Apple filed a patent for a keyboardless Macbook……what?!

You get a patent! And you get a patent! EVERYBODY GETS A PATENT!

At least that what it seems like this week.

If you remember yesterday, I wrote a post about Samsung filing a patent for smart contact lens with an embedded camera. Today we’re getting news that Apple has filed a patent for a Macbook without a keyboard.

Sounds like that would make it kind of hard to send daily tweets and look up cat videos on YouTube right? Not necessarily.

The patent itself was filed in September of 2015 and was made public on Thursday, and it details what Apple is calling “a configurable, force-sensitive input structure for an electronic device”. This mean that would be a clean, flat surface with different layers within it’s structure to capture user input.

 (Image Source: United States Trademark and Patent Office)

The surface would be able to be customized or configured for different key formats as well. So for those that need quick access to a numerical keypad, they would be able to place it next to the trackpad. You would be able to see which key is which based on the lighting from below the machine illuminating a grid of “micro-perforations or holes” that display the area around the keys

Apple is calling this a “zero-travel input structure” which means that there are no moving parts on the “keyboard” surface. This holds a few advantages such as no keyboard components that could potentially be worn or broken and the lack of components makes it hard for dust or even liquids to find their way inside of the machine.

I’m guessing you’re already sold on the idea by now. It sounds like something right out of Tony Stark’s workshop.

This is no doubt another attempt from Apple to produce a minimalistic and intuitive product for their user’s. In February, Apple also filed a patent for touch free, proximity sensor screen. This would allow users to interact with their screens with simple gestures without having to touch their screens.

The combination of these two capabilities would boost the Macbook well past the rest of laptop competition.