Ooo… What’s that he’s typing on? Is that what I think it is?

After being first featured on Slashdot last July of 2005, the tech-savvy masses had been eagerly waiting for the coming of the Optimus Maximus Keyboards. After 2 years of waiting, the first Optimus Keyboard is already out of the production lines and is now ready to be shipped to those who pre-ordered the said product.

An Optimus Maximus Keyboard is an ingeniously designed keyboard by the people over at ArtLebedev Studios. The main feature of the Optimus Keyboard is its OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display on the face of the keys which changes dynamically depending on a pre-defined keyboard layout or to show the function of the keys.

For instance, when you press the shift key on the Optimus Maximus, the letters on the whole keyboard will turn to all-caps. Also, if you would turn on the Num Lock feature on your keyboard, the numbers on the numerical keypad would change to directional keys. Cool, isn’t it?

But, it does not end there. For it can also display specific images and videos on your keyboard. If you were to use Photoshop, the images on the keys would change to the hotkey tools like the paintbrush and paintbucket tools. The keyboard is also ideal for games, you wouldn’t need to remember where the crouch button is because there is already an image on your keyboard indicating where it is!

The layout of the keys is fully customizable and can be changed according to the preferences of the user. You could place the shortcuts to your favorite programs on the quick access keys on left part of the keyboard.

There are other features like, additional USB hubs on the chassis , an ambient light sensor to control the brightness output of the OLEDs depending on the surroundings, and an SD Card for quick changing of images. Check out the other details on their website.

Art Lebedev is now accepting pre-orders at US$1500 per keyboard. If your interested, order yours here.

If I were to guess, the conventional and plain keyboard that we have come to love would eventually be replaced by the Optimus Maximus Keyboards. It’s inevitable. Throughout the years, anything flashy and slick always seem to replace those that are dull and old. Optimus Maximus had already started, I wonder what would come next…

OLED speakers, anyone?

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