San Francisco, Dec 31 (IANS): Apple has patented a new reconfigurable keyboard for the Mac with a small display for each key, which will show different characters as per the user's preferences.

The iPhone maker has recently filed a patent titled "Electronic devices having keys with coherent fiber bundles" and it was granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office on the final patent day of this year, reports MacRumors.

Images included in the patent suggest that the adaptive keyboard could be used both in a laptop enclosure as well as a separate keyboard for desktop computers.

The physical keys would still be there, but the patent shows that the keys on this new keyboard contain a super small display for each one instead of the regular engraved labels.

The display is not expected to have a high resolution nor some fancy specifications and the purpose of the reconfigurable keyboard is to allow users to set different layouts for different use cases.

Apple often registers new patents, so this doesn't necessarily mean that these features or technologies will be added to a real product in the future.