Yeah, you thought the
Optimus Maximus was the holy grail of keyboarding -- then you saw the Optimus Tactus, a giant touch sensor display tablet keyboard that could do all the sorts of crazy stuff the Maximus can't even touch, like playing movies and being a gigantic color swatch. That is, if it weren't a concept. (Then again, the Maximus started out as a concept as well
just a couple of years back, so who knows.) The only thing we don't get: the name. Tactus? Touch-sensitive doesn't exactly shout tactility to us, but since it's all just theoretical at this point, maybe by the time keyboards like this exist we'll all be typing on shape-shifting tactile membranes overlaid on touchscreens. That is, if
Apple's patents haven't already
blocked everyone else off
from going there.
posted Dec 28th 2007 11:13AM
I'm thinking...Ultimate Star Trek control panel.
Ever seen Data typing on such a display?
If a cyborg can do it...
A touch sensitive input device/display device? How about Optimus Trekus?
Optimus Primus
...
...
...
sorry.
I believe that technically, every keyboard is "touch-sensitive"
Why have a screen then, so unless the whole computer is intergrated (AKA Amiga 500 style), i do not like it.
M
That's just design, so the first company that will made this - can patent it and sell hundreds of them without paying to Lebedev's co. anything.
At first sight - typing on this keyboard is painful, because it have hard flat surface, but i think that Apple already know - how to manage this problem.
Idea, that costs million $$$:
The answer is simple - you must make two layers - first (at the bottom) is the display itself, second (at the top) is some sort of touch-sensitive soft silicone layer - so any typing will be even better than on the original keyboard and you this layer can even have ability to light your pressing.
Unless this thing has haptic feedback, this thing will really be "Optimus TactLESS"
Whoo Hoo!
Star Trek Next Generation keyboards!!
meh
Just think of how painful and slow typing on this would likely be.
I prefer laptop keyboards to desktop keyboards, so it could just be that I find this to be a good idea...
~colemak typist
@ethana2
For a laptop-like keyboard that's actually here and available, you can try the wireless Logitech Dinovo.
No kidding...this thing is straight off the Enterprise.
I'm not sure I could ever get used to typing without tactile feedback, but there are some awfully neat things you could do with a device like this.
i thought about somthing similar to this about a month ago, i had a design that made the keys give a tactile feel though.
try think outside the box. all our microwaves use this kind of keyboard. all the keyboard manufacturers have to do is adjust the sensitive level just enough.
Yeah, I was thinking that too. LCARS! from Star Trek, but i seriously think this is what the next generation keyboard should be. At least not for the everyday consumer or office personel, but this is perfect for other types of workflow. From a graphic designer's POV this would be an awesome input device, but it would wreak havoc on editors, lol.
We're also not writing novels on our microwaves :) Well, I'm not at least - most of the stuff I cook is done in a couple minutes.
I already prefer the feel of my desktop keyboard over my laptop keyboard - this kind of input device would take that to the extreme.
I wonder if some sort of force feedback could be incorporated though, so you could get some of the tactility of a 'traditional' keyboard with the incredible customization this would offer.
And yeah, for certain workflows and tasks, this device would be amazing.
What button fires Phasers?
LOL, howbout being beamed back and forth from work? NO TRAFFIC!!! That'll be awesome as long as I don't get fused with a fly or something. And provided that work doesn't have the authority to beam me back to work whenever they feel like it. That would not be cool.
@jd: But you look at your microwave when you type on it.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Nokia_Touchscreen_Tactile_Response_Interface_Coming_to_Symbian_S60/1192568431
just a concept, of course, but may turn out to be the turning point in my relations with touchscreens :)
OH MY GOD!
I bet this is what's page 47 about. The holy grail!
Star Trek is real, only 100 years away..
lol i saw that yesterday
Set faces to stunned.
It looks cool, but useless
Looks good, but not practical. It has no chance, except in star war movies, where rocks can talk.
Wasnt there another patent filed by someone to use vibrating motors to simulate tactile feedback for touch screens? Heck, for the amount he is going to charge for this keyboard, I bet they could liscence that technology.
Put little electro-magnetic operated motors under the board in a grid pattern to simulate a "click" feeling when you press down on some part of the board.
That would be Alpine. They've had it for a while in their car touch screens. In fact if Art could licence a technology like that and integrate it well into this keyboard it might just actually work.
Looks cool.
I just said the other day how I wish I could watch Tatu making out on my keyboard.
Did you photoshop the Engadget icon in on the left or is that legit?
Its legit, thats their way of "asking" to be on engadget :)
It will probably have some sort of tactile response when you press a key. I have already used some products which feel exactly like you are pressing a traditional button when it is on, but it is a flat piece of non-moving plastic. There are no moving parts and it's solid as a rock. Very freaky. The technology is called haptiks (sp?).
This is ridiculous. The keyboard would really suck because there's no tactile feefback. The name is so misleading. Might as well be a screen with virtual keyboard. Next keyboard is going to be optimus prime. You have a little robot sitting on your desk and tell it what to do. No need to type.
The form factor is pure Apple.
i love my logitech keyboard.
Oh god... just like with the Maximus, we will probably be hearing about this stupid keyboard for the next couple of years.
Gahhhhh
I know, I can't wait till the box opening, it will be amazing!
[Sarcasm]
Wait. Someone opened a box with a keyboard in it? I thought they had only downloaded, printed, and assembled the box themselves, then opened it up to find (surprise!) nothing inside.
keyboard? whatever. what i want to know is what this avatar is supposed to be. a phone? a nintendo controller? a deck of cards? and what is it looking at? can it think? is it silently sitting there reading our posts determining what the best strategy will be for killing all of us? i can't stand it....we must stop it before the rampage begins!
The default avatar? That's Gadgie the Engadget Mascot!
http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/20/engadget-comments-new-design-now-with-avatars/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/winners-of-the-engadget-mascot-contest/
Art Lebedev? I'll be looking forward to this, in 2014.
Making the entire surface a waterproof(or water resistant) touch screen LCD, with some sort of raised surface to indicate where keys are(because it would be annoying to have to keep looking down- as im not a 'proper' typist), and have it plug in with USB.
The software on the PC would control your themes, key layouts, etc. that would all be toggle-able via the keyboard itself. I think the individual LCD thing with the current Optimus is a little over-engineered.
Doing it this way would most likely be cheaper.
i love my logitech keyboard.
tactile
Main Entry: tac·tile
Pronunciation: \ˈtak-təl, -ˌtī(-ə)l\
Function: adjective
Etymology: French or Latin; French, from Latin tactilis, from tangere to touch — more at tangent
Date: 1615
1 : perceptible by touch : tangible
2 : of, relating to, or being the sense of touch
Since you touch it, and I think the idea here is that you're touching the image, and that Tactus isn't really a word...
"Tactus" is Latin for "touch". Why Ryan is trying to equate that with "tactile", a completely different word, escapes me.
totally not tactile, unless you use the dictionary definition.
Also, why does Apple's patents have to block them from making this. Have you not heard the phrase, "There's more than one way to skin a cat". Patents protect the exact process not the theory of it.
Maybe not patents, but how about trademark violation?
http://www.tactuskeyboard.com/consumers/index.htm
Year 1 of development: Name, concept art
Year 2 - 5: Creation
Year 6: Default Font
Year 7: Box design
Yeah, perhaps some day. It is a cool concept, for sure. But they take forever to get these things out. And we thought the Maximus was expensive..
You would think they would have the decency to wait until they at least got the Optimus Maximus out the door before pimping the next big thing.
I'd imagine that a keyboard with one big screen and some touch sensitivity would be a lot less expensive to produce than a keyboard with 100 tiny, moveable screens attached to it.
i think engadget is a sucker for everything optimus
call me crazy, but i rest my fingers on my keyboard... would that work on a touch sensitive rig? hah
what's the next version gonna be... optimus TaPcus? keyboards with built in pc and touch display?
by the way this might be of some use if they insert a wacom pressure sensor and allows you to view photoshop workspace in the center of the keyboard.
Sweet bejesus! It's a giant, effing iPhone. Oh baby, where have you been all my life.
Seriously, I hope that this is the future of keyboards...the possibilities are endless.
IF Lebedev is SO cool...why is his group STILL cranking out keyboards that are NON ergonomically considerate? Anybody can design something exciting looking; making it truly ergonomic is something quite else. Yes, you may laugh now...but down the road when your various carpal tunnels are screaming you'll think differently. Lebedev and company are still dumb little boys and girls. I rather hope he hurts himself in an exotic car accident. Maybe that will wake him/them up.
"Yeah, you thought the Optimus Maximus was the holy grail of keyboarding"
No, I didn't. I thought it was overpriced, gimmicky vaporware. I still do.
Okay, enough lookie-loos here people... Move along.
Here is how this is going to go. They are going to take this concept, people will go nuts over it and then they will hint at making it into a keyboard. A couple of months will pass, and then they will hint again at making it, saying they are taking pre-orders to test the demand for it. Then they will take the money, and make about 50 renders of every possibly angle of the device.
After a few months, they will change the design entirely, stating that certian features are simply not possible to do--both physically, and logically. The new hardware design will be almost the same, but it will have a new name.
A couple more months, and some details will finally be released such as screen resolution and touch-sensitivity and the like. Then in another post, they will announce that the details before were wrong and the resolution and touch-sensitivity will have to be decreased.
More months, more renders, and more changes will follow.
Then, in about a year, they will release a ACTUAL PICTURE of the device! Mocked up in foamboard, of course. So it is all but useless. Then, in about a week they will announce they are going to release a picture of the first prototype--which they fail to meet, because the Chinese makers have failed to make connection 232 on the pcb and it won't work.
New renders, and a New Year. Happy 2009!
You get the point.
Try the Cintiq from Wacom.
I want to be Art's Man-Whore.
No he's all mine! Get AWAY from him you B1tch! ;)
I'd he-b1tch slap you, but I am too busy using the new keyboard that Art gave me!
"Then again, the Maximus started out as a concept as well just a couple of years back, so who knows."
Wait, isn't the Maximus still pretty much just a concept?
the name is latin for "the greatest touch" (as in touchscreen.) It makes perfect sense to me...
i gave your mom the "greatest touch" yesterday
It should have a trackpad built in
It should have a trackpad built in
"... by the time keyboards like this exist we'll all be typing on shape-shifting tactile membranes overlaid on touchscreens. That is, if Apple's patents haven't already blocked everyone else off from going there."
Hi everyone.
Does Apple really have this technology or developing on it at the moment? I am curious and I would grateful if anybody could point out an article or site mentioning it.
Or is it just typical Engadget-every 5 minutes about Apple news related?
what's the crap is it?
These guys trying to develop "sophisticated" fragile gadgets which can be broken because you touch them in a wrong way.
I do not think that anybody wants to buy it. Maybe few guys in Russia.
Looks sweet, but noy worth a $1000+ price which it most likely will be. This might be the future keyboard that everyone will use in the year 2020.
T touch
A activated
C control
T terminal
U utility
S system
still more likely to happen then the phantom lapboard
This BRILLIANT!!!!
think about it for a second.
Hot keys will be a ting of the past.
You can truly create custom interfaces to your applications now.
TRy thinking beyond word processors. You get rid of the need for custom hardware because you can virtualize that interface on the key pad.
Think of how much easier it will be editing in final cut if the timeline and editing were moved to a gui on a keyboard.
Think of how much closer to a studio experience logic would feel if ur keyboard suddenly became a full blown equalizer.
Someone asked, "Why do you need the screen then?" well, you maximize the screen space for visual representation of your media.
And you make more efficient data and media manipulation by adding greater customization, personalization of your data manipulating tools.
This is going to be bigger than you can imagine.
I can imagine a laptop with one of these. The next step in computer hardware evolution. DEFINATELY!!
With the right amount of haptic feedback, they could make it feel just like a real 'board
Looks sweet, but I don't think I like keys with no tactile feedback.
It's like typing on a touchscreen with galss on top.
here's to the 2011 Vaporware awards!
overpriced gimmicky vaporware. it's only taken what, 4 years now for the first one? give us a break Lebedev.
Haptics and feedback are not new concepts, It would seem some posters dont read Engadget on a regular basis otherwise they would already be familiar with devices such as the Motorola Rokr E8 or Samsung's Armani Phone (albeit a cruder form than the Moto's).
Looks cool, however I would try and combine it with ferro fluids in some form of membrane to "raise" the surface of the touch panel to at least give some kind of fingertip edge detection.
Hey I've got something that can already do all this - it's called a mouse and my screen.
Looking at the keyboard, isn't that for people who can't type?
I don't understand the hype. This is just one huge touchscreen. Why don't you just get a tablet PC, connect it to a desktop, write some fancy software and use the tablet PC screen as a keyboard?
It's a rich man's Sinclair ZX81 (or Timex 2000 for the Americans)... sign me up!
A highly sensitive keyboard huh! Let's see, I like to key in s.... sssssssssssssss. Whoa! I only wanted an s! One more time.... ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Ok, thx but I will pass on this. Next invention plz!
nice