Finalmouse is a new company that has recently made its debut in the world of PC peripherals, and has decided to do it in a more than extravagant way, presenting a mechanical keyboard with a large display under the keys! It is a product priced at $349 that offers various graphic effects when pressed, giving the user the impression that he is practically typing directly on the screen, also thanks to the use of transparent keys.
A a similar idea has already been seen with the Optimus Popularis, also equipped with a display, but visible only through the individual keys in order to display useful suggestions such as shortcuts or other information. On the Finalmouse keyboard, the screen instead seems to have a purely aesthetic function: as can be seen in the video published by the company, this offers different types of animations, some of which are also interactive when pressing the keys. The company calls the underlying technology "DisplayCircuit Glass Stack", stating that it will be possible to download additional animations through the dedicated app "The Freethinker Portal". You can also create custom animations and load them into the application to make them available to everyone, while the keyboard can memorize up to three at a time. As stated by Finalmouse, animations are run in Unreal Engine 5, through the use of integrated CPU and GPU.
Source: Finalmouse What is interesting about this keyboard are also the switches: the company has in fact collaborated with Gateron for the creation of a customized and lubricated linear model, but it also makes available a version of its product equipped with "Hall effect" switches , or keys that make use of magnets instead of traditional metal contacts. The peculiarity of the latter type is the possibility of recording analog inputs such as for a potentiometer of a joypad, or setting a personalized activation point. This version also has a polling rate of 8KHz, thus reducing latency to a minimum.
The switches are remappable and hot-swappable, making them easy to repair if needed. The Finalmouse Centerpiece lacks function keys however, as it has a 65% layout, while the transparent keys seem hard to distinguish, especially when the display is on, as the symbols are printed on the front rather than the top. Finalmouse Centepiece will be available for purchase early next year.
Introducing:
Centerpiece.
Available early 2023. pic.twitter.com/YfJ6gOmZq8
— Finalmouse (@finalmouse) December 18, 2022