Tuesday, 12 August 2008 | Levent OZLER
Seymourpowell Tap Into the Future with Cyborg for Saitek
Designers Seymourpowell have created a new "Cyborg" keyboard and mouse with long-term client Saitek, aimed at the increasingly buoyant PC gaming market.
Both products are designed to be sympathetic to and ergonomically suited to the needs and habits of PC gamers. They offer many technical features, which both improve the long-term comfort of the user and increase the flexibility and number of controls available.
 As well as highly adjustable key backlighting, where even specific keys can be lit separately from the rest of the keyboard, the Cyborg keyboard features fully-progammable Cyborg keys, which can be assigned any function the user wishes via Saitek's smart programming software.
The Cyborg mouse is the world's first servo-driven adjustable mouse, allowing adjustment for different hand sizes and enabling users to change the type of grip they need at various stages of gameplay.
"This project was very much the result of observing real gamers at play", commented Seymourpowell design director Nick Talbot. "For example, we know a lot of gamers like to play in a darkened environment, so the Cyborg keyboard has different levels of illumination, with a variety of colours and intensities programmable via a capacitance-sensing panel of buttons. It also has multiple adjustments, including a fully-adjustable palm rest, because we know some gamers like their keyboard to tilt away from them."
The keyboard also has two switchable modes - normal and gaming - with users easily able to toggle between them. In gaming mode, users can isolate and adjust sections of the keyboard, allowing illumination colour around keys to be function-specific for easier instinctive control during play. In normal mode it functions as a straighforward backlit media keyboard. "It is also super-durable', added Nick Talbot, 'because serious gamers play intensely for hours at a time."
The Cyborg mouse features motorised size adjustment with adjustable scroll detent force and a 3200 DPI anti-deceleration laser engine.
The adjustable size means that it can be used by any size of hand, so that the user's thumb and fingers can reach all four function buttons at any time and switch the motorized adjustment on or off whilst using the mouse. The mouse also has three modes, with adjustable scroll force controlled via a button on the underside.
Both mouse and keyboard feature Saitek's Cyborg sub-branding, designed internally at Saitek from a name first generated by Seymourpowell a decade previously for a joystick project and signifying the perfect fusion of man and machine!
"Once again, Saitek and Seymourpowell have worked together to design a class-leading, truly innovative product. After ten years, the Cyborg sub-brand is as fresh and innovative as when first launched and still recognised by serious gamers as the marque of high-performance gaming products," said Rob Hall, Principal Designer, Saitek.
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