Comment

Comment by jrockway

Their website won't load, but it looks like they've been working on a prototype of a keyboard that has e-ink displays on each switch since around 2016.

This has been attempted before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard but with LCDs (or maybe they were OLEDs, since all the reviewers complain about burn-in). The reviews were overwhelmingly negative and you can pick one up cheap used because nobody wants them.

Overall, I find these designs awfully expensive on many fronts. Looking at the keyboard is a huge productivity sink, and if you stop looking at the keyboard, you won't care what the legends look like. And, having 101 screens attached to your keyboard is pretty costly compared to having 0 screens. I think these make for a good conversation piece, but I'm not sure you'd prefer typing on them to a keyboard with a better layout and better switches. And if you want a macro pad, just get a stream deck, which you can buy with same-day shipping instead of crowdfunding it. (Or just build your own. There are tons of kits out there that cost on the order of $10. No per-key screens though.)

parent jrockway 6 years ago

Discussion

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton