Lenovo showing off waterproof keyboard

Although we thought they'd already solved the problem of keyboard spills with that fancy Batmobile-like armor plating, Lenovo is apparently still looking for ways to keep your 'board safe from dangerous beverages, as they're showing off a waterproof model at their Lenovo Innovation Center in China. Not much is known about the high-tech shenanigans going on inside the keyboard to keep the circuitry running (we suspect nanobots), but it's clear from the pics that you can dump over a cup of water onto it with seemingly no negative effects. So far this doesn't appear to be a technology that the company is commercializing, and frankly it seems like an unnecessary addition to your basic cheap-o plastic keyboard, but we sure wish Logitech et al. would step it up and employ this type of protection in their multi-hundred dollar diNovo Cordless Desktops-like products.

[Josh Einstein @ May 17th 2006 3:14PM]

Water spilled on a keyboard can just be dried out with a fan. This doesn't help the more serious problem of spilling our favorite sugary caffeinated beverages in between the keys which ruins the keyboard for good.

[the godfather @ May 17th 2006 3:14PM]

pour some coke on there...the keyboard will still "work" if you call keys getting stuck working ;)

[frankthechicken @ May 17th 2006 3:15PM]

Waterproof keyboards are a reasonable start, but of more importance is coke/soft drink proof keyboards, it's 'stickyness' more than anything that ruins a keyboard.

[engadget is really going down hill fast @ May 17th 2006 3:27PM]

http://www.grandtec.com/vik.htm

[Fuzz @ May 17th 2006 3:30PM]

Josh- not true . .I've just removed the keyboard from the laptop, washed the whole damend thing under the tap, dried it with compressed air, and it works good as new.

[Alfred @ May 17th 2006 3:31PM]

i work in a hospital and we have had waterproof keyboards for a while now, they are actually really good with the coke and coffee spills too because they are very shallow and our cleaning crew can actually use cleaning sprays with them

[Robert Aitchison @ May 17th 2006 3:32PM]

I remember wandering the endless halls at Comdex Fall 94 (that's right almost 12 years ago) and seeing someone demoing a waterproof keyboard in a similar fashion.

[J @ May 17th 2006 3:32PM]

So if it's safe to pour water on the keyboard, wouldn't that suggest that if you spilled Coke/Coffee/someting else on it you could just rinse it off with water to clean it off?

[Conrad Quilty-Harper @ May 17th 2006 3:32PM]

I wish someone *cough*Apple*cough* would innovate by making spill proof laptops standard. It wouldn't take much - just a water proof film that stops liquids from touching components and channels it out of the machine through a vent or something... But wait! that would cut off a healthy stream of revenue for laptop makers.

[J. @ May 17th 2006 3:48PM]

If it's waterproof, does that mean spilling champagne on it won't make the computer come to life and impress the girl next door? (Been trying since the 80's.)

[Gr1zz @ May 17th 2006 4:18PM]

Fat chance J.

Nowadays you have to spill a 40 of malt liquor on it to impress the girl next door. But you will rather shoot yourself then have it seronade her with a Rap midi.

[anon @ May 17th 2006 4:19PM]

#8, J:

No, Water, specifically distilled water, will not conduct electricity. Impurities in liquid is the real issue. As well as, with soda, the corrosive acid and to a lesser extent the annoying stickiness that can occur.

[pava @ May 17th 2006 4:31PM]

Lenovo water proof keyboard, thats great. Its really nice to have a keyboard like that.

http://cheap-computers-review.blogspot.com/2006/05/lenovo-3000-j-series-j100-desktop.html

[Razib Ahmed @ May 17th 2006 5:13PM]

Nice new technology. It will help many people. However, I am just waiting for a virtual keyboard in which I will not need to give pain to my hands and instead will be able to type virtually with laser ray or something.

[patrick @ May 17th 2006 5:28PM]

FINALLY! now i can check out the hun WHILE i'm drinking a rum and coke and not have to worry about an accident.

[Adam @ May 17th 2006 9:02PM]

hmm... my IBM Model M keyboard seems to work just fine. Having taken repeted dosings of water, beer, pepsi, pizza sauce, AND my constant pounding typing, it's gotta be the keyboard for me!

[Ivo Marjanovic @ May 17th 2006 9:57PM]

Mine's waterproof too: Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000.

[Tomas @ May 17th 2006 11:09PM]

Has anyone tried putting a keyboard in the dishwasher? I did it with a few dirty circuit boards about a decade ago, and they came out just fine.

[Aaron @ May 17th 2006 11:37PM]

Am I the only one who started trying to think of some kind of porn-related joke after reading this?

"Protects against more than just water *wink wink*"

[charlie @ May 18th 2006 1:14AM]

I'm with Aaron, is it "bodily fluid proof"?

[Juaquin @ May 18th 2006 2:50AM]

Um...this has been around for forever. I remember seeing some such device on NewEgg about a year ago for like $15. Is this really news?

Now if they could make my Logitech G15 waterproof, I might be interested...

[Claudiu Spulber @ May 18th 2006 3:41AM]

Now this would be good to be included by default in laptops. Regarding a desktop PC, beside waterproofing I know some of us would need "violenceproofed" keyboard and mouse. You know, for those situations where you are so frustrated with a game that you start hitting the keyboard with the mouse. No, it didn't happen to me.

[sims @ May 18th 2006 4:30AM]

Gosh...wouldn't it be nice if Lenove put this somewhere where it'd be useful, like their Thinkpads?

Oh wait...they already have it in their thinkpads. Pour a glass of water on your thinkpad and watch the water flow out the ducts on the side. Innovation my ass.

[James @ May 18th 2006 6:32AM]

Perfect for when I LOL all over myself while drinking pop.

And I love the extra bonus of being able to use it as a cup. Pour some water in with some Koolaid crystals, and type up a few emails. BAM

[chris @ May 18th 2006 9:30AM]

why is this news?
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=waterproof+keyboard
and there are a couple non-rollup kb's there

[J @ May 18th 2006 12:07PM]

yeah i could really use this. about every two months I dump a cup of coffee over on my keyboard. still works though.

[Michael Geary @ May 18th 2006 3:43PM]

sims is talking about the new ThinkPad T60/T60p, which have the spill resistant keyboard and drain holes in the case. I wouldn't try the water test on any other ThinkPad models... :-)

http://www.google.com/search?q=thinkpad+t60+OR+t60p+spill+drain&num=100

[Michael Geary @ May 18th 2006 4:31PM]

Wouldn't you know it, the search I cited says I'm wrong about the spill-resistant keyboard being limited to the T60. According to this CNET review, the T43 has it too:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Lenovo_ThinkPad_T43/4505-3121_7-31312127-2.html

But I don't see it mentioned for the T43 (only the T60) in the famous tabook.pdf:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitute/psref/tabook.pdf

Who wants to give their T43 the water test and let us all know what happens?

[Glenn Beer @ May 18th 2006 11:34PM]

Give me a kbd that I can put in the dishwasher.