Apple has patented a keyboard that is potentially immune to spilled coffee and crumbs, two of the most dangerous substances to be allowed near a gadget. 

Spilled coffee is about as destructive to a keyboard as a 40ft drop.

This is a scientific fact that can be confirmed by anyone who has tried, desperately, to mop up their now ruined keyboard with tattered bits of napkin.

Then there are crumbs, don’t even get us started on the devastating damage that crumbs can cause.

Thankfully, Apple’s engineers believe they have a solution.

The premise is simple, but elegant. By fitting a thin protective film between the key and the mechanism you effectively create a barrier, preventing those biscuits crumbs from working their way under your keys and wreaking havoc.

Each time the key is pressed the film expands outwards further pushing any objects caught within it back out into the world. It’s a stroke of genius that comes at the price of what appears to be repairability.

Should the key actually break, then you’ll probably have to get a professional to replace it rather than the usual technique which involves jamming a pen under it and desperately hoping it doesn’t ping off into the distance never to be seen or heard of again.

Now a word of warning, the patent was filed back in 2016 so there’s no guarantee that Apple will ever actually use this technology, but fingers crossed.