Apple patents special air keyboard

Keyboards have been pretty much the same sort of device for many years now. Besides the occasional slight modification for ergonomical purposes, and maybe repositioning of some buttons, it hasn’t changed much. Well, a recently revealed patent filed by Apple shows that the company has some tricks up their sleeves for making their thin keyboards even thinner, but still offer the same typing experience as full-sized keyboards.

In the patent, Apple proposes a way of making thin keyboards give the same amount of tactile feedback that users are used to feeling when typing on a regular keyboard. Apple’s plan to accomplish this is by making air flow out from its keyboards. With the air blowing out from the keys against the users’ fingertips, users are meant to feel the same pressure that they normally feel when typing on regular keyboards. How effective this is, we can’t say until we’ve actually tried it, but it does look like an interesting idea. Though thinking about how it’s going to affect the battery life scares me. Maybe it’ll be part of the laptop’s fan cooling system.