When Steve Jobs showed off the original iPhone, he identified a problem with what was then the current crop of rival phones. The problem, Jobs said, was in the bottom third of each device: a fixed keyboard that stayed exactly the same whether you needed it or not.
The iPhone, of course, changed this with a virtual keyboard that can appear or disappear depending on the app, and what the user happens to be doing.
Now it seems a similar—albeit non-virtual—philosophy to keyboard customization could find its way to the Mac as well. Or, at least, it could if a new Apple patent is to be believed.
Apple’s Reconfigurable Keyboard
The patent in question, published by Patently Apple, describes a “reconfigurable keyboard” that could be customized by users according to their requirements. This wouldn’t be a virtual keyboard, as with the iPhone, but rather a mechanical keyboard on which keys could be switched around or swapped out as needed.
At present, users can reconfigure the keyboards on their Macs to a limited extent by going to Settings > Keyboard, and then changing the Modifier Keys or Shortcuts. They can also change up the language in order to alter the alphabet from, say, English letters to Greek letters. But this does not, for obvious reasons, change the physical appearance of the keyboard.
In its patent, Apple writes that its reconfigurable keyboard, “may be formed from an array of keys coupled to a housing. Each key may have a movable key member and an associated key display. Control circuitry in the keyboard may direct the key displays to display dynamically adjustable key labels for the keys.”
Apple wouldn’t be the first company to create customizable keyboards with hot-swappable keys. Nonetheless, this would be a first for Apple. It has explored similar terrain with features like the Touch Bar on newer MacBooks. But that, like the iPhone keyboard, involves virtual buttons, rather than a physical, mechanical keyboard.
No Guarantee This Ships
For most users, swapping keys would probably be unnecessary. However, Macs are used by many professionals in fields like, for example, film editing or graphic design, where switching up their keyboard to better match their requirements could be extremely useful.
It could also be a useful Accessibility tool, for gaming, or for creating localized keyboards that could be customized for different languages and markets.
As is always the case with patents, there’s no guarantee that this becomes a product that Apple actually ships. Apple frequently patents concepts that never make it to market. (When you have on-site patent attorneys, it’s not too difficult to do.)
Still, this is a fascinating glimpse at an idea that could potentially make it into a future release. Maybe one for a future Mac Pro?
Image Credit: Erik Mclean/Unsplash CC