WEBVTT

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quick response times tactile feedback that delightful clickity-clack sound

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that's like a vegas craps table that keeps your roommate awake at night

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mechanical keyboards are awesome for all of that not to mention their durability

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and premium feel but what if instead of relying solely on a mechanical actuator

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you could harness the power of light

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when you type and i'm not talking about the ever

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present RGB backlighting either we are

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starting to see optical keyboard switches hit the market

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which are actually sort of a fusion of existing mechanical keyboard technology

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and infrared light that determines when

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you push down on a key and unlike the huge variety of purely

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mechanical switches there are only two main types of optical switches out there

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right now since the technology is rather new

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the first type is called a light strike switch also called an lk switch these

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work with a more or less traditional mechanical shaft that blocks a freaking

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infrared laser beam when it's idle but when you press down the beam is allowed

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to hit a sensor on the other side of the switch which registers a key press

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now although this is a pretty simple principle of operation it actually

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allows for faster response times when gaming because lk switches register

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keystrokes after traveling just one and a half millimeters downward about 25

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percent less than most current mechanical keyboards the manufacturer

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also claims that actual response times could be as low as a fifth of one

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millisecond which is useful if you need to aim and fire quickly before getting

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headshotted not that too many people have firebound to their keyboard don't

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worry about those little details the other kind of switch goes by the

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super intense name of flaretech

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and works quite differently instead of using a beam of infrared light the pcb

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has an upward facing ir sensor that can

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tell when the switch itself is being pushed down now although this is a

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little more complicated and expensive to engineer than the lk switch the ir

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sensor can actually tell how far the switch is being pressed down allowing

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keyboard manufacturers to use them as so-called analog switches in fact a

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dutch keyboard manufacturer called wooting

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currently has a keyboard with flair tech switches on kickstarter featuring this

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analog control that they're advertising as fine control over things like player

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movement or steering and throttle in driving games imagine being able to push

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down just a little bit on a key to make your car go more slowly around corners

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instead of like spamming the key and hoping that somewhere between here and

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here is like like here ish

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cool right looting is also pushing customizability as a feature of this

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keyboard as the analog functionality can be programmed in a number of ways to

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make these keyswitches much more versatile than traditional ones

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and i mean beyond just gaming they also have the distinct advantage of being

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replaceable since neither type has to be soldered onto the pcb

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so the light sensor used by an lk switch is housed in the switch itself while the

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ir sensor of a flaretech switch doesn't

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need a physical connection to the switch making combining like a keyboard base

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plate with any other type of mechanical actuator that you want

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sound pretty versatile in the future and all of this without giving yourself a

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crash course in soldering of course since the technology is so new

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there isn't much to choose from yet although there are a small handful of lk

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switches currently available on amazon but given their potential to help gamers

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get quicker response times and more granular control it wouldn't be

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surprising to me to see bigger name peripheral brands try to incorporate

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optical switches into their keyboards in the near future and bring in the sweet

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sweet paper that comes with cutting edge technology speaking of being on the

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cutting edge with a lynda.com membership you can stay on the cutting edge whether

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make use of that time that you spend sitting on the bus letting your brain

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rot so the call to action then is head over

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