MULTILANGUAGE KEYBOARDS SOLUTIONS BRAINSTORMING for international happy customers

Like that, yes - but there are differences. The keyboard could be completely standard display technology. (However you might use a lower resolution display for the keyboard as compared with the actual display.) Standard could mean cheaper. eInk displays today are fairly expensive.

eInk has low power consumption but is slow to refresh. Refresh speed might be an issue if you want “Shift” to result in a dynamic change to all “keycaps” (as happens with some on-screen keyboards).

eInk doesn’t do color very well.

I have my doubts too - but we’re brainstorming, right? So just throwing ideas into the mix.

(I just copied those two ideas from my previous post on the exact same subject.)

Indeed :stuck_out_tongue: any ideas are welcome ! 2 displays with touch screen it is from kieran !

I just wonder what that would means for the weight, the cost of course, and the battery.
But let’s imagine someone like Pr Tom Scott succeed to make diamonds batteries… the first computer with 5000 years lasting energy ^^

https://vimeo.com/318481311

Another idea… now that we can Print electronic circuits

And have super flat actuators

We could just have a nice upper skin in multiple languages to put on it

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And color is extremely necessary here to be able to show emoji on the keys! :sweat_smile:
(to be clear I’m kidding, I don’t actually ever look at my keyboard)

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Does anybody know of e-ink displays with small enough form factor to fit into, or serve as, individual key caps?

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Good idea !! Yes, it should be possible … e-ink price tags can be very small

Luminous blanc touch with custom light level and color + universal silicon rubber keypad stickers to stick on top as we want

Laptop without keys + set of keys from our language to clip ourself…
I mean how many are extra special keys to print for each language ?

A little bit of puzzleing wouldn’t hurt us :stuck_out_tongue:

while those are neat concepts, All they can provide is a single language keyboard, with a few most common keys from another language. The moment you’d like to switch to non-latin writing system, they can’t provide. A true multi-language keyboard requires dynamically changing keycaps (because some few to several hundred keys in one plane is not quite ergonomic). Looks like, with off-the shelf tech, only on-screen keyboards can be truly multi-language.

e-ink price tags are too big. :frowning:
some other displays I could find, while providing small enough screen, contain a bulky interfaces around them.

So, one would have to order a custom-made tiny displays. This is beyond my capabilities for the moment. And also, the price. $1000 keyboard, anyone wants?

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it seems that the Romans did bring their contribution … imagine … a 1000 bucks keyboard

not so long ago in Alaska i would have to go hunt and kill 1000 bucks to pay for my truly multi-language keyboard. i would have to kill a few more just to pay for my transport train …

A versatile keyboard is a luxury… I want my computer to cook and clean the house too :stuck_out_tongue:

for myself, a simple keyboard is just enough
I want my french azerty, nothing more, and I was looking for ideas to help thinking about how to provide more quickly mutlilinguage keyboards for everyone… and not too costly manufacturing. So you got a point on e-ink cost. Too soon fo this tech.

Any other keyboard you don’t use regularly can be set on your display for visual guideline or typing directly on it with your mouse or you can have skins for the keyboard… of course it would be awesome to have a keyboard you can change like a snap and customize … but who’s got really the need for this, how many people ?

Yeah, I’m weird. I want a keyboard capable of entering latin, cyrilic and kanji. What I have to use now are half-means, and they are very inefficient.

I think it’s the best solution… someone can tell me if actually we can easily remove keys and switch them to fit our numeric keyboard choice without breaking anything ?

I would add that on a flat suface, like a screen, something like swype is better than pecking keys on the screen

Just spotted this on Slashot…

Apple Researching Keyboards With Adaptive Displays on Each Key

Posted by msmash on Tuesday December 29, 2020 @ 02:00PM from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

Apple is researching keyboards with small displays on the keys to dynamically change the label on each key, according to a newly-granted patent filing. From a report:

The filing is titled “Electronic devices having keys with coherent fiber bundles” and was granted to Apple by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on the final patent day of this year. The patent explains how each key on a keyboard could have “an associated key display” connected to “control circuitry in the keyboard” via a “coherent fiber bundle.” Apple proposes that each key would be “formed from a fiber optic plate” with “opposing first and second surfaces.” While the patent stipulates that each key would need to contain a small display to provide the label, of which any compatible pixel array would work, the foremost technology put forwards by Apple is OLED. The key may be made from materials such as glass, ceramic, metal, or polymer, or even crystalline materials such as sapphire.

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did Apple mention if it will be free-software/open-hardware by any chance ? also this patent seems to be trying to address a problem with ‘brute-force’ kind of mentality … they have the Eddies so why not ? but …

i’m quite happy with how UGL (ultimate-gadget-labs) set out to resolve the issue of the multiple-layers on the UHK-60-v1 and now the v2 is around the corner with usb-c and RGB illuminated/PBT key-caps … however not everybody is a fan of mechanical keyboards.

if you’re into sustainability and putting Eddies on the table for the continued support of repair-ability rights then Apple is not your corpo’ to invest in …

I’m far from being an Apple fan, but we might not have the Librem 5 if it wasn’t for the iPhone.

Apple has revolutionized the world of personal computers quite a few times (the last one, probably, with the M1), so, even if Apple is obviously not going to release a “libre” version of its keyboard –if it ever happens, because, for now, it is only a patent–, someday keyboards with individual displays on their keys will be mainstream.

Of course, I don’t expect any Librem laptop with that technology in a near future, but we will get there.

P.S. I love mechanical keyboards, but we are talking about Librem laptop keyboards here.

Since at least one company has already built such a keyboard, I would assume that Apple’s patent is slightly narrower than that (unless of course Apple bought out that company).

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