We’ve been seeing more and more reports about the possibility that Apple intends to bring support for an Apple Pencil to the Apple Vision Pro and it’s been suggested that we may see more about this plan sooner rather than later. It’s thought the new feature could be part of the visionOS 2 software that Apple is expected to debut during the June 10 WWDC 2024 event. Now, there’s more fuel to the fire that something is afoot.
That’s the thought after the publishing of a new Apple patent that appears to hint at an Apple Pencil of sorts that can be used with the Apple Vision Pro. And while the patent doesn’t specifically mention an Apple Pencil, it does detail some kind of virtual pointer device.
According to the patent, Apple is aware that using an Apple Pencil-like device could be problematic due to the lack of resistance associated with writing or drawing on a physical surface. But it has a plan to deal with that.
Elastic pencil
The patent, which was first spotted by Patently Apple, details a method to deal with shaking hands and other unwanted movements by using elasticity.
“In some examples, to reduce undesirable artifacts (e.g., flaws due to handshaking and/or hesitations) from occurring in the virtual object, a virtual pointer element is offset from a portion of an input device and is used to generate the virtual object in a three-dimensional environment,” the patent explains. “In some examples, to improve the visual characteristics of the generated virtual object, an elasticity model can be applied which includes various modes of physics.”
However, it’s always important to remember that Apple patents almost everything its engineers come up with so there is no guarantee that this feature will ever see the light of day. But with ongoing rumors of Apple Vision Pro support coming at a time when the Apple Pencil 3 is thought to be weeks away, it’s entirely possible that it will do.