A new patent application published by Apple today suggests that the company may launch a “Find My Apple Pencil” feature in the future, which uses acoustic signals to locate a lost Apple Pencil. Interestingly, the method described by Apple does not use an ultra-wideband chip, but rather a sound wave signal.
Users can currently use the “Find My” app to track most Apple devices, but not the Apple Pencil and that could change in the future. Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple for adding the Apple Pencil or other peripheral input devices to the list of “Find My” device services.
The patent shows that locating a lost Apple Pencil or another peripheral input device could be accomplished through an acoustic resonator integrated into the pen’s housing structure, which could be placed at the opposite end of the pen from the pen tip and could be part of the housing that is thinned to an engineered thickness with a specific resonant behaviour or frequency.
In some of the examples given by Apple, the electronic device can send a position request to the pen and can allow the pen to generate an acoustic signal for a specified target detector through the acoustic resonator.
The resonant frequency is the frequency at which an object vibrates at its maximum amplitude. Users may have experienced this phenomenon on an aeroplane or train when an object on a pallet suddenly begins to vibrate wildly because the frequency generated by the vehicle matches the resonant frequency of the object. The patent describes using the user’s iPhone to generate an acoustic signal that matches the resonant frequency of the Apple Pencil end cap, causing it to vibrate. While this is a relatively crude method of positioning, it has some benefits in that it is both cheap and takes up little space.
This method won’t help users find the Apple Pencil they forgot about at a distance because it needs to be within sonic range, but it will at least help users find the Apple Pencil around them.
