Wooting One Keyboard?

Just saw this over at Tech Report.  Looks like the mechanical keyboard sphere in general is starting to move beyond digital key presses.  Last year, Topre demoed a pressure sensitive Topre switch that can function like an analog device.  Looks like Wooting is building a mechanical switch with the same concept.

The keyboard itself is a standard ten keyless (TKL) design with fairly understated and not overly flashy design, but checked all the right boxes such as RGB LED lighting, interchangeable top plate, Cherry MX compatible key caps, etc....  Upon first glance, this seems to be a bit run of the mill.  However, the keyword or phrase that I found is “not just a red switch”.  It does sound like a reimaged Cherry MX red switch from the infographics Wooting presented thus far.  Wooting probably came up with a novel way to measure distances, using strain gauge perhaps.  Now, a linear switch for analog device makes perfect sense since there’s no need to indicate an on/off point.  Another interesting thing about this is the software support.  Now, analog device and control is likely a bit more complicated than a typical mechanical on/off switch like almost all of the mechanical keyboard switch and devices.

So, I think the software is going to make or break this device, like Topre’s pressure sensitive version.  The host computer will probably be doing most of the heavy lifting while the keyboard just function as a multi-channel DAC for the switches.  I could be wrong tho as the detail is fairly thin at this point.  Because its mostly software driven, I won’t be too surprised that this will come with some fancy remapping, macro features somewhere down the road.  Another application is obviously gaming where some graded input is a plus, such as speed or directional control.  Again, this is where the software magic is supposed to take place.  Wooting wisely chose the open source route.  So, I am kind of excited to see what the open source community can come up with.

Now, I don’t know if the analog function is present in all the keys or just a few select keys such as WASD and the arrow keys, but let’s see what Wooting and the software team brings to the table.  This may put some pressure on Topre to really come with something cool to do with their pressure sensitive switch as well.  Exciting times.