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Cover Story: Art. Lebedev Studio

Optimus Upravlator

Some time after the Mini Three came the Upravlator. This Optimus family member can be seen as the Mini Three’s big brother. The Optimus Upravlator is the more professional addition to one’s workspace, housing more buttons and providing more interaction possibilities.

The Upravlator features a 10.8 inch colour LCD screen with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. On its surface are 12 see-through buttons. Each button provides tactile feedback and utilises five contact points: centre, top, bottom, left and right. The entire screen is attached to a folding stand for ergonomic position and orientation.

In using open standards and protocols in

combination with the customizable software package this product is highly adaptable to your workspace, applications and tasks. Each button can have five control points making it ideal for the media professional. The Optimus Upravlator will be compatible with Windows and Mac OS X and will be expected in the second half of 2008.

Art Lebedev Product 2

Optimus Maximus

Along the duration of the development of these prototypes the Optimus Maximus saw much development. In blogging their design process, Art. Lebedev created one of the biggest gadget hypes rivaled only by products such as Apple’s iPhone.

What started as a concept by Artemy Lebedev some 15 years ago grew into a fully tactile and customizable keyboard. Let us briefly review its process and development.

Since the Maximus came into existence due to the creation of new technologies such as OLED screens, it relied heavily on these new technologies such as OLED screens, it relied heavily on these new technologies and their abilities. The people at

Art. Lebedev spent many hours conjuring various prototypes testing all the features and factors involved. One of the most important factors are the keys. They needed to incorporate displays, housed inside an actual key cap which could provide tactile feedback and maintain a visible screen. Countless key cap models were constructed searching for the most optically pleasing effect and viewing angle.

The display technology used will be OLED, or Organic Light Emitting Diode. You could call it the LED’s thin sister, since it is merely a couple of millimeters thick. These organic displays provide the best durability and effectiveness compared to life-span and cost.

Further development meant adding custom PCB’s (Printed Circuit Boards) and micro controllers to the product while maintaining a thin profile and aesthetically pleasing design. Designers work closely with engineers in finding a harmony between all different variables. Mocking their versions with foam and cardboard.

The final result is a qwerty-keyboard with the addition of ten application keys. Each key houses a 10.1 x 10.1 mm OLED display with a resolution of 48 x 48 pixels. These keys are able to display static and animated visuals at a minimal frame rate of ten frames per second.

Each layout is highly adaptive to running applications, system