Chicago (IL) – Russian design studio Art Lebedev opened its online store for pre-orders of the Optimus Maximus LED keyboard. The first shipment of 200 keyboards was sold within one day, despite the keyboard’s hefty price tag of $1564.37.

The Optimus maximus keyboard in pictures ...

According to a note posted on Art Lebedev’s website, the first 200 buyers will be receiving their keyboard in early January. The next 200 keyboards will ship after December 20, with another 400 becoming available in early January.

For 43,990 rub., which translates to $1564.37, buyers will get the first keyboard, which features a standalone LED in each of its 113 keys.  Each LED has a size of 10.1 x 10.1 mm and offers a resolution of 48 x 48 pixels. According to the manufacturer, the keys can not only display images, but videos with frame rates of up to 10 fps as well. Up to 65,536 colors are supported, which can be seen on viewing angles of up to 160 degrees. Image and video layouts are stored on SD cards, which can be inserted on the back of the keyboard.

An interesting feature of the keys is an ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the brightness of the images displayed through the LEDs. The lifetime of the LEDs is about 20,000 hours, according to Art Lebedev.

System requirements include Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher on a Mac. The driver and configuration software of the Optimus keyboard, which lets users create different key layouts, require about 20 MB of hard disk space.  

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