Computer Column-6

The latter part of this year holds the promise of two new keyboards that will certainly enhance your typing experience. The one from the Russia-based Art Lebdev Studio will be called the "Optimus" while the one from Microsoft is slated to be called the "Ultimate Keyboard."

As with any computer product category, manufacturers are constantly trying to find the next big thing that will make people want to buy them and toss out their older model.

Take printers for example. While they keep making them faster and with better quality, sometimes a new model comes out that prints the same but offers a number of "Gee Whiz" features that makes you want to get it anyway. My new printer added a color preview screen, built-in memory card slots and the ability to print without a computer so I bought it.

That's what's happening with these new keyboards. They don't really make you type any better or more comfortably but they each offer new features not seen on a keyboard anywhere before and they are hot.

Since neither of these keyboards are available yet, I'm just going to focus on some of their projected hot new abilities. I'm sure I'll follow up later on when I get some fingers-on typing time with each of them.

The Optimus keyboard at first glance looks pretty much like an ordinary keyboard in that its shape is the traditional rectangular one with the typical grouping of letter keys in the Qwerty layout, cursor keys, numeric keypad, function keys and a special user-defined key cluster. The Optimus does have a quality look about it in that it's a sleek, low-profile unit with what appears to be a metal finish.

But the Optimus' big specialty lies it its keys. Each and every key cap is actually a small OLED color display screen. That means that the included software will be able to configure what is being displayed on every key at any given moment. So your keyboard will have the ability to literally change itself to fit whatever application you are running at any given time. For example, if you want the key caps to reflect the style of a font you are using at that moment, you will see the actual font on the keys. Playing a game? Only the keys used in that game will have the corresponding functions showing. Typing in another language? The keys will show the appropriate letters. And it will do all of this in a full color glow as the OLED technology is a luminous and colorful one. The keys can even be animated with little moving characters on any key at any time.

Art Lebdev says the Optimus keyboard will be platform independent so we can expect to see it working on Windows, Macintosh and Linux systems. I can't wait.

Then there's Microsoft's Ultimate Keyboard. The ergonomically curved keyboard sports a black matte finish with real metal accents and comes with a matching mouse. For starters, it's backlit but that's nothing we haven't seen before. What's new is that the keyboard has proximity sensing built in so that it can sense when you walk into the room. So basically, all of its keys begins to glow brightly as you approach it. That's a big Gee Whiz factor right there. Needless to say, as you walk away from it, the glow diminishes. When you leave, it goes out when you do. I'm sorry but that is so oh-so-cool that I want one right now just for that feature alone. But it gets better. It's cordless, has Bluetooth connectivity and the mouse recharges by docking onto the keyboard's top center portion.

As I said, I'll be writing more about the other features when I actually get my hands on them. But for now, I hope you're eyeballing your current keyboard and thinking it's toast.