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Apple patent reveals touch-sensitive stylus

Michelle Avenant
By Michelle Avenant, portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 24 Jun 2016
One patent depicts a stylus with touch sensors along its body. (Picture: Apple/USPTO)
One patent depicts a stylus with touch sensors along its body. (Picture: Apple/USPTO)

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) yesterday published patent applications filed by Apple for a "stylus with touch sensor" and "electronic devices with hand detection circuitry", suggesting the tech giant is looking into refining input methods for its devices.

While Apple entered the stylus market with the Apple Pencil in 2015, the "stylus with touch sensor" would significantly expand the traditional functionality of the pen-like input devices.

The patent details a device with touch sensors along its body that could determine the position, movement and amount of force exerted by a user's fingers.

Potential new controls offered by the use of these sensors include allowing the user to scroll by running a finger up or down the stylus, rotating an object on screen when the user rotates the stylus, and increasing drawing precision when the user grips the stylus more tightly.

The other Apple patent published by the USPTO, for "electronic devices with hand detection circuitry", describes a method of using sensors to determine whether a user is operating their device with one hand, and which hand they are using, to customise the user interface for one-handed use. This could mean moving icons and controls to one side of the screen to make one-handed use easier.

With the larger-screened iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones released in September 2014, Apple debuted a "reachability" feature for the phones, which lets users move the content on the top half of the screen to the bottom half of the screen by double-tapping the Home button, so they can use the whole screen without adjusting their grip on the device.

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