Art Lebedev Studio has announced on it’s blog that they will soon be releasing the Optimus Upravlator input device.

“Upravlator is a completely new kind of input device. We’re going to annouce it next week. It will be plugged into your second monitor port. It will be as fast as LCD display may be. It will be a single best friend of any music engineer or video editor. Graphic designers should be happy as well.”

Based on a mysterious-looking foam mockup image they’ve posted on the blog, the Upravlator appears to be a 3×3 or perhaps 3×4 grid of OLED keys, which one can assume can be programmed to perform application-specific functions and tasks, while providing feedback via individual OLED key displays. All speculation, of course.

Art Lebedev Studio has been developing the Optimus line of input devices for quite some time now. Over a year ago the Russian design firm debuted the Optimus OLED keyboard concept, a computer input device featuring OLED keys capable of displaying individual images that could change dynamically via software. Think about it…endless keyboard layout options. It would be a boon for gamers, video editors and graphic designers alike. At first classified as vaporware, it now seems that the first Optimus full-size keyboard models will be available in December 2006. It’s a lot easier to believe that to be true, as the design studio recently shipped a 3-key input device called the Optimus Mini Three. Mini-Three reviews have been mixed, but with a price tag of $160 for a 3-key device, sharp criticism is warranted! The good news is that Lebedev shipped the device with both Mac and Windows drivers, and it follows that future Optimus devices will also offer cross-platform support. Stay tuned.