Apple’s crazy ideas for bringing touch to the MacBook

A patent just discovered on Tuesday showed the company is considering turning a physical trackpad into a virtual trackpad, from which it can be placed anywhere users want.

And a second patent goes even further, turning the keyboard and the area around it into a touch surface!

Virtual trackpad on MacBook

Appeared in a patent called “Dynamic Input Surface for Electronic Devices”, Apple’s idea is to turn the entire space in front of the MacBook keyboard into a touch surface. application. Users will be able to place the trackpad anywhere in this space, whatever size they desire. The rest of the area will temporarily deactivate when the user does this.

If Apple does indeed implement the aforementioned idea, the future MacBook will allow users to place the trackpad where they want it. For example, a left-handed person can move the trackpad to the left side of the MacBook, which is very convenient.

Turn the keyboard into a touch panel, or completely remove the physical keyboard

Another patent that Apple has just received is called “Device having Integrated Interface System” (Device with integrated interface system). In this patent, Apple offers a few interesting solutions, from using the keyboard to many other functions, not just stopping at typing, to … completely eliminating the table. physical keys.

Part of the patent shows that Apple wants to turn the surface of the buttons and the space around it into a touch surface. Thus, users can move the cursor on the screen to the desired position, for example, move it to the right, by gently touching the Caps Lock key and dragging horizontally along the row of keys. According to this idea, the entire lower part of the laptop will be a touch panel.

The engineers behind the patent also suggest removing the keyboard to turn the entire upper surface of the lower MacBook into a touch screen. At this point, the physical keyboard will turn into a virtual keyboard, and applications will be able to “transform” the keyboard into buttons, sliders, … on demand.

And yet, the patent also suggests the idea of ​​integrating the iPhone’s wireless charging dock and fingerprint sensor into the bottom of the MacBook!

Do not exceed expectations

Apple has filed a movable trackpad patent since September 2015. Then it continued to submit a second degree in March 2018.

Whether Apple plans to integrate any of the aforementioned ideas into future products, no one knows. Their engineers regularly patent patents for designs that never appear again, so just consult with them and don’t look forward to them!

Reference: CultofMac