The long-awaited Optimus keyboard will be available at the end of this year, its creator, Russian designer Art Lebedev, said at CeBIT on Friday.

"It will be late November or early December this year," he told IDG News Service in an interview. "We'll have a working prototype within a month, and we'll be able to show it around."

The Optimus keyboard will be completely customizable, and OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays inside each key will signify its use. Examples offered by the company include quick launch buttons for a program, keys for a certain language or character set, or shortcut keys for software applications.

The keyboard has attracted a lot of attention since first announced and was supposed to make an appearance at CeBIT, but instead, the company was showing its three-key model, which costs $160.

"It's extremely challenging because no other company in the world has gone this far," Lebedev said of the complexities that have already delayed its launch. "This project was announced in 1995, and since then, no other company has announced anything like this. But so many people want this keyboard, and so many people discuss this keyboard, and the Internet is talking about it. So it means maybe other companies consider something like this, but they are afraid to go in this direction. This is a very complex project."

"Anyone can do a keyboard that costs ten dollars, just simple plastic keys. But when you put displays inside the keys, you face a lot of problems. There are hundreds of problems waiting for you at every corner," said Lebedev.

When it goes on sale at the end of this year it will cost about $1,500. That's at least $300 more expensive than the company said in November last year that it would cost.