New Apple Patent: Apple Pencil acts as VR Game Controller

CTOnews.com, February 10, according to a list published by the United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO), Apple today obtained a technology patent for Apple Pencil. According to the patent description, Apple Pencil can interact and operate with devices such as mixed reality head display, iPad, Mac display and so on, and can act as the controller of VR games.

CTOnews.com summarizes the main contents of the patent as follows: in figures 1 and 6B below, we see a user holding an Apple Pencil, in which case it is used as a game controller to move objects or game characters, which Apple calls a "Virtual Agent". The functions of the Apple Pencil will include inputs that involve tapping, rolling, rotating, flicking and sliding on the touch surface of the Pencil.

The Apple Pencil built-in sensor described in the patent detects input from the user based on the touch with the touch-sensitive surface # 175.

In some examples, the Apple Pencil may include a variety of touch sensing techniques, including, but not limited to, capacitance, resistance, infrared and surface acoustic wave techniques, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elements for determining one or more contact points.

In other patent information, Apple details the use of eye / gaze tracking as a way to move objects in an extended reality (XR) environment or game.