A recent patent filed by Microsoft has revealed that the company might be working on a rather interesting Surface Pen that could also double up as a Bluetooth earpiece. As of now, the patent has only been filed and not granted, something that can often take a considerable amount of time to happen.
According to the patent filing, the stylus in question will have a capacitive nib, will be flexible and will include a dock for an earpiece, allowing the stylus to double up as a wireless Bluetooth device. The patent, filed in 2017, calls this the Carpenter’s Stylus. The patent seems to imply that an earpiece, which will be a removable entity, will have a place at the end of the stylus to be docked and charged.
According to the patent, “The flexible portion has an integrated dock that can hold a dockable wireless earpiece. The earpiece dock securely stores the wireless earpiece and provides power to charge a battery of the wireless earpiece. The flexible portion of the carpenter’s stylus can be bent into a headset shape, allowing the whole peripheral to be worn over a user’s ear. When the carpenter’s stylus is worn as a headset, the earpiece remains fully functional. Thus, the user can wear the carpenter’s stylus on their ear, while also using the peripheral as a hands-free headset. Alternately, the earpiece can be removed from the carpenter’s stylus and used independently of the stylus body as the stylus body is used as a touch input device.”
There have long been rumours of Microsoft working on foldable form-factor devices, with the Andromeda being one of the first alleged devices Microsoft experimented with. However, the device never saw the light of day, potentially because Microsoft realised early on the problems that could crop up with foldable devices. Case in point is the Samsung Galaxy Fold, which ran into so many problems early into its review cycle that Samsung had to indefinitely push the product’s launch.
Just like with any other patent, there is no guarantee that Microsoft will actually launch a flexible Surface Pen. Many a time, patents are filed to protect future interests based on early concepts, and many a time, these devices never actually come to life.
