Apple Patent: Tiny Keyboards That Type For You
by DM
May 14, 2011
We've found another wild Apple patent for you. While chances are good that this one will never see the light of day, it's, pretty unbelievable. It's also weirder than Apple usually gets, even at their most outlandish.
The patent filing which surfaced this week describes a very small keyboard with a pneumatic air-jet system packed underneath. The idea is that the small jets of air would outline the shape of each key, making it possible to feel the key edges before you touched them.
This would of course be useless with a glass screen, since there are no keys, but might be related to an earlier Apple idea for a phone with a physical keypad-- or, perhaps, as a supplement to the MacBook Pro's backlit keyboard. There could also be some potential here in terms of text entry for the blind, though I'm no expert on the current state of how Braille input works. But, there are definitely some interesting uses for this, not the least of which being tiny cell phones with QWERTY keyboards like the BlackBerry and Motorola slider phones.
Another idea floated by a few readers is that this patent description would work equally well using a glass screen and tiny air holes (if such a thing were made). You'd feel the sensation of keys, despite the screen being a flat surface.
If this just isn't sci-fi enough for you, there's more. Another document included in the patent describes a system that "pulls the keys away" in response to user input, automatically moving them in response to your perceived intent. Think autocorrect in real time, where certain letters are actually moved out of the way as you type.
Again, remember that this is for very small keyboards, where mistakes are quite common because the letters are so close together. A device where keys respond to your word choices might actually have some merit.
Does it sound weird? Unpleasant? Limiting?
Don't worry, if this technology ever materialized in a real product, you can bet it'd be teachable in some way. There would certainly be an equivalent of the iPhone's "X" to cancel the suggested word. Let's just say that worrying about Apple taking away your ability to freely express yourself is probably premature at this point.
Either way, it's one weird patent. What do you think?