Apple's new patent decryption: keycaps, keycap design

Recently, Apple officially launched the new 13-inch MacBook Pro notebook. Compared with the previous generation, the overall changes of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro are not significant. It has mainly upgraded to Intel's 10th-generation Core processor, and the keyboard has been replaced with a scissor-type Magic Keyboard.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro has always been one of Apple's best notebooks, but users' feedback on the butterfly keyboard is not particularly good, which has also affected the reputation of the MacBook Pro to a certain extent. So this time the 13-inch MacBook Pro did not upgrade the 13-inch screen to 14 inches as expected, but instead focused on the keyboard and configuration. Like the new MacBook Air, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro canceled the butterfly keyboard and switched to the Magic Keyboard with traditional scissor-type switches.

Apple has never stopped researching and developing keyboards and keycaps. The attractive appearance of laptops is often difficult to match with the market's demand for advanced functionality, improved durability, key definition, and reduced thickness and weight. Some aesthetic materials may not be durable enough to be included in the device housing or other components, while other aesthetic materials may hinder the function of the laptop. Some aesthetic materials are fragile, rigid, or difficult to manufacture into keycaps with desired surface features.

In order to solve this problem, Apple applied for an invention patent called "Keycap and Keyboard" (application number: 201920894722.4) on June 10, 2019, and the applicant was Apple.

Based on the patent information currently disclosed by this patent, let us take a look at this invention patent for the keyboard and keycaps.

As shown in the figure above, it is an isometric view of a commonly used laptop computer. In order to better understand the terms in the patent, we first introduce the structural description of the laptop computer in the patent. The electronic device 100 is the main body, which mainly includes a keyboard 102. The keyboard includes a key mechanism or component with a key cap 103 or a button cap that moves when pressed by a user. The laptop computer fixes the keyboard in a housing 104, and the housing also includes a display 106 and a touchpad 108.

The housing includes an upper housing 110 supporting the display and a base housing 112 supporting the keyboard and touchpad. The upper housing and the base housing can be joined at a hinge 114. The upper housing can rotate relative to the base housing around the hinge. This is the physical structural basis for the opening and closing of our commonly used notebooks. Today we will focus on the keyboard and keycap structure.

As shown in the above figure, it is an isometric view of the keycap in the patent, and the keycap includes a transparent body 202, an intermediate layer 204 and a carrier body 206. The transparent body is at the top layer, and the user directly contacts it during use. The transparent body is generally made of transparent or translucent materials, such as glass, float glass and other materials.

Why do we use this layered design with a clear layer on top? Because the material used in the clear body can withstand millions of cycles without fading, loss of color, etc. At the same time, the clear body is made of more durable materials to prevent the keycaps from scratching or breaking. In addition, because the clear body covers the lettering of the keycaps, the lettering is protected from wear and fading.

The top surface 208 is generally designed with a smooth or slightly concave curvature, and may have a continuous radius R between the center point 212 and the two raised outer edges 214, 216. Therefore, the top surface has a gentle spoon shape that guides the user's fingers toward the center of the keycap when the user presses down at a non-vertical angle or when the user presses down on the surface between the center point and the raised outer edges. Such a concave shape can help improve typing comfort and efficiency.

Specifically, you can see a very obvious arc in the cross-section of the figure below. The top surface has a basically cylindrical spoon-shaped curvature, with no curvature in the direction parallel to the central Y axis, and is curved in the direction perpendicular to the Y axis, so it is also called having a "Y-column" concavity, curvature or spoon shape, because the cylindrical shape extends along the Y axis, which means that the column axis of the curvature of the keycap is the symmetry line of the top surface that divides the keycap into the lateral sides.

Each type of curvature can affect the feel, appearance, and key definition of the keycaps: for example, a top surface with a Y-cylindrical concavity can provide more pronounced key definition between left and right laterally adjacent keycaps; a top surface with an X-cylindrical concavity can provide more pronounced key definition between front and rear laterally adjacent keycaps.

In each case, improved key definition can be provided because the raised edges on each of the adjacent keycaps are adjacent to each other, and the user can easily feel the peak relative to the two adjacent flat surfaces where the keycaps are adjacent to each other.

The middle layer of the keycap is positioned between the transparent body and the carrier body. The middle layer is called a light-blocking layer and is made of a light-blocking material. The middle layer has a glyph, which is the prompt character on the keyboard we usually see on the computer. The glyph is formed as an opening or pore through the middle layer, so the middle layer uses an opaque material and has a glyph window or pore that passes through the opaque material to define the glyph shape.

Finally, a carrier body 206 is attached to the transparent body and the plastic moldable material of the intermediate layer, the carrier body having stabilizers, collapsible springs, springs, hooks, connectors, etc. configured to connect the keycaps to the keycaps. Such a structural design is advantageous for the carrier body because plastic and similar materials are easier to mold into small fine shapes while remaining durable and not subject to cracking or breaking. Therefore, the carrier body is usually made of a durable substrate, and the smoother and shinier durable transparent body is attached to the durable substrate.

The above is the durable keyboard and keycap invented by Apple. It adopts a multi-layer superimposed design, which is divided into a protective shell, fonts and a base. This design makes the keycaps strong and durable, and can protect the fonts on the keycaps from being worn. At the same time, the transparent shell design also makes the keyboard resistant to dirt and durable. From the overall structure of the keycaps, it is also more beautiful!