Apple has applied for a patent for a future Apple Pencil which can interact with a user interface of a Mixed Reality Headset, iPad, or Mac display as a controller for VR gaming to control a virtual agent (gaming character) or managing interactions with physical objects.
It includes a sensor or set of sensors that detect inputs from the user based on haptic and/or tactile contact with the touch-sensitive surface.
In some implementations, the control device might use multiple touch sensing technologies such as capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elements to determine one or more points of contact with the touch-sensitive surface.
Apple Pencil, which in this context, is used as a gaming controller to move objects or a gaming character which Apple refers to as a “Virtual Agent.”
The functions of the Pencil will include inputs such as tapping, rolling, twirling, flicking, and swiping on a touch surface of the Pencil.
In the second half of the patent, Apple goes into detail about using eye/gaze tracking as a means of moving objects in an extended reality (XR) environment or game.
While these are exciting, it is important to keep in mind that Apple files numerous patents every year many products of which never reach fruition so we’ll see if the company ends up releasing the Pencil.
