The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Apple Inc. a patent for a “Communicating stylus”. The patent describes the stylus in detail, which, thanks to a variety of writing nibs, will allow a user to write on any type of surface, including whiteboards, paper or an iPad’s touchscreen. When connected to any digital computing device like an iPhone or iPad, the user’s handwritten notes will be translated into a digital version (via AppleInsider). The location of the computing device is irrelevant as long as it is able to communicate with the stylus.

Styluses are not unique and plenty of other companies have created similar ones. One of these products is the Livescribe 3 smartpen which has an infrared camera in the tip to capture handwriting that it then stores on-board or uploads via Bluetooth. The biggest drawback of products like this is that it requires specialized dot paper to capture your handwriting.

According to the patent, Apple’s stylus will use accelerometers to track the movement of the tip of the stylus while data is uploaded continuously, or in short bursts, to an iOS device. The stylus activates when picked up by the user, removed from a dock, pressed to paper or manually turned on by the user.

Thanks to on-board 3D motion sensors, the angle of the surface that a user is writing on is irrelevant –handwriting will be captured whether they are writing horizontally on a desk or vertically on a wall. The variety of different nibs will also allow a user to write on different surfaces, like a capacitive nib for iPads and iPhones, a marker for a whiteboard, ink for paper or graphite for sketches.

However, this is not something new from Apple. The patent, crediting Aleksandar Pance as the inventor of the Apple stylus, was first filed in January 2010. Just because they have been awarded the patent does not mean they will bring it to market. Rumors were rife in January 2014 that Apple would launch a stylus with the iPad and iPhone, but nothing panned out and we are still waiting.

Time will tell if we will ever see the finished product described in the patent and whether it will include all the technology that is described, but if it does, it would be a great accompaniment to the 12.2 inch iPad Air Plus that is rumored for launch in April 2015.

photo credit: Nomadic Lass via photopin cc