A recent patent spotted by Techtastic shows Apple is considering creating an Apple Pencil that works without an iPad. The patent — credited to three Apple engineers — describes monitoring a stylus using some combination of motion and orientation sensors, cameras and electromagnetic or sound-based triangulation methods to determine the stylus’ position and record its movements.
The data would then be processed to create text or drawings.
Apple even goes so far as to explain how the technology could be used to generate 3D objects, allowing the creator to create the image of something like a cylinder without the Apple Pencil being on contact with a surface at all.
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