Keyboard contact and signal line arrangement

Claim 1

A keyboard comprising a plurality of key elements, signal connection lines, a plurality of contact points for each of said key elements, each of said contact points including a drive contact point, wherein said contact points may be coupled to each other by means of an actuated key, said contact points of different ones of said key elements being selectively connected to each other by said signal connection lines for the transport of a drive contact signal, wherein for a predetermined number of correspondingly constructed key elements, said predetermined number being equal to the product, n×m×p, of three non-negative integers, there are provided n + m + p signal connection lines, each signal connection line of a group of n, m, and p signal connections, respectively, being selectively connected to a corresponding contact point of at most m × p, at most n × p, and at most m × n, key elements, respectively, each key element being connected to a single signal connection line of each of the groups of n, m and p signal connections, wherein n, m and p are predetermined non-negative integers.