Apple developing dynamic keyboard

I would guess that Art Lebedev had already applied for this patent... at least I hope they did. This seems redundant and pointless on Apple's part. I hope they're not going to abuse the system to take out a really innovative product that they could just license instead of bully out of the market.

All speculation on my part of course.

Not having to spend enough money to buy a plasma TV for a dynamic keyboard? Yes please.

The Optimus Keyboard team wrote about their decision to use OLEDs on the product blog.

Wow, I'm a 'tard. This has been brought up three times already :D

I actually think E-INK would be a better solution to this. Does anybody know about the limitations of that technology and (without mentioning the fact that it's backlit :P) the pros for OLED in comparison to it? Because quite frankly, having a keyboard with dotted letters such a shown in the mockup, does not look appealing to me at all. I've grown to like Apple's keyboard fonts, I hope they won't go cheap on us.

Oh no, I see it now, reports of people typing slower on a Mac due to the letters noting being raised on the keyboard. It's the iPhone all over again.

Serious note: is digital paper or OLED better for this application?

Wow! Apple is always upto something which no one has thought about...

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Although I'm generally opposed to the current patent system, I think this would be a great item for Apple to implement. This isn't to say it hasn't been done before, but Apple can do things in volume, which would drive the price down, increase features (resolution, software customizability, maybe even sensors in a keyboard that lets you drag your finger above it like a track pad for an additional input device), and it'll be quite a product. Now all we need are keyboards that can safely take a spray of windex, and we'll be set.

Does anyone know why they chose OLEDs? I was under the impression that those degraded over time. Seems it would make more sense to use the type of LCDs or LEDs found in calculators and old gameboys as they are quite inexpensive and have a proven track record.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have e-paper keys that only use a bit of energy when they're changing? If the transition time (which I recall reading is still a couple seconds between images) can be shaved down, it'd be viable for the "showing the effects of the Option key" scenario too, and backlighting would perhaps be optional, instead of having OLEDs glaring in your face every time you looked down. I wonder which has a longer lifespan, too.