A Russian design company (Art. Lebedev Studio) developed this concept. The keys in the keyboard are individual OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) that can be programmed to display any type of graphic or text. They had numerous concept pictures on their website earlier in the year, and got a ton of attention from the Internet community in general. Here are a few of them:
Unfortunately the concept has now been watered down. They have just announced that the first version will use black and white LCDs, and not all of the keys will have individual displays. Common keys like the space bar, return, both shifts, numeric keypad, the arrow keys and some other keys of secondary importance will all have only LED backlights.
Also they have cut out the programmable keys that were shown in earlier concept pictures. I have boxed out the keys that will not make it in the initial release:
The price range was in the $300 ~ $400 (US) range. The color is what really made this keyboard stand out - but I don't think they have a choice. I have calculated out the bulk price of color OLED displays and it would put their cost around the $1500 (US) range. Hopefully the prices will come down and they will be able to put out a color version in a year or two.
You can see more information about it at their website
Posted By: Steve Wiseman on Monday, November 27, 2006
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