Apple Files Stylus Patent

Were you one of those who laughed at the Galaxy Note when it first arrived with a stylus? Look who’s laughing now, as Apple is said to have filed a patent with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) last week for an active stylus that they can call their own, describing the stylus in the filing this way, “the stylus includes an electrode at a tip of the stylus; and powered circuitry coupled to the electrode and configured for capacitively coupling the electrode with a capacitive touch sensor panel. The powered circuitry can further include drive circuitry configured to output a drive voltage at the electrode and/or sense circuitry configured to sense a voltage received at the electrode.”

After putting that through the Applese-English machine, it basically means that the design is able to improve stylus sensing on conductive displays without having to be expensive to manufacture. This patent was filed by a couple of employees over at Apple, namely engineering manager Jonah Harley and hardware engineering manager David Simon. And so it begins, the late Steve Jobs announced a 7-inch tablet market as “dead on arrival”, and also dismissed the stylus when the iPhone was first unveiled in 2007. I guess this means that Apple has thought otherwise now.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Apple
Tags: Apple Inc, Patent, stylus