Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a patent application from Apple that relates to a future Apple Pencil that could be configured to receive and process broadcast signals, such as broadcast television signals.

An Apple Pencil usable with an iPad to provide an input to the electronic device, may include a stylus body, a battery within the stylus body, a first antenna configured to receive a broadcast signal, the broadcast signal including video content, a second antenna configured to communicate with a remote electronic device via a wireless communication protocol, and a processing system within the stylus body.

The processing system may be configured to receive the broadcast signal from the first antenna and demodulate the broadcast signal to produce a digital content signal including the video content.

The stylus/Apple Pencil may also include a communication system within the Apple Pencil body and configured to receive the digital content signal from the processing system, encode the digital content signal according to the wireless communication protocol to produce an encoded digital content signal, and send to the remote electronic device, via the second antenna, the encoded digital content signal.

The first broadcast protocol may be an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) broadcast protocol, the second broadcast protocol may be a fifth generation (5G) broadcast protocol, and the wireless communication protocol may be a Bluetooth communication protocol.

Apple's patent FIG. 1A below illustrates an iPad (#102) and an Apple Pencil (#100) that may include an antenna (#119 in the center) for receiving first broadcast signals #113 from a first broadcast signal source #111 and second broadcast signals #117 from a second broadcast signal source #115.

The first and second broadcast signals may be encoded in different broadcast protocols, and may each include video content (e.g., broadcast video content). For example, the first broadcast signals may be ATSC broadcast signals and the second broadcast signals may be 5G broadcast signals.

The Apple Pencil may process the broadcast signals according to a particular processing scheme for that type of broadcast signal, and may encode the processed signals according to a wireless communications protocol that is common to the Apple Pencil and the iPad (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.). The Apple Pencil may then send the processed signals #121 to the iPad via the wireless communication protocol.

Apple's patent FIG. 3A above depicts a simplified block diagram of an example Apple Pencil and iPad;  FIGS. 4A/B/C depict various configurations for a broadcast antenna for an Apple Pencil and iPad; FIG. 5 is a flowchart depicting example operations of a method of operating an Apple Pencil for an iPad; and FIG. 8 depicts an accessory for an electronic device and the electronic device showing an exemplary graphical user interface for improving broadcast signal quality.

To review the full details of this invention, check out patent application 20240323471.