[Electronics-Talk] FW: [GTTsupport] [PBU] Apple could raise keys on an iPad keyboard for better typing in the future

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: "GTT Coordinator, Canadian Council Of The Blind "
<gttprogram at gmail.com>
To: GTTsupport at groups.io
Subject: [GTTsupport] [PBU] Apple could raise keys on an iPad keyboard
for better typing in the future
Date: 
Wed, 10 Jul 2019 11:11:30 -0400

Hi everyone.
This is a very interesting article and could provide interesting
solutions for those of us who would like some tactile elements on the
screen.
As mentioned in the article below, getting these patents does not
necessarily mean they are working on this but it will be interesting to see
how this proceeds.
Kim

> By
> A future iPhone or iPad could provide a more tactile experience when
using the onscreen software keyboard, by adding raised and lowered sections
to a flexible screen to indicate to the user where keys and other elements
are, without needing to directly look. 
> 
> 
> While the continued use of touchscreens for input of mobile devices
continues to be the preferred method of most manufacturers, due to it
providing near unlimited interface options for apps, one area that hasn't
made an entirely successful translation is typing. Though it is possible to
get used to using a software keyboard on a touchscreen display, it isn't
necessarily as good as using a physical keyboard.
> 
> A normal keyboard provides a tactile experience to the user, including
when they make contact with the keys by gently resting their fingers on the
tops, where the edges of keys are, and the actuation, all of which are not
really present in a software keyboard. Unless the user is extremely
familiar with the positioning of the keyboard and their hands to the mobile
device, touch typing is also extremely hard to perform on a display-based
keyboard without these tactile elements.
> 
> In a patent granted to Apple by the US Patent and Trademark Office on
Tuesday, "Electronic devices with deformable displays" aims to ease the
problem by reintroducing tactile elements to the screen. 
> 
> 
> An example of how a screen could have raised and lowered sections.
> Using a flexible OLED or LCD screen, the panel includes a number of
elements, such as electroactive polymer structures and electromagnetic
actuators, that can change the properties of the display depending on what
is required. This can include protrusions and indentations, to show the
location of keys for example, as well as selectively stiffened and softened
areas that are more or less resistant to pressure by the user.
> 
> To move the areas of the screen around, a ferromagnetic material like a
ferrofluid can be employed, moving around recesses within a flexible
polymer layer. Flooding sections can create raised portions, which could
signify buttons to the user, like keys on a keyboard.
> 
> The screen could also be deformed using a layer of movable pins,
raising to push up sections of the display. Electrodes could also be used
to compress deformable elements to create concave areas, producing divots
instead of a raised bubble, though the reverse could also be engineered.
> 
> 
> Sections of movable pins could raise and lower parts of the display
> A version could also be produced using a microLED display, one where
actuators push a mesh substrate the microLEDs are mounted upon. In this
instance, rather than having a relatively see-through layer of the display
altering, the entire screen alters, which may also offer visual cues to the
user that some areas are raised or lowered.
> 
> It is also plausible that channels could exist under a flexible display
that may be filled with a fluid. By manipulating the contents of the
channels, this could cause a vacuum or a pressure buildup in areas, in turn
sucking the screen down or expanding it outwards.
> 
> Apple files numerous patents and applications with the USPTO on a
weekly basis, but while the filings do indicate areas of interest for
Apple, they do not necessarily confirm such concepts will make an
appearance in a future product or service.
> 
> The concept of flexible displays has been under examination by Apple
for some time, and has reached the market in foldable devices, albeit as
Samsung has demonstrated, with some difficulty. Flexible displays would be
an important element to the patent's ideas, so that would need to be nearly
perfected before a device would offer the feature.
> 
> Alternative keyboards have also been an idea Apple has worked on,
especially keyboards that use a display. The ideas have included actuating
glass-panel keyboard displays, a "Keyless Keyboard" from March 2018, "Dual
Display Equipment" in February 2018, and a trio of filings largely
suggesting how the MacBook keyboard and its surround areas could offer
touch-sensitive capabilities.
> 
> 
> 
> ?
> 
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