Das Keyboards is crowdfunding a cloud-connected, intelligent keyboard

Das Keyboard, everyone’s favorite keyboard company that sounds like something Kraftwerk would carry with them on road gigs, has announced the 5Q, a smart keyboard with two-way communications to cloud servers.

What does that mean? It means you can program your keyboard to flash the letter E blue when you’re outbid on eBay or have the spacebar blink wildly when your website goes down. You can even set it to blink your number keys to show CPU usage.

The API is called Q and connects with multiple data sources. You can create a programmer’s layout that will notify you of build errors and you can set different email notifications to different keys so you can see your B key glow red when your boss emails you.

The keyboard connects to services like IFTTT to allow you to set different actions for different triggers. It’s an amazing little bit of ambient information sharing.

As a huge fan of Das’ clicky keyboards and tools like Blink(1) this definitely seems like something right up my alley. The company is crowdfunding and has already passed $24,000.

They early-bird units go for $109 and for $189 you can get a set of blank keycaps so you can hack the Gibson in piratical style. They plan on shipping in January.

Best of all, Das is using the Omron Gamma-Zulu mechanical switch so you get all of Das’ traditional clicky goodness with your glowing data.