Apple patents a keyboard with displayed and changing keys. Everything depending on the user's needs

Source: Pure PC added 30th Dec 2020

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Apple MacBook computers are not perfect, but the majority of users find working with them to be extremely comfortable. However, let’s leave aside the macOS platform itself, under which these devices work, and let’s focus on the keyboard. This, despite some “mishaps”, provides a great jump, response to commands and general feeling of use with a positive tone. The Touch Bar, which is a development of classic keys, further improves the mentioned issue. What if I tell you that the Cupertino giant intends to go a step further and put displays in each button? The latest Apple patent provides for a solution that would allow for full keyboard customization.

Apple is working on a keyboard in which each key could use the built-in screen. This would allow any characters or icons to be displayed according to the user’s situation and expectations.

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Depending on the system with which they will cooperate and on the language that will be operated by it, keyboards take different forms. Each of them is characterized by its own arrangement of signs. Some models receive additional buttons for selected functions, but manufacturers have gone a step further by creating panels with screens that are located in this space. In the case of Apple, this is the so-called Touch Bar, which works based on context to present the user with the information they need. Apparently the company has an appetite for “something more.”

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This something is a patented keyboard that will feature use of small OLED screens. Each of them could display necessary functions or standard characters necessary for using the computer. Interestingly, you do not need to build a completely new mechanism for this, as you can use a well-known scissor system. It sounds great, and it promises to be so. Unfortunately, patents are characterized by the fact that it is not always possible to implement the visions contained in them. How it will be with this solution, they will show the coming years.

Source: Slashgear