The next-gen Apple Pencil could be capable of writing on any flat surface or in the air.
A recently-published patent application, numbered 62/363,172 and titled “Content Creation Using Electronic Input Device on Non-Electronic Surfaces” describes the use of an Apple Pencil-like device, in conjunction with some form of motion or orientation sensor external to the stylus on any surface, like a desktop.
The documentation associated with the patent is intentionally vague as to how this will be executed. Still, it highlights how the stylus’s movement can be tracked by “a motion and orientation sensor, a camera, or an electromagnetic- or sound-based triangulation scheme.”
The patent also details how the data generated by a pointing device could be tracked in three dimensions, even without requiring a surface to write on. Other utilizations of the technology beyond just handwriting include tracing a 3D object to make a model in the computer.
Communication between the pointing device and the computer handling its input would not necessarily be uni-directional according to the allocation, and could allow for haptics or other information to be relayed to the user with a LED array or even a small screen.
Like any other patent application, it’s hard to say if this will ever see the light of day, but it does bring up some interesting new ideas.
As with all of Apple’s patent applications, the concept may never come to fruition. Many of Apple’s patents are placeholders, or foundational, allowing Apple the legal leverage to pursue expansion of an idea or fight claims that it had stolen another company’s ideas for a future product.
U.S. patent application number 62/363,172 was filed on July 14, 2017, and made public on Jan. 18.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and TechTastic