Interesting idea for future portables and keyboards

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
I'm not a skilled engineer so i dont know how hard implementing this would be and what kind of battery usage we're talking about for the portables, but how bout a lit keyboard... from underneath the keys.



I work in a recording studio and we generally have the lights very dim in the control room while we are recording instruments outside this room. I've fixed the problem with a gooseneck lamp but that illuminates other things and gets in the way. Now not only would having a lit keyboard be dope in just how it would look (giving apple's engineering talents) but how god-darn useful it would be. On portables as well.

Think of all the dark places people use their laptops.



(p.s. ive read in alot of threads people getting info on future hardware from apple from comp usa employees. hmm alot of people that ACTUALLY WORK for apple dont know what the specs for the next powermac are yet these guys do <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> )

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    Um....laptop screens give off a lot of light. Oh, and learn to touch-type!



  • Reply 1 of 19
    g4dudeg4dude Posts: 1,016member
    damn, talk about same old shit.....
  • Reply 3 of 19
    I personally think that ALL of their keyboards should be backlit. Talk about a sales gimmik!!!
  • Reply 4 of 19
    (opinion with a basic optics course under my belt)

    A backlit keyboard would be cool, the problem would be finding something that could do the job well, be extremely compact, AND use very little power. Of the lighting technologies capable of doing that, I'd imagine that in a couple of years OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes) will be cheap enough. They can be made less-than paper thin and use extremely little electricity.



    Cool stuff like that comes at a price though so it'll be a while.



    OLED based technologies look great though you all should check it out, motorola uses it in their newer more expensive phones and Kodak will be shipping 13 inch OLED computer displays in a few months (and you think LCD displays are thin)...

  • Reply 5 of 19
    Its very basic idea that would require old technology and little cost, without using any battery life.



    Fiberoptics, A light film of material using the screen as a light-source dispersing the light to the keys. Alternatively they could use Illuminum (I don’t know the real name for it,), but it uses a power source to charge a chemically treated film which lights an image. As far as I know they use it on the screens of mobile phones, and on the dash boards of cars. The idea of a backlit keyboard doesn’t appeal to me as much as subtly lit keys, i.e. just the letter on the key being slightly illuminated. This would be more refined and not show off the molding of the keys etc. and would give more than adequate visibility of the keys. I'm sure Apples ID team can come up with a way of engineering it and if they cant they can contact me <a href="http://homepage.eircom.net/~murphi"; target="_blank">Here</a>. The idea of a backlit keyboard has been floating around these boards for years, so I am sorry for ranting on about it.
  • Reply 6 of 19
    [quote]Originally posted by zaustin:

    <strong>Um....laptop screens give off a lot of light. Oh, and learn to touch-type!



    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    i know how to touch type idiot. however protools ( <a href="http://www.digidesign.com"; target="_blank">www.digidesign.com</a> ) keyboard commands require going to almost every button on the keyboard. sure i know how to touch type bute that doesnt mean im used to going everywhere on the keyboard.

    not to mention not everyone learns to touch type, some people really want to use computers and do everything they can with them but are just slow learners and/or computer illetirate. (my dad is 55, hes been using computers for 4 years now, he cant touch type for sh*t)



    Dont try to sound like your intelligent in your response if it just isnt intelligent.



    [quote]Originally posted by Graphite:

    [QBIts very basic idea that would require old technology and little cost, without using any battery life.



    Fiberoptics, A light film of material using the screen as a light-source dispersing the light to the keys. Alternatively they could use Illuminum (I don?t know the real name for it,), but it uses a power source to charge a chemically treated film which lights an image. As far as I know they use it on the screens of mobile phones, and on the dash boards of cars. The idea of a backlit keyboard doesn?t appeal to me as much as subtly lit keys, i.e. just the letter on the key being slightly illuminated. This would be more refined and not show off the molding of the keys etc. and would give more than adequate visibility of the keys. I'm sure Apples ID team can come up with a way of engineering it and if they cant they can contact me Here. The idea of a backlit keyboard has been floating around these boards for years, so I am sorry for ranting on about it.



    [/QB]<hr></blockquote>



    Yeah that sounds just as good. Illuminated letters on the keys. That would look ellegant and still serve a functional purpose as well.
  • Reply 7 of 19
    I backlit a Pro-keyboard last summer with a 6x16" EL sheet. It was an expensive and laborious project(~100 bucks for parts and 3 weeks of dinking around). In the end, I had a real cool, expensive night-light.

    The EL sheet was too thick and the keys were very hard to press. Also, the main reason I did it was because I don't touch type(when I was in school, keyboard=typewriter=secretary), but I couldn't make out the letters with the KB light on and the room dark.

    Sure looked cool though.



    Zack
  • Reply 8 of 19
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    um, you mean this backlit keyboard, zac?







    glad i could find the original macnn forum thread. awesome work, dude!



    [ 12-20-2001: Message edited by: rok ]</p>
  • Reply 9 of 19
    SameOldSht - Don't even try to criticise me, the problem with you is that you cant see past your poxy nose. These are perfectly reasonable ideas and can be applied in thousands of ways- all giving different results, you just lack the ability to visualise them. That is why you don't work for Apple and just sit on the outside making ridiculous comments which you cannot backup with any sort of reasonable knowledge. Get a life and an educated opinion... Sack!
  • Reply 10 of 19
    [quote]Originally posted by Graphite:

    <strong>SameOldSht - Don't even try to criticise me, the problem with you is that you cant see past your poxy nose. These are perfectly reasonable ideas and can be applied in thousands of ways- all giving different results, you just lack the ability to visualise them. That is why you don't work for Apple and just sit on the outside making ridiculous comments which you cannot backup with any sort of reasonable knowledge. Get a life and an educated opinion... Sack!</strong><hr></blockquote>



    You seemed to have misread my last post. I respected your ideas and wasnt being sarcastic in my reply, but above my reply to you was my reply to zaustin who just told me to learn to touch type. No hard feelings. <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
  • Reply 11 of 19
    There was a thread on this a few weeks back, not much came out of it, though.
  • Reply 12 of 19
    [quote]Originally posted by Mike Eggleston:

    <strong>I personally think that ALL of their keyboards should be backlit. Talk about a sales gimmik!!!</strong><hr></blockquote>Talk about a power drain (although it would be cool).



    And guys... where's the love, man, where's the love?
  • Reply 13 of 19
    SameOld - Sorry about the over reaction, comming from a country where sarcasm takes over from reality most of the time, I have difficulty sometimes in differentiating it from the truth. Happy Chrimbo!
  • Reply 14 of 19
    [quote]Originally posted by Graphite:

    <strong>SameOld - Sorry about the over reaction, comming from a country where sarcasm takes over from reality most of the time, I have difficulty sometimes in differentiating it from the truth. Happy Chrimbo! </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Heh, NP.. Interesting shit.
  • Reply 15 of 19
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    I think backlighting the keyboard would be an excellent idea, for the most part because I predominantly use normal keyboards (I.E. curved and sitting on my desk) and using the flat keyboards of portables always feels akward. It would be helpful at night/when im too lazy to get up and turn on the lights. Although the screen does produce a lot of light, it isnt much, and the screen is usually angled up (I'm quite tall).
  • Reply 16 of 19
    Something new.



  • Reply 17 of 19
    Interesting. A little large don't you think?
  • Reply 18 of 19
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    I don't think it will happen. Why? Because it makes the iPod-a separate device-seem integral to the system, rather than the other way around as it is now. I also see no point, Firewire connection is fast, putting the ipod into the machine will only reduce convenience.
  • Reply 19 of 19
    While we're at it, how about a backlit bluetooth-wireless keyboard that gets wirelessly charged *and* (_tadaa!_) has second return and delete keys on the left? (After all, the numeric part was an addition to the original Mac keyboard, too. (Although even "not invented here"...(!)))



    Nah? :cool:



    (I know, the idea with the keys is stolen from <a href="http://www.asktog.com"; target="_blank">Tog</a> but I just *hate* having to move my hands to delete or type return and I think it would be nifty.)



    [ 12-28-2001: Message edited by: heinzel ]</p>
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