quick response times tactile feedback that delightful clickity-clack sound
that's like a vegas craps table that keeps your roommate awake at night
mechanical keyboards are awesome for all of that not to mention their durability
and premium feel but what if instead of relying solely on a mechanical actuator
you could harness the power of light
when you type and i'm not talking about the ever
present RGB backlighting either we are
starting to see optical keyboard switches hit the market
which are actually sort of a fusion of existing mechanical keyboard technology
and infrared light that determines when
you push down on a key and unlike the huge variety of purely
mechanical switches there are only two main types of optical switches out there
right now since the technology is rather new
the first type is called a light strike switch also called an lk switch these
work with a more or less traditional mechanical shaft that blocks a freaking
infrared laser beam when it's idle but when you press down the beam is allowed
to hit a sensor on the other side of the switch which registers a key press
now although this is a pretty simple principle of operation it actually
allows for faster response times when gaming because lk switches register
keystrokes after traveling just one and a half millimeters downward about 25
percent less than most current mechanical keyboards the manufacturer
also claims that actual response times could be as low as a fifth of one
millisecond which is useful if you need to aim and fire quickly before getting
headshotted not that too many people have firebound to their keyboard don't
worry about those little details the other kind of switch goes by the
super intense name of flaretech
and works quite differently instead of using a beam of infrared light the pcb
has an upward facing ir sensor that can
tell when the switch itself is being pushed down now although this is a
little more complicated and expensive to engineer than the lk switch the ir
sensor can actually tell how far the switch is being pressed down allowing
keyboard manufacturers to use them as so-called analog switches in fact a
dutch keyboard manufacturer called wooting
currently has a keyboard with flair tech switches on kickstarter featuring this
analog control that they're advertising as fine control over things like player
movement or steering and throttle in driving games imagine being able to push
down just a little bit on a key to make your car go more slowly around corners
instead of like spamming the key and hoping that somewhere between here and
here is like like here ish
cool right looting is also pushing customizability as a feature of this
keyboard as the analog functionality can be programmed in a number of ways to
make these keyswitches much more versatile than traditional ones
and i mean beyond just gaming they also have the distinct advantage of being
replaceable since neither type has to be soldered onto the pcb
so the light sensor used by an lk switch is housed in the switch itself while the
ir sensor of a flaretech switch doesn't
need a physical connection to the switch making combining like a keyboard base
plate with any other type of mechanical actuator that you want
sound pretty versatile in the future and all of this without giving yourself a
crash course in soldering of course since the technology is so new
there isn't much to choose from yet although there are a small handful of lk
switches currently available on amazon but given their potential to help gamers
get quicker response times and more granular control it wouldn't be
surprising to me to see bigger name peripheral brands try to incorporate
optical switches into their keyboards in the near future and bring in the sweet
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