Future Apple Pencil may feature full-touch controls

In addition to the existing double-click function, Apple Pencil can also recognize gestures such as swiping through more comprehensive touch-sensitive control.

Apple Pencil 2 adds the ability for users to select items or change modes by double-clicking a panel on the stylus body. Apple had obtained a patent for "stylus-based touch input" in January 2020, and now it has obtained an updated patent with the same name.

The modifications are minor, and both granted patents involve placing a flexible sensor on the user's fingertips that can receive tactile input.

"Tactile input can be received at the user's natural holding position," Apple says in "Stylus-based touch input."

"Furthermore, the stylus can effectively differentiate between tactile input from the user and ignore ongoing tactile input provided when the user simply holds the stylus in the user's natural holding position," it continued said.

The patent notes that when someone is using an Apple Pencil or any stylus, they are unlikely to be touching the screen of an iPad or similar device at the same time.

Details from the patent show (top) a click or press, and (bottom) a swipe gesture

“[When] a user holds a stylus or other touch-based input device, the user may be subject to limitations of the input options provided thereby," it said. "As a result, additional input capabilities integrated into the input device will provide users with expanded input capabilities without requiring simultaneous operation of the additional input device."

To achieve this, the Pencil will add a "low-profile" sensor, For example, capacitive sensing devices.

"Tactile input can be received at the user's natural grip position," it continues. "Furthermore, the stylus can effectively differentiate between the user's tactile input and ignore the ongoing tactile input provided by the user simply by holding the stylus in the user's natural holding position."

The patent application follows Other patent applications have been filed for bases and nibs for styluses like the Apple Pencil, many of which even used the same drawings.

In December 2019, one such patent covered how the Apple Pencil’s stylus could use tactile feedback to better simulate the feeling of drawing on paper. A similar one for 2015 involves the same goals, but involving the stylus as a whole.

In another example, also starting in December 2019, the stylus uses a camera to decipher and record the physical characteristics of a surface.

The eight inventors of the new patent collectively have a history of many such patents covering styluses, prompts and communications.

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