display deck · one oled under every control

The keyboard is a screen.

LAP-1's deck is one 13.3-inch OLED under clear keys that float on magnets. Sensors under the panel read every key, pad, fader and knob, so the controls are plain clear plastic you can swap, and the screen draws what each one does.

LAP-1 in Graphite from the front left, lid open. The deck shows the Synth set-up: two rows of clear piano keys lit white and orange by the screen beneath them, and a clear XY pad with knobs in the palm band. — the synth set-up: the screen colours each clear piano key from below

panel: 13.3″ OLED, 2880 × 1800 · about 255 ppi · second display to the laptop
keys: 84 clear keys on magnets · 2.0 mm travel · analog: velocity and pressure per key
sensors: 31 × 19 analog Hall sensors, 9.325 mm apart · 28 of them read rotation
modules: 22 modules in two bands · 180 set-ups · 14 presets: 6 music, 4 work, 4 flow
height: 17.5 mm deck · the closed lid clears every module by 0.5 mm
fallback: without the deck app it is still a USB keyboard and MIDI device

stack

Six layers in 6.25 mm.

From the bottom: a graphite and aerogel sheet that keeps the CPU's heat off the panel, the sensor board, its sensors facing up, the OLED, its cover glass, and the clear keys floating 2 mm above it. It all fits the 17.5 mm deck the dial row already needs.

The deck pulled apart in layers above the body: a brown heat shield, the green sensor board, yellow sensor dots, the OLED showing the keyboard legends, the trackpad frame and the faint clear keys on top. — the deck's layers pulled apart; the heat shield stays in the body

keys

Every key is analog.

Each clear key carries a magnet and floats on it. The sensor under it reads how far and how fast it moves, not just whether it went down.

Velocity from travel speed, pressure from how hard it sits in its end stop.
In Note mode the keyboard plays like a pad grid, with pressure on every key.
The legends are drawn by the screen, so they change with the app in front.

Low close view across the clear keys. The legends G, H, B, N and the numbers glow on the screen below the clear plates, and the coloured dial caps sit behind. — clear key plates over the legends the screen draws

sensing

A grid that reads anything placed on it.

589 analog Hall sensors sit under the whole panel at half the key pitch. A module is only clear plastic and magnets, so any key, pad, fader, knob or jog wheel works wherever the grid can see its magnet.

Keys and padsover ≥ 1 sensor
Fadersalong a column, ≥ 3 sensors
Jog wheelson a 3D sensor
Knobs: angle from the neighbours≈ 9 mT, calculated

The deck with its screen and cover glass removed: a green sensor board with a regular grid of yellow sensors under the clear keys and the trackpad frame. — screen and cover glass taken away: the sensor grid under the keys

swap

Lift out one instrument, drop in another.

Each band's module is a single clear frame. A finger notch at each end of the band lets you lift it straight out. Set the next one in, and the grid reads its magnet code and loads its map. Magnets in the frame ends, pulling on steel strips in the bezel, are to hold it in place on the move; they are not modelled yet.

Keys band, back6 modules
Palm band, front1 full-width module or 3 slots
Finger notches14 × 1.5 mm

The DJ set-up with the clear DJ decks module lifted up and forward out of the palm band, its two jog wheels, faders and orange crossfader floating above the table, while the screen still shows the decks beneath. — the dj decks module lifted out of the palm band

presets · live model

Six instruments, four ways to work, one deck.

Any keys-band module goes with any palm set-up. Pick a preset or a flow deck and the deck below changes in place. It is the same CAD model the renders come from, cut down to what you can see from above. Drag sideways to turn it.

Studio: the keyboard with function legends, glass palm rests and the trackpad. — **Studio** Keyboard · glass, trackpad, glass still · the live model loads as you reach it

music

work · new in v0.14

These come up by themselves: the deck app sees VS Code, Excel or a document in front, or a call starting, and switches.

flow decks, moving

flow decks

Or just something to look at while you type.

Four moving lights under the plain keyboard. The legends sit over them at a level you choose. Everything but the legends moves, which is easier on an OLED than a still picture, and each deck gives off about as much light as the plain keyboard deck. The live model above runs them.

Aurora

Green and violet curtains drifting toward the hinge.

2.1 % mean light

Tide

Deep blue water, light on its crests.

1.5 % mean light

Ember

Warm smoke rising from the palm rests.

2.3 % mean light

Silk

Grey satin folds, no colour at all.

2.1 % mean light

the plain keyboard deck gives 2.2 % · viewer figures, relative to its own colours, not panel measurements

at work · v0.14

The same keys run your editor, your sheets and your calls.

The legends are drawn, so they can be anything. Open VS Code and the deck becomes Code: editor shortcuts on the keys, run, debug and git on a clear keypad, the build and CI on the left palm rest. Open Excel and the keypad is a numpad. When a call starts, mute, camera, share and hand come up on the left, and the deck goes back to what it was when the call ends.

The app in frontpicks the preset, from a list you can edit.
A callbrings up Meeting whatever is in front; the last deck comes back after.
A deck you pickstays for that app until you pick again.
A key you holdkeeps its meaning through a switch until you let go.

LAP-1 in Graphite from the front left in the Code set-up. The lid shows an editor paused at a breakpoint with a terminal below; the clear keys carry editor shortcuts, the right keypad run, debug and git keys, the left palm rest the build and CI status, and the Touch module on the right a build log. — code: the editor on the lid, its shortcuts on the keys, the build on the palm rest, a ci log on the touch module

keypad

One clear keypad, four tools.

Sixteen clear keys in a 4 × 4 block, for either side of the trackpad. The keys are 16 × 14 mm on an 18.65 × 16.3 mm pitch, so four rows fit the 68 mm palm band, and every key sits over a Hall sensor. What a key does is only what the screen draws under it.

Numpad Office · sends real keypad codes, so it works before the deck app starts

Dev Code · run, debug and step, then git without leaving the keys

Meet Meeting · mute, camera, share, hand, and the slides when you present

Desk Focus · tile windows, open apps, start a focus block, lock

Close up of the right palm in the Office set-up: the clear keypad as a numpad, digits drawn large under each key with the Enter key lit orange, beside the trackpad. — office: the keypad as a numpad beside the trackpad

LAP-1 from the front right in the Meeting set-up: the lid shows a video call grid, the left keypad carries mute, camera, share and leave keys with mute lit red, and the right palm rest shows the call's clock and live captions. — meeting: call keys on the left, the call and captions on the right

legend sets · v0.14.1

A legend set is a file you can share.

Each key's label, colour and what it sends, in a small JSON file. A team shares its own; an app's makers can ship one. Before a set goes live the deck checks it: keys the module does not have, shortcuts the system takes first, one shortcut on two keys, labels too long for their key, your own remaps. Its first run caught a fault in LAP-1's own Ableton set: Hot-Swap sent Ctrl+Q, which quits Live.

{ "format": "lap1-legend-set", "version": 1,
  "id": "figma", "name": "Figma", "module": "keyboard",
  "apps": ["Figma"], "mac": "cmd-for-ctrl",
  "keys": {
    "V": { "label": "Move",        "send": "V",       "tone": "accent" },
    "F": { "label": "Frame",       "send": "F",       "tone": "info" },
    "A": { "label": "Auto Layout", "send": "Shift+A", "tone": "go" },
    "/": { "label": "Quick Actions", "send": "Ctrl+/" }
  } }

the widgets, the lid and the captions show example content · the deck app that would fill them is not written yet

trackpad

The trackpad is a window.

A glass trackpad sits in the centre of the palm band, over the same screen. The screen shows a faint dot grid and a glow under your finger, or whatever an app draws there. It clicks with force sensors and piezo strips instead of a hinge. It is the deck's one active module, and it lifts out too, so a full-width module can take the whole palm band.

Glass114 × 60.9 × 0.7 mm
Screen below the glass≈ 3.2 mm
Contacts8 spring pins

The palm band from above: the glass trackpad in its dark frame shows an orange glowing trail on the screen beneath, between glass palm rests showing a level and the tempo. — a finger's trail drawn by the screen under the glass

still to prove

What a prototype has to show.

Burn-inStill legends are an OLED's worst case. The deck keeps the interface dark and its legends dim, shifts them by small steps, dims when idle, and the panel is a replaceable part. It needs a long test on the real panel.
HeatThe panel sits just above the CPU's heat pipes, with a graphite and aerogel sheet between. OLED life falls with temperature, so measure it on a working build.
Sensing through glassAbout 3.6 mm from magnet to sensor at rest, with neighbouring magnets adding crosstalk. Each module would ship with a calibration map.
Knob anglesThe 9 mT reading at a knob's neighbouring sensors is a calculation. Measure it, and how much a key pressed nearby disturbs it.
Lid sensorLaptops detect the lid with a magnet sensor. The deck is full of magnets, so that sensor needs placing or shielding away from them.
The deck appSwitching by app, the work keys and the widgets need it, and it is not written. Meeting apps barely report their state: Teams offers a local API behind a setting; Zoom and Meet would need their own integrations, and until then the Mute key must not claim a state it cannot read.
Cost589 sensors plus their converters. A cheaper build could fit sensors only where the standard modules need them.