Oh crumbs, hope of an end to food in keyboards
Forget about fingerprint readers, retinal displays or edge-to-edge screens. There is one innovation that computer users have been waiting for since the first office worker decided to eat at their desk, and it could soon be here: crumbproof keyboards.
Apple has excited its user base in a manner usually reserved for the latest iPhone after filing a patent for a keyboard that can survive lunch al desko.
For the legions of MacBook users sipping lattes in coffee shops around the world it also offers a spill-proof version.
The patent describes different keyboard designs to "prevent contaminant ingress". Some versions contain skirts or flaps that protect the edges of keys, a little like the spraydeck on a kayak. Others have brushes or wipers - while one ambitious design has "bellows that blast contaminants with forced gas".
Users have complained that the latest MacBook is prone to sticky keys from dirt or crumbs in the keyboard. This is in part because its keys depress less than a millimetre, leaving far less clearance if something gets caught.
Although technology companies routinely file patents that never turn into products, there is hope that the company has recognised those problems and is looking for ways to solve them.
There are already keyboards that claim to be waterproof but most are made of silicone rubber and don’t have the feel of a normal keyboard.
Food contamination is a big enough problem that numerous websites offer cleaning advice, ranging from holding it upside down and shaking to using compressed air canisters.
A crumb-free laptop would be particularly welcome in the Americas, where the "crazy ant" has spread from Brazil. It has been able to extend its range thanks to a new and fertile biological niche - the holes between keys and the plentiful supply of food found within.
A study by the consumer organisation Which? suggested that in eating crumbs the ants may even be performing a service. The consumer group hired a microbiologist to swab keyboards and found that, largely thanks to decomposing food, more than 10 per cent harboured so much dangerous bacterial life that they were regarded as a health hazard.
The new keyboards may provide a less radical solution than cutting out eating at your desk for germ-conscious, but conscientious, workers.