It's time to move on..enough with the keyboard and mouse!!
Apple's patents have been based on the pioneering work of FingerWorks, a company taking care of Apple's multi-touch technology!
FingerWorks had produced many touch-sensitive keyboards that had positive reviews.
The main problem in adapting to these touch-only keyboards was the lack of sensation of touching as compared to traditional keyboards!
A new Apple patent application seems to try to solve this issue by creating a hybrid physical keyboard which will also double double as a motion-sensitive input device.
Apple acknowledges that the physical keyboard remains the preferred input device:
Over the last forty years there have been numerous attempts made to introduce an alternative to the standard keyboard. The changes include, but are not limited to, non-QWERTY layouts, concave and convex surfaces, capacitive keys, split designs, membrane keys, etc. However, although such alternative keyboards may provide improved usability or ergonomics, they have failed to replace or duplicate the commercial success of the conventional mechanical keyboard.
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So how does a physical keyboard work as a mouse?!
The patent is for a keyboard incorporating a row of four 'slot cameras' that can track finger movements just above then keyboard's surface. The tracking could be activated by a specific key or combination of key strokes.
Courtesy macrumors.com
