An exciting new patent application by Apple reveals that a future Apple Pencil could include a color sampling capability. The Apple Pencil already comes with plenty of features and abilities, although this would allow the user to pull colors from anything the Pencil is able to touch. This includes objects in the real work, making the whole world a palette.
Apple first released the Pencil in 2015 and while popular, it has had a few problems with some of the most common being charging and connection related. The Apple Pencil 2 was released in 2018 and greatly improved the experience with magnetic charging, instant pairing and more accuracy. Apple has a long history of attention to detail when it comes to accurate colors, implementing TrueTone displays for the iPad Pro, starting in 2016. If this color sampling Pencil comes to market, it is likely to result in high accuracy with the sampled colors matching the real world color.
A new patent application by Apple, published by the US Patent & Trademark Office and spotted by Patently Apple, describes a potential new version of the Apple Pencil that includes a color sampling sensor. Note that this is a patent application only, meaning Apple is seeking to patent this idea, but there is no guarantee that this product will ever be made. Furthermore, even if it does come to market, the details could change or be vastly different to what's described. That said, the release schedule so far might suggest that a third version of the Apple Pencil - possibly with this enhanced color sensor - is due.
The patent describes using the tip of the Apple Pencil to touch a real world object, that is, something around you but not on the iPad screen. Then this color will be transmitted to your iPad for use by whatever app you are using at the time. Imagine picking a nice, and literal, lime green by touching your Pencil to a real lime. Or you could paint using a whole palette of colors from your favorite painting that's hanging on your wall! In effect, you would be dipping the Pencil in the color of the object you touch.
The Apple Pencil is already loaded with a pressure tip sensor, orientation sensors and body vibration sensor. The application suggests use of multiple LEDS of different wavelengths and multiple photosensors to read different wavelengths of color. This is how a color sampling device can surpass the color data that can be captured by simply snapping a photo. The scanned color would be transmitted to an iPad or iPhone for an exact color match on screen. In addition to artistic use, the color sampling could be useful for decorators, designers and for scientific and medical purposes, such as scanning pH test strips.
The Apple Pencil paired with an iPad is already among the best digital art tools so this added benefit to users would bring the iPad a feature that no other stylus possesses. While you can take a photo and sample colors from the photo using many art apps, the workflow would be more awkward and the accuracy of the color match would be questionable. Using the Apple Pencil to grab colors from the real world would make the whole experience far more intuitive and seamless.
Source: USPTO
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