Apple has just filed a patent describing a new version of its stylus. The future Apple Pencil would be loaded with new sensors to copy the color and texture of the objects around you.
The next generation of Apple Pencil could see a significant evolution. A recent patent filed by Apple seems to indicate that the Cupertino company is working on a stylus that would be equipped with several optical sensors. These would allow the Apple Pencil to duplicate the color, but also the texture of a surface of objects in the real world.
A stylus covered with new sensors
In this patent filed on December 29, Apple describes a new Apple Pencil which would be equipped with a new color sensor, an ambient light sensor, as well as a light-emitting module. Everything would be perfectly integrated into the tip of the stylus of the iPad.
The color sensor would not only detect the color of an object, but also sample the texture of its surface. The light sensor would allow the stylus to detect the color of an object, regardless of the ambient light. As for the detection of the texture of a surface, this would be made possible thanks to the integrated light emitter. This module, which would also make it possible to adjust the light spectrum, would be responsible for sending the light onto the surface to be analyzed under several reflection angles to determine the texture as precisely as possible.
First launched in 2015 with the first version of the iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil has seen only one update. Apple indeed released a second generation of its stylus in 2018, but has not changed it since then. The Cupertino company would however have had plans to release a version of its Apple Pencil intended for the iPhone. But the rumor indicates that the Californian company, which would have launched the production of this new stylus just before the release of the new iPhones last September, would have finally changed its mind. It would thus have been obliged to destroy nearly a million units already out of its factories…
Patently Apple
