Apple patents keyboard with dynamic character change

Apple filed a patent application for technology that could change the way we think about keyboards. She suggests placing a display under the keys so that the characters change depending on the context.

While Apple keyboards currently only use backlighting to make keywriting visible in the dark, the patent application describes a backlight capable of displaying any character. To do this, the entire key will be dotted with thin holes between the lower and upper layers. When turned on, the backlight will draw the desired character through these holes, and when turned off, the buttons will look completely black.

One way to achieve this is to use rows of LEDs, as in OLED or miniLED screens. They will turn on pointwise depending on the pattern that needs to be reproduced, and the light from each diode will pass through the corresponding hole from above.

The simplest application of this idea is to change the keyboard layout when switching languages. But in theory, this can also be used to simplify working with programs: instead of keyboard shortcuts, actions can be performed by pressing just one - with the corresponding icon.

Of course, there is no practical application yet: for now, this is just a patent, and in the coming years, MacBooks with this technology are definitely not worth waiting for. But the idea itself is not new: back in 2009, Samsung released a phone Alias ​​2, which used an E Ink display in the keyboard: if you turn the phone to a horizontal position, the keyboard also rotates 90 ° for ease of typing.