Apple's new Fusion Keyboard could eliminate the need for a trackpad in future MacBooks
If there ever were any doubt on whether Apple’s new 12 inch MacBook was merely the beginning, Apple’s latest patent, published Tuesday, May 26th, points to a revolutionary input method which could substantially enhance standard keystroke functions on future MacBook devices.
The “Fusion Keyboard” patent’s abstract, describes touch-sensitive mechanical keyboards, capable of detecting touch events in a similar way as the new MacBook’s Force Touch trackpad. This new implementation of Force Touch would enable keyboard to detect multiple states and assign functions based on the degree of pressure exerted on each key.
This could create the conditions for enhanced keyboards that could be programmed to go beyond keystrokes, and perhaps even perform tracking functions, although no hint of this particular aspect exists in the document, unless one applies a different interpretation of Claim 16, which describes a functionality that allows certain keys to trigger different keys as a second input. For instance, when pressing a key with a certain amount of pressure, the key in question could trigger the function of a nearby key, hence simulating tracking, granted some degree of extrapolation.
No more function keys
The ability to trigger touch events by exerting different pressures, and lengths of pressure, could nullify the need for function keys or other multimedia keys, for functions like adjusting the display brightness, audio volume or switching between applications.
The same functions performed by these additional keys could be programmed on the fly, or built into OS X, voiding the need for a full-size keyboard, or a numeric pad.
While it’s true that most patents acquired by Apple are often designed to be a preventative form of protection for components of future inventions, the “Fusion Keyboard” seems the most likely to be implemented in the near future, as it features many of the elements already existing in the Force Touch trackpad.
Whichever way Apple chooses to implement the new patent, it’s guaranteed to be unique, compared to anything that exists on the market. Keys capable of multiple inputs, as mentioned earlier, will allow for keyboards to be more compact and better optimized. What we consider modern keyboard design has not changed much since the 1980s. What’s worse is that attempts at single-input methods have largely been restricted to extra function keys, designed to modify the type of input of a second key group, forcing the user to interact with multiple keys in order to trigger one action.
The “Fusion Keyboard” would solve that problem, by allowing for a more natural way to input commands, by exerting different degrees of pressures on only one key.