Patents show new Apple Pencil could sample colors from the real world
Apple’s next Apple Pencil could include the ability to sample colors from the real world and import those real world colors onto an iPad, as revealed by patents shared by Patently Apple, which describe new sensors that could recognise colors and textures from the tip of the Apple Pencil.
The patents, via MacRumors, describe how a new Apple stylus would be able to identify and digitally replicate colors and textures from real-world objects, allowing a user to touch the tip of their Apple Pencil with a physical colored piece of card, for example, and then digitally import that same color onto an iPad.
To achieve this, the patents describe the Apple Pencil as featuring a built-in light ambient sensor, light emitter, and a light detector that could detect the color and texture of a surface, all within the tip of the pencil.
Apple is known for filing numerous patents, many of which are for technology that never makes it into the public domain. The patents show that the technology is being considered for a future Apple Pencil iteration, but there is no guarantee that the real world color sampling feature will ever be released.