In January 2020, Apple has been granted a patent for “touch-based stylus input” and is now in the latest patent of the same name. The revisions are minor, and both approved patents involve setting up a flexible sensor at the user’s fingertip that can receive haptic input.
Apple said in the patent that haptic input can be received in the user’s natural grip position, in addition, the stylus can effectively distinguish the haptic input from the user, and distinguish the continuous haptic input provided when naturally holding the stylus from the effective input.
The patent states that when someone uses an Apple Pencil or any stylus, they are unlikely to touch the screen of an iPad or similar device at the same time.
Apple believes that when a user holds a stylus or other touch-based input device, the user may be limited to the input options provided by this, so the additional input capabilities integrated into the input device will provide the user with expanded input capabilities without the need to operate additional input devices at the same time.
To achieve this, the Pencil will add a “low-key” sensor, such as a capacitive sensing device. Haptic input can be received in the user’s natural grip position. Prior to this patent application, there were also patents on the base and tip of a stylus like the Apple Pencil, many of which even utilized the same drawings.
In December 2019, one such patent involved how the Apple Pencil stylus used haptic feedback to better simulate the feeling of drawing on paper. A similar patent in 2015 involved the same purpose but involved the entire stylus. Another example is also an Apple patent filed in December 2019 in which a stylus uses a camera to decipher and record physical features of surfaces.