Glow in the dark keys

[Grench]

Compared to the screen, a keyboard backlight does not consume a lot of power. Enough to disable it when you don't need it, but not enough to not enable it when you can use it.

I wouldn't object to having a keyboard backlight, but I certainly don't consider it a "must have" feature. Glow-in-the-dark keys however are a "don't want" feature - they would probably not manage to "charge" (unless you can keep the lid open with the device well exposed to daylight), so it would be quite pointless, but even if they are "charged", it would suck to not be able to disable it.

I would really like to have a back-lit screen, but would still buy a DragonBox (insertnamehere) even without back lighting.

Novelty 'glow in the dark' keys are a 'no' though, unless they're tritium, but then the device would be on the 'no fly' list.

 

[levi]

Can we stop talking about back-lit screens please?  I've not seen a non-backlit screen since the original GBA, so of course the next Dragonbox device is going to have one, like the Pandora has.

 

[Klumpen]

Can we stop talking about back-lit screens please?  I've not seen a non-backlit screen since the original GBA, so of course the next Dragonbox device is going to have one, like the Pandora has.

I wonder too. Maybe some people here want some kind of hardware regression?

 

[Grench]

Can we stop talking about back-lit screens please?  I've not seen a non-backlit screen since the original GBA, so of course the next Dragonbox device is going to have one, like the Pandora has.

 

Can we stop talking about back-lit screens please?  I've not seen a non-backlit screen since the original GBA, so of course the next Dragonbox device is going to have one, like the Pandora has.

 I wonder too. Maybe some people here want some kind of hardware regression?

Exactly why the keyboard should be back lit. Modern portable devices with keyboards use back lighting. To NOT back light they keyboard would be to regress to 2003 tech.

 

[KillRoXx]

Can we source any info about what is actually in glow in the dark?

Harvesting energy from lightning sources over time and emit it with a glowing when external lights are turned off.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/s9x1g7vkABs?feature=oembed

more like 2006 tech. there was no backlighting. only keys, and lots and lots of flashlights.

 

[Grench]

That GlowKey Keyboard got it half right.

I -like- the illuminated keys with the letters in black/colors/etc on the light background.

I don't think it should be, 'glow in the dark' though, but instead, make it dimly back lit using dimmable RGB LEDs.

 

[Perusa]

I don't want this. It just don't look really nice, and i don't like extra cost. I'm a Student. I don't have much money.

 

[Grench]

I don't want this. It just don't look really nice, and i don't like extra cost. I'm a Student. I don't have much money.

Wrong area for that argument. Backlighting may represent a 1 to 2% higher end price for the device.

You should make that plea where we're talking about screens and how you think it should have a 3" QVGA screen to make it cheaper. You won't get more sympathy for your plea, but at least there you're talking about more than the $5 you want to save by removing keyboard backlighting.

 

[moxie]

Can we source any info about what is actually in glow in the dark?

Harvesting energy from lightning sources over time and emit it with a glowing when external lights are turned off.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/s9x1g7vkABs?feature=oembed

This must be the fugliest thing I ever did see. I mean, really. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm as geek as can be, my dress sense is like "Oh, I have clothes. That means I'm well dressed, right?", and I wouldn't know the difference between trendy and backwards to save my life. But that is actually so ugly that it would prevent me from buying the actual thingie if it looked like that. Horrible. For all that is holy and right in this world - NO! Don't do that. Ever. 

 

[moxie]

Just to be clear:

By all means a backlit keyboard, if it doesn't cost too much in money or performance. But the idea of typing on Gollums eyeballs like that is horrible, and compounded with the really, really sickly colour of glow-in-the-dark-stuff like that... *shudder*

We all know how backlit keyboards are done. Don't ruin it.

 

[Perusa]

I don't want this. It just don't look really nice, and i don't like extra cost. I'm a Student. I don't have much money.

Wrong area for that argument. Backlighting may represent a 1 to 2% higher end price for the device.


You should make that plea where we're talking about screens and how you think it should have a 3" QVGA screen to make it cheaper. You won't get more sympathy for your plea, but at least there you're talking about more than the $5 you want to save by removing keyboard backlighting.

huh? Why?

I have to learn to speak in full sentences. I wanted to say that i don't like it. And 1 or 2% higher end price is high for something i find horrible.

Look at the video. It's ugly yellow! :wacko:

 

[WizardStan]

And 1 or 2% higher end price is high for something i find horrible.

That's $6 on a $600 device. If you're so strapped for cash that you can't spend $6 on a feature which many people will find very useful even if you won't use it yourself then you should probably reconsider the $600 purchase.There is, of course, a limit: adding a lot of features for features sake will slowly creep the price up, but I don't think we're at that point yet, everything to be added so far is reasonably justified.

 

[moxie]

If I read Perusa correctly, he (I assume) is not averse to the 1-2% price increase per se, it's paying extra money at all for something as MINDNUMBINGLY HORRIBLY UGLY as that...thing...in that video.

And 1 or 2% higher end price is high for something i find horrible. Look at the video. It's ugly yellow!

And to that, I agree. If that is how things are going to look, I'd have to be paid to use it in public, not the other way around.

 

[Grench]

The ugly yellow/green is 'Glow in the Dark' or Phosphorescence material.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorescence

A white-ish rubber keymat with the letters on top and dimable RGB LEDs underneath with dark letters on top strikes me as a different and highly usable combination. The LEDs could be turned down to near-nothing and the keyboard would still be usable in the dark.

The issue with black keys & surrounds with letter shaped windows for the light to shine through is wear. As the black-painted clear rubber towers that the key tops sit on top of wear against the case plastics, they scratch. This leads to the keys leaking random light sideways and looking 'worn out'.

My thought is to skip that and make the letter opaque and the keys translucent. Back light levels can be much lower as there isn't as much 'waste' light shining on paint. You can turn it down so dim that the letters aren't readable - but you can still make out the positions of the keys. Alternatively you can have it pulsate multiple colors around the keyboard in time to music or play 'Simon'.

Oh - and this would allow you to make the keyboard glow in whatever color you want. White, red, blue, green, purple, gold, etc... Just change the backlight colors & levels.

 

[moxie]

A white-ish rubber keymat with the letters on top and dimable RGB LEDs underneath with dark letters on top strikes me as a different and highly usable combination.

Different - Yes. Usable - no. Ugly as hell - Oh yes. A pulsating multicoloured brain from the centre of the ultraworld underneath my keys? OMFG MAKE IT STOP!!!!

The reason it is different is that it is a horrible, horrible idea. It is different because noone in their right minds would do anything like that, and a surprisingly large number of the people making keyboards actually seems to be in their right minds. The antithesis of that would be to be in someone elses mind, which is where my mind will go hide if it find itself at such a keyboard.

And yes, I know that that colour comes from the dayglo stuff. But the colour is just the icing on the cake. The main horror is the idea of the reversed light/dark aspects. And yes, I've seen a few keyboards with exactly the kind of design we're talking about here in the flesh, so to speak.  Last time i saw one, I had go fetch my mind from a shop assistant on the other side of the street. Not a pleasant experience at all.

 

[Grench]

A white-ish rubber keymat with the letters on top and dimable RGB LEDs underneath with dark letters on top strikes me as a different and highly usable combination.

 Different - Yes. Usable - no. Ugly as hell - Oh yes. A pulsating multicoloured brain from the centre of the ultraworld underneath my keys? OMFG MAKE IT STOP!!!!

The reason it is different is that it is a horrible, horrible idea. It is different because noone in their right minds would do anything like that, and a surprisingly large number of the people making keyboards actually seems to be in their right minds. The antithesis of that would be to be in someone elses mind, which is where my mind will go hide if it find itself at such a keyboard.

And yes, I know that that colour comes from the dayglo stuff. But the colour is just the icing on the cake. The main horror is the idea of the reversed light/dark aspects. And yes, I've seen a few keyboards with exactly the kind of design we're talking about here in the flesh, so to speak.  Last time i saw one, I had go fetch my mind from a shop assistant on the other side of the street. Not a pleasant experience at all.

So - you've never seen a good keyboard with dark letters on a light/whiteish background? That could never catch on? You don't think it can be done properly with tact?

The PC JR. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pc_jr

The IBM Model M keyboard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_keyboard Quite possibly the best keyboard ever made. Notice the black letters on white keys.

The Apple IIc and it's grey keyboard with black letters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_iic

The Macintosh Plus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Plus

The current Apple keyboard. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB110LL/B/apple-keyboard-with-numeric-keypad-english-usa

Want a current one for PC? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109234

How about a harsh environment one with black key surrounds? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=886557&is=REG&A=details&Q=

Those are exactly what I want to see - but with the added ability to make the keys subtly (or intensely) glow via backlighting.

 

[moxie]

Um...yes, I've seen those. They don't glow. It is the glow that turns them from really quite nice keyboards to the pulsating nightmare spawn of chtulhu.

EDIT: To be fair, I think the last one is quite ugly, too. Not as bad as it would be if it was also glowing, but still. OTOH, I do understand that rough environment tech has other prioirities.

 

[Grench]

This is what light letters on dark keys winds up actually looking like:

Spoiler

With the back-light is off, you can't hardly see anything as the clear letters turn dark on a dark background. Essentially with the backlight off it becomes darkness inside of blackness.

The light leakage around the sides is far greater than the actual light coming through the letters.

Alternatively you can paint the sides of the keys - which in our case using a key mat would be -flexible- causing the paint to wear and crack - leading to the above situation.

Using white(ish) keys with black lettering, you could turn the backlight off and it wouldn't glow for you. You'd still be able to use it with the backlight off as there is still contrast between the letters and the keys. Alternatively you could have the backlight glow ever so dimly white - and be able to use the keyboard in any condition.

 

[Null]

Um...yes, I've seen those. They don't glow. It is the glow that turns them from really quite nice keyboards to the pulsating nightmare spawn of chtulhu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpnUbF2nnrA

How anybody couldn't love something like this I don't know, I think you're just bitter

 

[moxie]

In the same way that somebody can not love lava lamps, plastic rotating disco balls and velvet paintings of Elvis: Because it is horribly, horribly kitschy, and not in a good way at all. Without fail, it looks like something from those afternoon TV housewife commercials, or one of those "Budget Shopping Mall"s that sells cheap plastic crap that kinda imitates real things, "and everything costs just £1!!!". 

Cheap, cheap, ugly and cheap. And ugly. It is quite telling that the makers of said video can't spell "create".

This is what light letters on dark keys winds up actually looking like:

Yes. It is much preferred.

The thing is: weakly translucent white plastic is an ugly material. Every time. If you need to make a small part of that visible for backlightning - Well, do so, if you must. Making most of the visible bits of the keyboard like that is an abomination. And starting up multicolour light shows under them is a sin against all nature (and that goes no matter what the main colour of the keyboard is).