On Thursday July 6, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application Microsoft revealing an invention regarding a possible future stylus which, when placed in a suitable docking station, would act as a joystick.
Microsoft notes that "mutual capacitance is set up between the stylus and electrodes on the docking station, which changes in the event of small movements of the stylus, which are thereby detected and may be used as input to a digital interface.
The embodiments further provide a docking station with a flexible layer in a docking recess that allows an inserted stylus to be tilted or depressed. The flexible or compressible layer changes the distance between electrodes in the docking station and electrodes on the stylus, allowing detection of tilt. As the stylus tilts, the electrodes get closer at one side, there is more coupling between the electrodes and the signal is higher, and conversely, on the opposite side, away from the tilt the signal becomes lower.
Downward pressure on the stylus changes lengths of oppositely facing electrodes that coincide, also causing changes to the coupling capacitance. The embodiments further provide for a stylus and docking station with correspondingly placed electrodes that allow for a mutual capacitance which is measurably altered when the stylus is rotated while docked in the docking station.
Microsoft's patent application number 14/987866 was originally January 2016 and published last Thursday by USPTO. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.
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