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Forget the Touch Bar: The next MacBook could have a dynamically reconfigurable keyboard, according to a new patent application.
Discovered by Patently Apple, the presentation outlines how each key could include its own display, allowing each key label and corresponding input to change according to user needs, which could make some of the best laptops be even better.
“Dynamic labels can be generated using dynamically reconfigurable label display components, such as organic light-emitting diode displays with pixel arrays, electrophoretic displays with pixel arrays, or other pixel arrays,” the patent description reads , which was initially released in December. 2019.
Obviously, there is nothing special about changing keyboard inputs, but this would also allow the key labels to change on the fly. For example, if you want to switch between two different languages, you can have the keyboard display toggle between the two sets of letters and symbols. Alternatively, you can link keys to perform certain actions in applications or games and configure each key to display an appropriate symbol.
This vaguely resembles an extension of what Apple’s TouchBar can already do, but with the added benefit of having physical keys rather than just turning the lower half of the MacBook into a giant touchscreen. The patent mentions and illustrates a mechanical-style keyswitch and keycap design, so it sounds like the form factor resembles a standard keyboard, only with little displays on each key.
It’s not just about MacBooks either – the patent illustrations show how such a layout could be applied to the standalone keyboards you can use with an iMac, Mac Pro, or Mac mini.
As far as the MacBook is concerned, this sounds like a particularly suitable counterpart to the TouchBar format (or replacement), although there is no guarantee that we will see MacBooks with reconfigurable keyboards in the imminent future. In fact, Apple has been working on this same concept for more than a decade: MacRumors reported on a similar patent application from Apple, for a keyboard with OLED displays on each key, all the way back in 2008. Some additional refinements of the concept by Therefore, it might be necessary.
