Emoji too common caps lock key or will "letter"?

[Abstract] According to an exposure patent document, Apple may use the "emoji" key to replace the traditional "Capitalization" key idea.

The Verge Chinese Station reported on February 17

Earlier this month, a patent document from Apple was published, which describes a keyboard with a touch screen device that can help users perform operations such as viewing, creating, editing, and sharing more easily. content. Although the text used in the patent is slightly obscure, it is essentially talking about keyboard shortcuts. According to the following partial screenshot of this patent document, it conveys to people a simple but exciting idea: What effect will the traditional "Caps Lock" key be replaced with the "Emoji" key?

The above ideas were not directly mentioned in the patent document, but appeared in various places in the form of illustrations. They looked like they showed an Apple smart keyboard Apple Smart Keyboard (Apple's only keyboard product for touch screen devices. ), but the key layout is really new. Changes include an "emoticon" key and a "share" key that will invoke a menu for content sharing.

In this patent document, Apple describes how these keys are associated with the current usage environment. For example, in a Word document, pressing the "Search" key, the user will be able to perform a search operation on a particular phrase, and pressing in an email application will target the email content itself. The user can also press the key twice to call Siri, and then the search operation can be performed by voice commands.

Some of the above functions have already appeared in the smart keyboard (for example, the user can access the emoji keyboard by clicking the "globe" key on the bottom left side), but for Apple, this common operation is associated with a shortcut key, Make users feel more convenient. Of course, if users want their iPad Pro to be more suitable for the work environment, then they need to tolerate the inconvenience of other types of input to some extent. However, if you make way for the "emoticons" key, then you can ask yourself, is it necessary to continue the existence of the "caps lock" key at any time by shifting the "upshift" key to achieve the same goal?

Undoubtedly, Apple has clearly noticed some users' demands for the above functions. Or, at least, this change can be one of the selling points of new products. On the new TouchBook Bar on the MacBook Pro, emojis appear as key use cases. Looking at the actual operation situation, the user clearly showed interest in the above functions, rather than being a crappy DJ through Touch Bar.

There are rumors that Apple will launch three new iPads this spring, which is one of the opportunities to update the Smart Keyboard. So, will we see the new "emoticons" key appear on the smart keyboard? Of course, this is also possible, but we cannot expect too much from a patent document. Do not believe it? Then take a closer look at the patented illustration you scrolled into the text. Is there a key to the letter "e"? (Author: James Vincent compile: Dahe)

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