Apple Patent Exposure: Acoustic Positioning Helps You Find Nearby Apple Pencil_China IT News

IT House May 25 news, a new patent application published by Apple today hints that the company may launch a “Find My Apple Pencil” feature in the future, which uses sound waves to locate a lost Apple Pencil. Interestingly, the method Apple describes doesn’t use an ultra-wideband chip, but rather an acoustic signal.

Currently, users can use the Find My app to track most Apple devices, but not the Apple Pencil, which may change in the future. Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that involves adding an Apple Pencil or other peripheral input device to the list of “Find My” devices.

The patent shows that locating a lost Apple Pencil or other peripheral input device can be achieved by an acoustic resonator integrated into the shell structure of the pen. Thinned to an engineered thickness with specific resonant behavior or frequency.

In some of the examples given by Apple, the electronic device can send a position request to the pen, and it can cause the pen to generate a sound wave signal for the designated target detector through the acoustic resonator.

Resonant frequency is the frequency at which an object vibrates at its maximum amplitude, users may have experienced this phenomenon on a plane or train, when an object on a tray suddenly starts vibrating wildly, this is because the frequency produced by the vehicle resonates with the object frequency matches.The patent describes the use of the user’s iphone Generates an acoustic signal that matches the resonant frequency of the Apple Pencil’s end cap, causing it to vibrate.While this is a relatively crude method of positioning, it has the advantage of being cheap and taking up little space.

IT House noticed that,This method won’t help users find a forgotten Apple Pencil in the distancebecause it needs to be within the range of sound waves, but this at least helps users find the Apple Pencil around them.