10 Inventions on collapsible keyboards-arxiv

A conventional computer keyboard consists of as many as 101 keys. The keyboard has several sections, such as text entry section, navigation section, numeric keypad etc. each having several keys on the keyboard. The keys are arranged quite spaciously so that the human fingers can operate comfortably. The number of keys and the arrangement of keys make a keyboard quite big. Although a bigger keyboard is often comfortable to work with, they cannot be fit into laptop and small size computer boxes. The portable and handheld computers need small size keyboards. So there is a need to reduce the size of the keyboard to fit into the laptop box. There are various mechanisms to reduce the size of the keyboard; collapsible keyboard is one of them. Different mechanism of collapsible keyboards There are various types of collapsible keyboards disclosed in various inventions. Some of the interesting techniques are: Folding the keyboard by two fold to occupy less space. Folding the keyboard by threefold or multifold. Make the width of the keyboard compressible and expandable by using the space between the keys. Compress the height of the keys of the keyboard which preserves vertical space. Advantages of collapsible keyboards Collapsible keyboards reduce the size of the keyboard so that they fit into the laptop box. Collapsible keyboards can reduce the size of the keyboard without needing to remove keys from the keyboard. Collapsible keyboards become bigger when expanded and gives typing comfort. Collapsible keyboards are expanded when used and compressed when not in use, thus giving the advantage of both a small and large keyboard. Collapsible keyboards are smaller when folded. They occupy less space and are easy to carry. Solving the contradiction of keyboard size and operational comfort Reducing the size of the keyboard usually leads to a contradiction. We need the laptop keyboard to be large for typing comfort. But we don't want the large keyboard to carry. We want the keyboard to be small to fit into the laptop box while carrying, but we want it to be large like a desktop keyboard when deployed. This creates a physical contradiction. This contradiction is very effectively solved by a collapsible keyboard or folding keyboard. The folding keyboard provides all the benefits of a large keyboard and a small keyboard as well. Background problem The keyboards on portable computers are flat and parallel to its base. When the laptop is …