably, the Popularis will still be able to display customizable keys, but Lebedev’s mention of a “different principle” opens up various possibilities of alternative technologies to OLED. 

Speculation includes the possibility of using ePaper – the technology developed by e-ink now used in the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and iRex’s e-book range. E-ink’s Vizplex can generate print-crisp characters, require no backlight and only draw power when the image is changed.

Via [Wired]

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