I’d love to have a standalone keyboard with a Touch Bar (which, I know, some people detested) and backlighting.
A newly granted Apple patent (number US 12079413 B2) for a “computing device enclosure enclosing a display and force sensors” suggests Apple is at least considering such a device as well as the return of the Touch Bar (pictured) on laptops.
Apple added the Touch Bar to its laptops in 2016, specifically the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros. The hardware feature was introduced as a sort of 21st-century replacement to the familiar row of function keys that exist on almost all laptop and desktop computers. It was a controversial feature that Apple removed when it debuted its 2021 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.
About the patent
In the patent Apple notes that electronic devices typically include a display to provide visual information to a user. In many cases these displays are touch-sensitive. However, the tech giant notes that touch sensing, while useful, is limited. Touch-sensitive displays can detect where a user touches, but not an amount of force exerted on the touch-sensitive surface.
What’s more, devices such as laptops have become increasingly thinner and lighter over time, which enhances portability. On the downside, this drive towards compact devices reduces the amount of space available for components of electronic devices, especially with respect to components layered or positioned atop one another. Apple is at least considering the return of the Touch Bar — or a similar feature.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Embodiments described herein generally take the form of an electronic device including a primary and secondary display; at least the secondary display is force-sensitive and further has its force-sensing circuitry in-plane with the display. The secondary display and force-sensing circuitry may be encapsulated between two glass layers that are bonded to one another by a frit. In some embodiments the force-sensing circuitry is formed from, or constitutes part of, the frit.”
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