Keyboards, especially those that are shared between many users, can become packed with bacteria, not to mention hair, food remnants, and other unappealing waste.  The spaces between keys are difficult to clean, and really, who has the time to pop off all of the keys on a keyboard for a proper cleaning?

Enter the Cleankeys CP1AW Keyboard from Cleankeys, Inc.  This keyboard doesn’t have your traditional spring loaded keys that sit over a bacteria trap.  Instead, the Cleankeys keyboard is coated with glass or acrylic to ensure that no waste slips between keys.  The keyboard also has a small trackpad in the lower right corner, eliminating the need for a mouse.

Of course, the downside here is that you don’t get the normal feel of a clickable, spring-loaded keyboard.  Instead, the device uses touch capacitance technology that senses the touch of a human finger.  Touch capacitance technology works if you’re wearing surgical gloves, but not if you touch the keys with an inanimate object such as a pencil.  The Cleankeys keyboard also has a tap sensing mode, where any button press, including those by inanimate objects, are recorded.

Wireless and wired versions of the Cleankeys keyboard are available.  You can also select a glass or acrylic surface.  Cleankeys is targeting the keyboard at the medical market, since the Cleankeys keyboard is easily cleaned and disinfected.  However, I’d prefer to see the Cleankeys keyboard in most public environments.