Apple invented a laptop concept.

Apple invented a laptop concept that re imagines the keyboard.

Apple newest and thinnest laptop, the Mac Book, has a keyboard with a mechanism in which its keys have nearly no depth, meaning that the device can be thinner than ever.

But Apple might be considering killing off the laptop keyboard entirely, and moving to a completely flat touch surface, according to a patent it filed last fall that was published on Thursday.

The invention, a “configurable, force-sensitive input structure for an electronic device,” describes a way to interact with an electronic device. The patent’s pictures show a laptop like a Mac Book.

Essentially, Apple’s experimenting with “zero-travel” inputs. A touchscreen, for instance, is a zero-travel input: When you press on it, there’s no physical mechanism that moves.

But the invention published on Thursday is more like the “Force Touch” track pads that Apple has included on recent Mac Books that rely on hap tic technology. Instead of clicking, a layer senses the force that the user’s fingers 

impart to the surface and when pressed down, instead of the track pad actually moving, a small motor provides a sensation as if you’re actually clicking.

So instead of keys, a future Mac Book could have a flat surface that you can type on.