The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 42 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's patent relating to next-gen keyboards with integrated displays.

Apple's granted patent relates to a next-gen keyboard with an integrated auxiliary display. One embodiment may take the form of an electronic computing device having an enclosure with an upper portion and a lower portion pivotally coupled to the upper portion.

One embodiment may take the form of a method for rendering contextual information on an auxiliary display. The method includes the steps of rendering primary visual information on a main display, rendering secondary visual information on the auxiliary display positioned within a keyboard and operably coupled to the main display, and receiving input from an input device. In response to the input from the input device, the method updates the primary visual information and the secondary visual information to include additional information associated with the input.

Apple's patent FIG. 3A below depicts an example placement of the auxiliary display above a set of keys on the lower portion; FIG. 3B depicts another example placement of the auxiliary display in the space bar on the lower portion; FIG. 3C depicts another example placement of the auxiliary display in the trackpad on the lower portion; and FIGS. 4A and 4B depict example functionality of the auxiliary display.

Apple's patent FIG. 5 below depicts an example auxiliary display with content that is coordinated with a main display; FIG. 8 depicts an example responsive interaction between a user and the auxiliary display with the context of the main display on a Magic Keyboard for iMac.

Apple's patent FIG. 9 depicts an example of the auxiliary display mimicking the main display in response to inputs; FIG. 10B depicts an example auxiliary display response to gesture inputs.

Apple's granted patent 10,585,494 was originally filed in Q3 2016 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.