German keyboard specialist Das Keyboard takes to crowd funding to spur interest in its latest offering-- the 5Q, a "cloud-connected, open API RGB mechanical keyboard."
As the company puts it, the cloud-based smarts allow users to fully customise the keyboard, with controls as granular as setting individual colours for each keys. Such control presents some interesting use cases, such as having a key change colour whenever an email from a specific contact is received or setting the number keys to display customer satisfaction as a bar graph.
Handling the control of such functionality are services such as IFTTT (IF This Then That) and a keyboard API, one Das Keyboard dubs Q.
"It's not just an input device-- it's also an output device," the company declares.
As for the hardware, Das Keyboard says it is using Omron Gamma-Zulu mechanical switches able to withstand 100 million presses while offering 1.5mm actuation speeds. The built-in LED lighting is also said to be special, since the RGBs are supposedly several times brighter than the competition.
The 5Q keyboard is currently available on a preorder basis on Kickstarter, where it already smashed past a $100000 pledge goal. Once the campaign is over shipments should start from January 2017.
