Apple has presented a couple of patents that could give us a vision towards the future of the Apple Pencil. This new pen is equipped with touch sensors that detect different gestures and provide new ways of interacting with devices such as the iPad.
The patent application, titled “Stylus with touch sensor”, was published by the Office of patents and trademarks from US this week. In it, Apple describes a new smart pen that features lots of capacitive touch sensors to enable new features.
The information collected by these sensors can be translated on screen interface controls. For example, when a user does rotate the pencil, the same movement can be to an object on the screen, such as a vector in an image-editing application.
“The system is capable of processing both gestures of one and the multi-touch, which can then be used to manipulate objects on screen.” “The location of the fingers opens the door to the interaction of advanced devices.”
Sliding a finger up and down the pen also could allow users scroll through a web page or a document, while a gesture of “flicker” could start scrolling through inertia or activate the feature extraction of updates in applications such as Twitter.
Apple also describes how the force sensors could be used for even more precise operation. For example, by firmly grasping the pencil could be increased precision, when tightening could toggle the virtual buttons. A touch could allow users to select items on screen.
In the second patent from Apple, which is titled “Electronic devices with hand detection circuitry”, the company exposed another system that uses touch sensors to determine whether a user is holding a device like the iPhone in the left hand or the right.
With this information, the device could then offer an custom UI to adapt to use with one hand. It could also ensure that the common buttons appear on the right screen side so that they are easier to access with your thumb. This would be particularly interesting with large devices such as the iPhone Plus 6s.
Of course, Apple patents are not a guarantee of what will come. However, it is clear that Apple is working, at least to make the Apple Pencil slightly higher.
