Is Art Lebedev working for Apple? 4 Jan 2008

Apple published the details of an interesting patent application yesterday. The document, called "Dynamically controlled keyboard", describes a keyboard whereby each key is an independent OLED display that can be programmed to serve any function you desire (and to show any corresponding letter, number, symbol or icon on its surface to boot).

What's strange about this patent is that it describes practically the same device as Art Lebedev's "Optimus Maximus" keyboard (a sort of precursor to the "Optimus Tactus" keyboard that we wrote about yesterday) which is already on sale on AL's site! As PC Joint points out, this suggests that Art Lebedev is working for/with Apple to test out some of these far out design concepts before they are incorporated into Apple products. Either that or it's a simple case of "great minds thinking alike"!