CUPERTINO, CA. – Forget the Touch Bar: The next MacBook could have a dynamically reconfigurable keyboard, according to a new patent filing.
Spotted by Patently Apple, the filing describes how each key could include its own display, allowing for each key’s label and corresponding input to change according to the user’s needs, which could make some of the best laptops even better.
“The dynamic labels may be generated using dynamically reconfigurable label displaying components such as organic light-emitting diode displays with arrays of pixels, electrophoretic displays with arrays of pixels, or other pixel arrays,” reads the patent description, which was initially filed in December 2019.
Obviously there’s nothing special about changing keyboard inputs, but this would allow the key labels to change on the fly as well. For example, if you wanted to switch between two different languages, you could have the keyboard display swap between the two sets of letters and symbols. Alternatively you could bind keys to perform certain actions in applications or games and set each key to display an appropriate symbol.
To read more, click on https://www.tomsguide.com/amp/news/new-macbook-could-have-killer-reconfigurable-keyboard
