Apple has submitted a new patent claim which seems as an interesting development in human computer interaction space which is perhaps the area where Apple is at its best. The device is an piezo-acoustic system which has also the capacitive touch detection. The device basically looks like a glass keyboard. Such a device could have its “keys” painted on, or perhaps even represented as a graphic image on a display which lays bellow the glass protection layer. Tactile feedback for fingers should be enabled by vibrations or perhaps through a motion of the key which is pressed.
Apple has included in the submission a couple of piezo-electric sensors which can detect the sound made when users fingers tap the keys on the keyboard.
We have already seen another keyboard related patent by Apple where they have implemented a kind of proximity sensors into the keyboard, which detects the position of users fingertips and opens small air nozzles releasing pressurized air stream to give tactile feedback to the keyboard user.
This could represent a completely new frontier for Apple and as usually all other hardware manufacturing competitors are far behind Apple’s designs and ideas. Who knows what else will we seen soon in Apple’s bag of tricks? IOS 5 and iPhone 5 should soon be here. What can we expect with these new devices? Completely new devices or improvement on actual models? Let us know your opinion!