A recent Apple patent application (shared by AppleInsider) shows an Apple Pencil-like accessory that would work with the upcoming Vision Pro headset. While this accessory may look like a writing implement accessory but Apple appears to be aiminf for a handheld controller-like accessory instead.
The patent application is credited to five inventors: Stephen E Dey, Erin M Bosch, Yuhao Pan, lan P Colahan, and Christopher K Ewy.
“With one illustrative configuration… [the device] is a handheld controller having an elongated marker-shaped housing configured to be grasped within a user’s fingers,” says the newly-revealed patent application, called “Computer System with Handheld Controllers.”
“A handheld controller with a marker-shaped housing may have an elongated housing that spans across the width of a user’s hand and that can be held like a pen, pencil, marker, wand, or tool,” the patent application description continues.
The new stylus would not only work with the Vision Pro, it could also be used as a controller for cellular phones, tablets, laptop computers, a wristwatch, and other electronic devices.
However, let’s concentrate on how the device would be used with the Vision Pro.
“The head-mounted device or other device may have a display configured to display virtual content that is overlaid onto real-world content,” the patent says. “[A] handheld controller [could have] a tip portion onto which a computer-generated paint brush head is overlaid.”
The controller could feature an “inertial measurement unit with an accelerometer for gathering information on controller motions such as swiping motions, waving motions, writing movements, drawing movements, shaking motions, rotations, etc.”
The controller could also offer “tracking features such as active or passive visual markers that can be tracked with an optical sensor in an external electronic device.”
As is usual, just because Apple is applying for a patent on this product, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will someday offer the device to the public. Apple applies for and receives hundreds of patents each year.
