Ive been following the Optimus Keyboard project and its a great idea however i think i have an idea even better. What if you had a keyboard where u could "move" or "turn off" select keys depending on your application.

My idea is to use a tablet pc (or other touch-screen device) as a keyboard. So when you switched programs the keys most useful would be displayed and if you had keys that you never used they wouldnt be displayed at all.

ex: When i turn on World of Warcraft all my spells are displayed right on the keyboard and the like but the num-pad disappears because it serves no purpose. Alternately when i open iTunes only my media keys are displayed and they are centrally located.

The idea is that not only does it display only the keys you need but it allows you to move them around so that they are in the most efficent arrangement for you.

That would be actually quite helpful.
(I'm trying to think of other uses for it other than games. But I can't at the moment.)

The only problem with using a touch-screen solution is that you lose the feel of the keys. If you could cause keys to morph into new positions with pre-defined keypress meanings and functions (ala Star Trek), then you'd really have something. But would it be worth the cost and effort? Once a satisfactory key layout has been defined, most people will keep it that way in perpetuity.

yes i thought about the feel and that is something i dont yet have a solution for.

another use i came up with is that you could use the keyboard for art applications as a virtual palatte (<spelling?). Possibly also u could put buttons for your different brushes ect.

lil spring vibrator in the corner was used in a cell phone concept.

I've seen people get specially colored keyboards for things like photoshop/illustrator/flash and Final cut.

I do beleive the Optimus Keyboard has an option to power-off and temporarily deactivate keys, so they don't do anything, and don't light-up, but making a keyboard whose keys can be moved around whenever is a really cool idea. (If that's what you were getting too)

yes the whole moving the keys idea is what im getting at... basically it would make sense in gaming if your movement keys were exactly in the direction you were moving (W,A,S,D is a little offset IMO) also i would like it if you could move frequently used keys closer or further away depending on hand-size and maybe rearrange keys for 1 or 2 hand typing (like wen ur on the phone and cant pause.)