Apple has just been granted a new patent for the invention of an iPen. The patent design includes a position detecting device such as an accelerometer, a smart tip for writing, a pair of transmitter and receiver and a device for computing.
The iPen, otherwise referred to as a modern stylus, can be used to enter data easily into a computing device without the need to actually touch the device or to use a special type of paper. The data is entered based on the images or text drawn on any type of surface. This includes anything from a whiteboard to a sheet of paper, to even a wall.
The stylus also has the ability to enter the data into a computing device even from a distance, such as when the user is at the other end of the room. This concept of "distant data transfer" makes the stylus an ideal tool in a classroom setting when there's a need for the user to gather a digital version of the notes originally handwritten by someone from across the room. Users can also take advantage of the stylus' ability to interpret whiteboard-written data, which it simultaneously displays on a computing device.
Apple describes the patent in its abstract thus:
"The stylus may likewise be moved in three-dimensional space and corresponding images displayed on a display of a computing device. The stylus tracks its different positions while a user is writing or drawing and then either stores the data to be uploaded later or transmits the data simultaneously to a computing device. The computing device then displays the images and text drawn on the surface."
The functional quality of the stylus definitely makes it an ideal companion device for the rumored Apple iPad Pro. The device is touted as a large tablet, which Apple may just launch from early to the middle of 2015. The team-up of the two devices could just be Apple's take on the Surface Pro 3 tablet of Microsoft.
The device includes a built-in dock that will hold the pen in place using magnetics.
It remains to be seen whether Apple will pursue making the device publicly available as the company is also known to have filed a number of patents that never really came into existence.
