Apple has filed for a patent for “Photo-Sensing Enabled Display for Stylus Detection” that hints at Apple Pencil support coming to the iPhone.
About the patent filing
The patent relates generally to optical touch and/or proximity sensing, and more particularly to an optical sensing system that works in conjunction with an optical stylus to determine one or more of the target or touch location, centroid, hover distance, tilt angle, azimuth, and in some instances the orientation and rotation of the stylus. The images accompanying the patent filing specifically show an Apple Pencil being used with an iPhone.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “An optical stylus system including an optical stylus and optical sensing system that are together operative to determine one or more of the target or touch location, centroid, hover distance, tilt angle, azimuth, and in some instances the orientation and rotation of the stylus is disclosed. In some examples, light illuminator and detector angular filters are employed to limit the illumination and detection angles of light to minimize false object detection.
“In other examples, the stylus is a passive stylus with a surface that reflects light with a consistent angular reflection profile or reflected light pattern regardless of stylus tilt. In still other examples, the stylus can detect light at different modulation frequencies emitted from an array of light emitters in the optical sensing system, or the stylus can emit light and detect reflected light with different spectral distributions across the optical sensing system to determine stylus location.”
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