According to the list recently published by the United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO), Apple Inc. recently obtained a patent related to keyboards for electronic devices.
Apple said in the patent that in order to improve the user's typing experience when typing on the keyboard in low-light environments, the keyboard usually provides a backlight.
Traditional keyboard backlighting would include an active light source such as a light-emitting diode, as well as an optical system that transmits light to the top of the keys to display a pattern.
However, this traditional backlight scheme consumes the device's power, and Apple's patent outlines a rechargeable photoluminescence keyboard system that can be easily charged by ambient or artificial light sources.
Rechargeable light-emitting materials can be charged using natural sunlight, ambient/indoor lighting, or computing device displays. Rechargeable light-emitting materials can reduce the impact of keyboard backlight on the battery life of the device and prolong the battery life of the device.
Structures underneath keycaps, such as support structures, base layers, or films, can be photoluminescent. For example, the substrate below the keyshaft can be photoluminescent, emitting (or directing) light through the keycaps, around the keycaps, or reaching certain levels of the keycaps.
Figure 2 of Apple's patent shows a rechargeable light-emitting material covering the entire keyboard, and Figure 3 shows an example embodiment of a keyboard #110, including sensor #302 and microcontroller #304.
It was also learned from the report that Apple can also monitor or track rechargeable light-emitting materials, for example, during use or idle periods, it can monitor various properties of rechargeable light-emitting materials.
For example, a keyboard component can use a light sensor to detect the current light intensity to estimate the incident light of a rechargeable light-emitting material and dynamically adjust the degree of backlighting.
来源：applehub | ithome
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