Microsoft could be planning on designing a future Surface Pen stylus that can be wrapped around your ear and used as a Bluetooth headset.
The plans were spotted in a patent, which suggests that when the stylus isn’t being used to draw or sign documents, it can be attached to a user’s ear and used as a Bluetooth communication device.
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According to the patent, the device – which is called “Flexible Carpenter’s Stylus with Dockable Earpiece” in the document – is a stylus with a capacitive nib and an earpiece dock.
The patent explains that “the earpiece includes a speaker, an earpiece battery, and a wireless radio configured to communicatively couple with a host device”, and that the earpiece will charge when docked.
Will it see the light of day?
The patent points to a bendable stylus that can go over the user’s ear. For people – such as carpenters, which might be where the name comes from – who like to tuck their pens, pencils and styluses behind their ears when not using them, turning the stylus into an earpiece is a pretty cool idea.
We’d love to see this come to a future Surface Pen stylus, but as this is just a patent at the moment it could be a long time before we ever see this device for real. Sadly, like many patents, it might never see the light of day at all.
Still, it’s good to know that Microsoft is looking at innovating its peripherals. Another patent spotted by Windows Latest suggests that Microsoft could look at creating a stylus that has a built-in display that can be used to show notifications, battery status and more.
Hopefully we'll see some sort of innovative new stylus from Microsoft in the near future.
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Via OnMSFT
