Apple wants to bring ‘Find My’ capabilities to the Apple Pencil

Apple has been granted a patent (number 20230161545) for a “peripheral device with acoustic resonator.” The goal of the invention is to bring “Find My” capabilities to the Apple Pencil.

About the patent

Many types of peripheral input devices are presently used to provide input to electronic devices. Apple says that styluses — and, yep, the tech once said not to call the Apple Pencil a stylus — have become popular peripheral input devices for touch-sensitive devices. 

However, it can be easy to misplace such a device. Apple’s patent involves systems and methods for locating peripheral input devices such as an Apple Pencil via acoustic resonator(s) integrated within its housing. 

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Locating a lost stylus, or other peripheral input device can be made possible by acoustic resonators integrated within housing structures of the stylus. Acoustic resonators can be formed at an end of the stylus opposite its tip, and can include portions of the stylus outer housing that are thinned down to an engineered thickness that has a particular resonant behavior or frequency. 

“In some examples, acoustic resonators can be formed at a cap portion of the stylus, and can include a resonant diaphragm attached to at least a portion of a cap boundary. Cap coverings for the cap portion can optionally have openings to allow ventilation for changes in air pressure generated beneath the covering. In some examples, an electronic device can communicate a location request to the stylus and can cause the stylus to generate an acoustic signal for a specified target detector using the acoustic resonators.”