Customisable keyboard keys
Apple’s patented keyboard design can change what’s shown on the keys
Some of the context-sensitive display functionality of customisable keyboard keys is reminiscent of Apple’s Touch Bar.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Logitech
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How a customisable keyboard could improve your user experience
Key fact
The surface layer of the keycaps incorporates microscopic perforations aligned with the pixels of the miniLED array beneath to allow light to shine through.
The two-unit Logitech MX Creative Console represents another form of highly customisable productivity tool.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Think of the Touch Bar, featured on certain MacBook models from 2016 T to 2022, which changed its display and functionality depending on the context. Now imagine a similar concept applied to the keyboard itself, with each physical key having an LED-lit mini display that can change to show different letters and symbols. That’s what may be coming our way in the future, as revealed in a recently filed Apple US patent application (US-12283442-B2).
Entitled ‘One-Way Visibility Keycaps’, the patent document describes keys with glyphs (ie, letters or other symbols) that are invisible to the human eye until lit by an underlying LED matrix display shining through a one-way visibility surface layer containing microscopic perforations.
The keycap body can include transparent glass with paint applied to the bottom, or include a layer with a metallic physical vapour deposition (PVD) coating to create a one-way mirror effect. According to the patent, the glass surface of the keycaps can have a ‘pleasing, cool-temperature, high-quality feel and be designed to mimic the appearance of the housing surrounding the keycaps’, so the keys could well have a metallic look.