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An Apple patent granted today describes a MacBook with a solid-state keyboard using a full-touch surface that can be reconfigured to the user’s wishes.
A user working with numbers may opt for a large numeric keypad, for example, while an artist may instead choose a large area to draw …
Context
Plenty of patent evidence suggests that Apple’s long-term goal with MacBooks is to replace mechanical keyboards with tactile surfaces.
There are, of course, many obstacles to this. An iPad-style keyboard doesn’t allow touch input, and prolonged typing on a glass keyboard is uncomfortable. But Apple has patents designed to solve these problems.
Apple offers a three-pronged approach to making an on-screen keyboard look like a physical keyboard. First, allow a flexible screen to warp when a virtual key is pressed. Second, haptic feedback would be used to simulate the click of a real key. Third, electrostatic charge can also be used to simulate the feel of the edge of a key, which feels like a real keyboard when you place your fingers on it, ready to type.
The company took its first step in this direction, in 2015, when it replaced a mobile trackpad surface with a Force Touch surface, where clicks are simulated.
Today’s semiconductor keyboard patent
While there are significant challenges in making a virtual keyboard feel real, Apple’s patent argues that there are equally substantial benefits.
First, he says, mechanical keyboards are prone to failure, including from debris trapped inside. This was, of course, a major issue with the design of Apple’s butterfly keyboard, which forced the company to offer out-of-warranty repairs and subsequently abandon the design.
Conventional input devices, such as keyboards or laptop track pads, are susceptible to damage. For example, debris and other contaminants can enter the housing of the electronic device through the openings in the keypad cover and can subsequently damage the internal components of the electronic device. Damage to internal components can render the electronic device unusable. Likewise, the mechanical structures constituting the input devices can be particularly vulnerable to a fall or to a mechanical shock.
Second, a solid-state approach provides the ability to tailor the keyboard and trackpad layout to whatever the user is doing at any given time. In some cases, opening a particular application can automatically reconfigure input devices.
The configurable force sensitive input structure can be configured as a variety of input devices for the electronic device including, but not limited to, a keyboard, numeric keypad, or touchpad. The electronic device may use a single input structure to form a number of separate input devices, or, conversely, may include a number of input structures to form separate input devices. […]
The positioning of the input devices of the force sensitive input structure can be customizable. That is, the input devices can be moved to separate locations on the housing, within the force sensitive input structure. As a result, the input devices can be moved to a specific location in the enclosure based on user preferences. Likewise, one or more of these input devices may be resized or reshaped by user input, the operation of an associated electronic device, software, firmware, other hardware, etc. Thus, the input structure can be said to be dimensionally configurable insofar as the input devices (or regions) on its surface can be moved and / or resized and / or reshaped.
Configurable inputs can also allow things like symbol or emoji keyboards.
Compared to a conventional laptop computer which may only include a standard “QWERTY” keyboard and a touchpad, an electronic device having a force-sensitive input structure may include a QWERTY keyboard, a touchpad, a stand-alone numeric keypad. , special characters or a keyboard glyph and / or enlarged part of the directional keys.
While many of us are extremely leery of replacing a suitable mobile keyboard, and would prefer to see mobile keys with dynamically assigned functions, Apple recognizes that it may need to take a hybrid approach with zones. real deformables.
The electronic device may include a contact portion formed from a flexible (or partially flexible) material that can bend or deform into and / or contact a portion of an input stack. For example, the contact part can be a metal foil or part of a metal casing of an electronic device. The input stack can capacitively sense the deformation of the contact portion due to the application of an input force to a corresponding contact portion of the electronic device.
Apple doesn’t expect to get there anytime soon, and in the meantime, continues to look for ways to make suitable mobile keyboards thinner – another prospect that makes many of us nervous …
Obviously via Apple
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