[sj4nz]

This is interesting... but I can't help but think how much better it might be if instead of a video background just had a simpler e-ink display for indicating what the transparent key caps were for. The animation/videos are very distracting.

I never liked the Apple TouchBar or anything that required "active" attention away from the main screen.

[shaunsingh0207]

E-ink is extremely expensive, especially at the size of a keyboard like that. Memory LCD would be more practical, but at that point the lcd costs the same and offers more power for those who want it.

There isn't anything stopping you from making the entire screen black except for the legends, probably

[sho_hn]

True dat. I recently made this for my home, as a once-a-day automatic newspaper deco thingie (ticking all the latest hype boxes: wrote a custom Rust driver for the EPD controller, and it's now also using the ChatGPT API to trim and style-transfer articles and headlines -- this and also various layout/typography improvements not yet in that album): https://imgur.com/a/PqkhdGd

$400+shipping for the display panel (a competitive price from the shop). Even at volume (which an enthusiast keyboard won't be) it's still very expensive.

[jrockway]

Yup. TFT LCDs are in everything because they are so cheap, and they make designers who are used to designing for computers feel less constrained.

I have indoor and outdoor air quality sensors in my apartment; the outdoor air quality monitor is an LCD and the indoor one is e-ink. I kind of like the LCD better, but have to use a feature to turn off the screen at night so it's not illuminating the entire room with its backlight. The e-ink doesn't emit light, but it also doesn't update as frequently, so it's often displaying information that's out of date. Because of the various pros and cons, neither technology seems like a "win" over the other; the product designer has to pick one and hope the market agrees. LCDs get the nudge because of cost, though.

[mihaaly]

> There isn't anything stopping you from making the entire screen black

Except perhaps product designers wanting to make a flashy product that draws attention all the time, 24/7, pushing through '''features''' that leverage (force) full screen animations in the driver software.

I am bitter, yes, I met too many excellent hardware ruined by stupid, oversized, look-before-function attitude software. Making it grand and flashy (eventually overcomplicated and ugly) not because it is useful but because they can.

[dogma1138]

Yet E-ink is cheap enough for price tags at big box stores…?

[ar9av]

I think it'd be much better if they just had a simple e-ink display for showing what the transparent key caps are for. That way, you don't have to deal with any distracting animations or videos, and you can just focus on getting your work done.

And yeah, I totally get what you mean about the Apple TouchBar and stuff like that. It might look cool, but it's just another thing that takes your attention away from the main screen. We need interfaces that are designed to help us be more productive, not ones that are just flashy and distracting.

[jonnycomputer]

E-ink was the very first thing I thought of. Less power use, less glare, less distraction. Heck, I have the Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminated Keyboard and it hurts my eyes when the room is not brightly lit (unlike my Mac Book Pro's backlit keyboard which does it right).

[layer8]

I wonder about the parallax effect, since the display is a significant distance from the key tops. You can kinda see it in the short typing demonstration a third down the page. Though I never liked self-illuminating keyboards anyway.

[dheera]

I was thinking e-Ink too, it would allow the keyboard to be made wireless and have a respectable battery life of at least a week or two if not much longer.

[throwaway675309]

I mean they're obviously going to make it so that you can set up the backgrounds however you want, and even if they didn't it would be a simple software update to make it so you can disable animations so I don't really think that that's a negative.

[coffeebeqn]

Yeah I’m not sure what the target audience is. I just bought a nice keyboard so I’m in the right market but I don’t really look at the key caps nor do I feel the need to have contextual buttons