ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,229,378, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Redmond, Wash.).
"Keyboard with force-sensing trackpad" was invented by Eliyahu Barel (Rosh-HaAyin, Israel) and Ahia Peretz (Elkana, Israel).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Keyboard and trackpad configurations and related methods utilize data from one or more bending sensors to determine a force applied to the touch receiving surface. In one example, a method for determining a force applied to a touch receiving surface of a force-sensing trackpad in a keyboard includes using at least data from a bending sensor to determine that the keyboard is bending. At least...