A photovoltaic 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. The first keyboard that was solar-powered was Logitech K750 that 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 The Surface Pro is a first generation 2-in-1 detachable of the Microsoft Surface series, designed and manufactured by Microsoft. The device ran a 64-bit version of Windows 8 Pro operating system with a free upgrade possibility to Windows 8.1 ...

Logitech K750

The

Logitech Logitech International S.A. ( ; often shortened to Logi) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software, with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Newark, California. The company has offices throughout Europe ...

K750 has a set of

photovoltaic cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.

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

sunlight Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is scattered and filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when ...

and under a standard

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short 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 dur ...

, 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 group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

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

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

, 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, is highly useful. 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 limi ...

References

External links

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