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Whatever happened to that keyboard with LCD keys (I've completely forgotten it's name, otherwise I'd surely answer my own question). Did it ever become availabl

by rasur 13y ago

Whatever happened to that keyboard with LCD keys (I've completely forgotten it's name, otherwise I'd surely answer my own question). Did it ever become available or is it still vapourware? That seemed like a good idea at the time.. I mean, muscle memory is fine if all you do is programming (which I do a fair amount of), but sometimes one moves into different domains that have their own keyboard layouts, for which type of keyboard would be a boon. EDIT: Of course, actually googling beforehand would have brought up 'The Optimus'.. And of course the Optimus Maximus is "unavailable", though I fail to see why except that perhaps it was horribly expensive?

GuiA 13y ago
Jef Raskin, The Humane Interface, page 51: "BUTTONS THAT CHANGE IN THE NIGHT Some aircraft have pushbuttons that contain dot-matrix display used to change the legend that appears on the button. This change is done under the aircraft's computer's control so that the buttons can be relabeled on the fly. The advertising copy for one brand of these buttons made some human factors claims. or one thing, fewer buttons would be needed in the limited cockpit area. For another, avionics and other system changes could be effected without having to rewire the cockpit. From the perspective of cognitive science, good labels enhance visibility. Assuming that the person choosing the labels bothers to test the wording, to make sure that the chosen labels are effective and unconfusing, it is, on the face of it, a good idea. But more careful thinking reveals a number of potential pitfalls to the product: All legended buttons get obscured– by the very finger you are using–just as you are about to press them, obviating a last-second check that you are pressing the right button. But this is a minor problem, for normally you have looked at the legend before you press the button– if you have looked at all. (I am certainly not looking at the legends on the keycaps of my keyboard as I type this) Then there is the deeper problem of the disappearing button. You want to enable, say, the manual controls on the cabin air conditioner. There is, you recall, a button labeled MANUAL AIR, but it is nowhere to be found. The reason is that it now says COMM BACKUP. You have to figure out how to get that button to light up the way it did before. Perhaps a switch or a button somewhere else changes the legends on the buttons. Or perhaps the legends are context sensitive and won't allow you to change the air conditioning right now. Whatever the cause, when a button has variable legends, the button you want will perhaps have vanished because the system is in a different mode. But the gravest problem has to do with habituation. Imagine the experienced pilot reaching up and pressing a button. The radio's not working; something's wrong. A communications problem: Time to enable COMM BACKUP. She jabs out expertly at the COMM BACKUP button. Click! Too bad. The copilot was adjusting the cabin temperature in response to a passenger complaint, and the buttons are now in climate control mode. The pilot has just achieved complete manual control over the air conditioning system. Variable-legend buttons could be useful, for instance, if several people use the same console, each using it in such a way that the buttons do not change meaning for any one user. But this is a situation seldom encountered. Soft keys, whereby a display has changable legends that affect on-screen buttons or buttons adjacent to the display, have the same liability as do variable-legend buttons. A similar problem exists with the use of function buttons, labeled F1 through F11 on many computers. If their functions are unchanging, the labeling is mnemonic. If their functions change, you cannot use them automatically. In either case, they are a poor design."
- endlessvoid94 13y ago
  Everybody should read this wonderful book. It opened my eyes to the field, in a way that most modern UX utterly misses.
- wtallis 13y ago
  That's a reasonable criticism, but I don't see how it's applicable to the Optimus keyboard. The Optimus only changes the labels to more accurately reflect the function the button already has in a given context- such as replacing "U" with a rectangle symbol in Photoshop, or showing accented characters when you hold down the right modifier key. The Optimus doesn't add any new key re-definitions.
  - rasur 13y ago
    Indeed, and the Optimus would likely not be used by two people at the same time, thus one might be marginally less likely to suffer the kind of context switches described above (which are of course valid, but in that context).
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  There are lots of use cases that are not as safety-critical as an aircraft cockpit, which the author is deliberately ignoring in order to justify his dismissal of a new technology he doesn't like. Here's one implementation, and having used this myself I can report that it works awesomely well: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug12/articles/behringer-x32.htm http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug12/articles/behringer-x32... See in particular image #5, which shows in close-up the buttons which display soft channel assignments. Per picture #2, you can see that this mixer accepts 32 audio signals as inputs and can route them to 16 different outputs, with varying degrees of additional signal processing along the way. In a studio or live situation, you do use broadly similar configurations from day to day - eg you may default to always putting the drums on channels 1-8, even if that leaves a few channels unused sometimes - but it's never exactly the same and sometimes the requirements can be radically different. Part of a sound engineer's skill is being able to keep track of what sound sources are assigned to what channel and mix the signals in some musically or narratively appropriate fashion (eg for a dialog and FX in a movie). Now, one can do that on autopilot for perhaps 8 channels but for 16, 24, or 32 that's not practical. The traditional way of dealing with this is to put a tape strip along the bottom and write down what the channels are assigned to; some engineers swear by a product which consists of colored magnetic tiles that attach to the (usually steel) panelwork of the mixer. Here, dynamic LCD buttons are used to good effect in a realtime situation where performance matters, albeit not in the life-and-death way of an aircraft cockpit.
stephengillie 13y ago
Apparently it got pivoted: http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/ http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/
- rasur 13y ago
  Yes, this was the site that I found once I googled.. and which told me it was unavailable. No obvious info as to why or if they're planning on resuming production.

by rasur 13y ago

GuiA 13y ago

Jef Raskin, The Humane Interface, page 51: "BUTTONS THAT CHANGE IN THE NIGHT Some aircraft have pushbuttons that contain dot-matrix display used to change the legend that appears on the button. This change is done under the aircraft's computer's control so that the buttons can be relabeled on the fly. The advertising copy for one brand of these buttons made some human factors claims. or one thing, fewer buttons would be needed in the limited cockpit area. For another, avionics and other system changes could be effected without having to rewire the cockpit. From the perspective of cognitive science, good labels enhance visibility. Assuming that the person choosing the labels bothers to test the wording, to make sure that the chosen labels are effective and unconfusing, it is, on the face of it, a good idea. But more careful thinking reveals a number of potential pitfalls to the product: All legended buttons get obscured– by the very finger you are using–just as you are about to press them, obviating a last-second check that you are pressing the right button. But this is a minor problem, for normally you have looked at the legend before you press the button– if you have looked at all. (I am certainly not looking at the legends on the keycaps of my keyboard as I type this) Then there is the deeper problem of the disappearing button. You want to enable, say, the manual controls on the cabin air conditioner. There is, you recall, a button labeled MANUAL AIR, but it is nowhere to be found. The reason is that it now says COMM BACKUP. You have to figure out how to get that button to light up the way it did before. Perhaps a switch or a button somewhere else changes the legends on the buttons. Or perhaps the legends are context sensitive and won't allow you to change the air conditioning right now. Whatever the cause, when a button has variable legends, the button you want will perhaps have vanished because the system is in a different mode. But the gravest problem has to do with habituation. Imagine the experienced pilot reaching up and pressing a button. The radio's not working; something's wrong. A communications problem: Time to enable COMM BACKUP. She jabs out expertly at the COMM BACKUP button. Click! Too bad. The copilot was adjusting the cabin temperature in response to a passenger complaint, and the buttons are now in climate control mode. The pilot has just achieved complete manual control over the air conditioning system. Variable-legend buttons could be useful, for instance, if several people use the same console, each using it in such a way that the buttons do not change meaning for any one user. But this is a situation seldom encountered. Soft keys, whereby a display has changable legends that affect on-screen buttons or buttons adjacent to the display, have the same liability as do variable-legend buttons. A similar problem exists with the use of function buttons, labeled F1 through F11 on many computers. If their functions are unchanging, the labeling is mnemonic. If their functions change, you cannot use them automatically. In either case, they are a poor design."

endlessvoid94 13y ago
Everybody should read this wonderful book. It opened my eyes to the field, in a way that most modern UX utterly misses.
wtallis 13y ago
That's a reasonable criticism, but I don't see how it's applicable to the Optimus keyboard. The Optimus only changes the labels to more accurately reflect the function the button already has in a given context- such as replacing "U" with a rectangle symbol in Photoshop, or showing accented characters when you hold down the right modifier key. The Optimus doesn't add any new key re-definitions.
- rasur 13y ago
  Indeed, and the Optimus would likely not be used by two people at the same time, thus one might be marginally less likely to suffer the kind of context switches described above (which are of course valid, but in that context).
anigbrowl 13y ago
There are lots of use cases that are not as safety-critical as an aircraft cockpit, which the author is deliberately ignoring in order to justify his dismissal of a new technology he doesn't like. Here's one implementation, and having used this myself I can report that it works awesomely well: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug12/articles/behringer-x32.htm http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug12/articles/behringer-x32... See in particular image #5, which shows in close-up the buttons which display soft channel assignments. Per picture #2, you can see that this mixer accepts 32 audio signals as inputs and can route them to 16 different outputs, with varying degrees of additional signal processing along the way. In a studio or live situation, you do use broadly similar configurations from day to day - eg you may default to always putting the drums on channels 1-8, even if that leaves a few channels unused sometimes - but it's never exactly the same and sometimes the requirements can be radically different. Part of a sound engineer's skill is being able to keep track of what sound sources are assigned to what channel and mix the signals in some musically or narratively appropriate fashion (eg for a dialog and FX in a movie). Now, one can do that on autopilot for perhaps 8 channels but for 16, 24, or 32 that's not practical. The traditional way of dealing with this is to put a tape strip along the bottom and write down what the channels are assigned to; some engineers swear by a product which consists of colored magnetic tiles that attach to the (usually steel) panelwork of the mixer. Here, dynamic LCD buttons are used to good effect in a realtime situation where performance matters, albeit not in the life-and-death way of an aircraft cockpit.

stephengillie 13y ago

Apparently it got pivoted: http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/ http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/

rasur 13y ago
Yes, this was the site that I found once I googled.. and which told me it was unavailable. No obvious info as to why or if they're planning on resuming production.