The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 69 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we briefly cover Apple's patent titled "Content creation using electronic input device on non-electronic surfaces." Apple Pencil may one day work on any non-touch surface and have the text or imagery appear on an Apple device such as a Mac as illustrated in our cover graphic.

Apple's patent FIG. 10A below illustrates a configuration in which the stylus and cap are coupled together (e.g., similar to a conventional pen with a cap). FIG. 10B illustrates a configuration in which the stylus is decoupled from cap. The stylus can include a transmitter #1006 and the cap can include multiple receivers #1010 for receiving signals transmitted from the stylus. The transmitter and receivers can be used to track position. The cap can also include a memory, wireless communication circuitry and/or processor to store, transmit and/or process the data received by receivers. The stylus can be used to draw or write on a nearby surface (e.g., table, window, user's body).

Apple further details that in some examples, Apple Pencil (input device) will be able to generate two-dimensional content (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) content. Their patent FIG. 13 above illustrates an example of three-dimensional content created by an input device.

Apple's granted patent 10,613,666 that was issued today stems back to their 2018 patent application. For more on this invention, see our original patent application report here.