The Optimus Maximus keyboard by Art Lebedev Studio is a gorgeous, and very cool bit industrial design all the way from Russia.

I’ve been following the progress of the keyboard for a while now, and it’s finally shipped, but with a price tag of about £270 I’m not sure I can justify the expense however next time I’m in Russia I’ll see if I can get hold of one, it’ll be cheaper than spending $2,750 like one ebay bidder did!

So what makes it so good? Each key is actually a miniature screen meaning it can display anything you want. Typing an email in Russian? No problem, switch to Cyrillic keys. Using Photoshop? Then change then press a button and the keys transform into the icons matching the tool palette, i.e., B is shows the brush icon. Even better, you can customize and configure the keys to show anything you want. If you want to see how it works they have an online demo of the keyboard in action.

Now I thought that the Optimus was keyboard heaven, but I’m just spotted a new concept called the Tactus, which basically looks like a big touch display, so not only can it work like a keyboard, but also a colour palette, video player or anything else you want. It’ll be interesting to see how successful such a concept is for regular typing as touch screen displays don’t provide that all important tactil feedback.

For more information and lots of other very cool projects and ideas take a look at Art Lebedev Studio

Update: If you’re interested in buying me yourself one you can bid here.