Over the years, Apple has been known for its commitment to transforming device design to give customers more practical technological products. As the world leader in the technology industry, Apple has always been envied by its competitors. At the just-concluded MWC 2023, the company’s iPhone 14 Pro won the GLOMO best smartphone.
Maintaining this standard, the American tech giant, has been reported to have won a new patent right, which can realize a keyless keyboard, thereby changing the conventional design of the keyboard product. Qichacha APP published today that a patent applied by Apple for a keyless keyboard with force sensing and tactile feedback was authorized.
The Qichacha APP document shows that this patent’s application was filed on September 12, 2017, and was published on November 23, 2018, and authorized on March 10, 2023. A.J. Lehamman, C. Zhang, Qu Dayu, K.M. Shields, P.X. Wang, Xu Qiliang, Gao Zheng, S.J. McEwan, and R.N. Maha Ratti are the inventors.
Apple’s Keyless Keyboard
According to the patent abstract, the present invention offers an input device for an electronic device that includes a housing and a top component that defines an input surface with several easily distinct input locations.
The input device has two force sensing systems: a first force sensing system connected to a first region of the top member, which has a first set of distinguishable input regions; and a second force sensing system connected to a second region of the top member, which has a second set of distinguishable input regions.
At the same time, the input device also has a touch-detecting system that can identify the input area from the first set of distinct input areas that corresponds to the first force input and the input area from the second set of distinguishable input areas that corresponds to the second force input.
Full touch seems to be particularly popular with Apple. The button machine age on mobile phones has come to an end thanks to the iPhone, and touchpad operation logic on notebook computers is likewise more useful and convenient. Even if the mouse product is released, it will also operate based on touch rather than actual buttons. Maybe there won’t be any physical power buttons remaining on Apple’s notebook computer line when this patent is implemented in commercially available products.
