Apple Patent Hints at Super-Slim Keyboards of the Future

In its quest to make computers insanely slim, Apple has been looking into ways to make existing keyboards even thinner. A patent revealed this week shows it might be possible to shrink size, but who knows what it could do to performance.

Reported by Apple Insider, the patent describes how keyboards could be made thinner while attempting to maintain usability.

One of Apple's solutions is a single support lever keyboard mechanism. The system, it's suggested, would mean keys with a total travel range of as little as 0.2 millimeters. Given the number of complaints I hear about key travel on keyboards, I'm not sure how well that would work.

It also suggests that keys could be made of any material, listing potential materials that could be used as glass, wood, stone, and even "polished meteorite." I really, really want a keyboard made of polished meteorite.

Another solution suggest that the keys could be flexible, as in the image above, with a sprung lever to provide a positive feeling while typing. One of the plus points here, according to the patent, is that it would reduce the tapping sounds that keyboards currently make.

While these concepts might make for slimmer keyboards, I'm skeptical as to whether they'd help with my typing. [Apple Insider]