A photovoltaic keyboard, or solar keyboard, is a wireless computer keyboard that charges its batteries from a light source such as the sun or interior lighting, addressing a major drawback of wireless computer peripherals that otherwise require regular replacement of discharged batteries. One such device is the Logitech K750, which was announced by the company in 2010. In 2018 Microsoft filed a patent describing how solar panels could be used to extend battery life for Microsoft's Surface Pro.

Logitech K750

The

Logitech Logitech International S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software. Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, the company has offices throughout Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. It is a component of ...

K750 has a set of

photovoltaic cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

s on the top edge, charges from any light source including

sunlight Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible spectrum, visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrare ...

and under a standard

bulb In botany, a bulb is a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

, can work up to three months in total darkness, and includes software to display battery charging status. It is a full-sized keyboard, including the usual movement keys and NumPad section on the right side, with low-profile keys much like a laptop. There are two models, compatible with

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

operating systems. Even though the keyboard is not officially supported in

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

, a third-party application named Solaar provides functionality akin to the original Logitech software, such as battery and connection status indications, and allows device pairing/unpairing.

Logitech K760

Another

keyboard, the K760, is also PV powered. It is smaller than the Logitech K750 and communicates with the computer via

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

. It was positively reviewed by David Carnoy of CNET, who praised its sleek, stylish design, and its ability to be seamlessly integrated with Apple products. Although he found it slightly bulky to carry around and criticized the lack of carrying case provided by Logitech, he concluded that in the long run, it would save a user money, and was a better deal than Apple's Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard.

References

External links

Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750
Computer keyboards Applications of photovoltaics {{Renewable-energy-stub