How intelligent do we want our keyboards to get?  There isn't much danger from an old Imperial typewriter - short of catching your finger between two keys and ending up with a blood-blister - but Apple's latest patent (note: 4MB pdf link) for an intelligent touchscreen keyboard might be a precursor to the human race being subjugated by QWERTY overlords.

Well, maybe that's a little extreme, but Apple are certainly packing some advanced prediction and usability software into their patent.  Ostensibly it's the same, lauded on-screen keyboard that's found on the iPhone, but among the 136 different facets of the application are many that have yet to appear on the cellphone.

Different layouts, including gesture-based keys and layouts which resemble cellphone keypads, as well as visual feedback methods to indicate which key has been pressed are all detailed, as well as predictive text and number recommendation.  It'll be interesting to see how much of this is patenting for the sake of patenting, and how much ends up in future incarnations of the iPhone.

[via Unwired View]