Microsoft Wants to Bring a Small Touchscreen to the Surface Pen

As part of its commitment of keeping the Surface Pen an essential part of its Surface experience, Microsoft continues to look into ways to improve the stylus, and one such method is described in a patent called Dynamic Interaction Adaption of a Digital Inking Device.

The patent (via WL) describes a Surface Pen that uses a small touch display to adapt to different apps and provide options accordingly, much like the Touch Bar does on Apple’s MacBook.

For example, if you’re just browsing the web, the display can serve as a launcher for installed apps and highlight notifications for emails or messaging software. On the other hand, when you’re drawing or writing with a pen, the screen can show options like colors, additional brushes, or let you adjust thickness.

Integrated touchscreen

The abstract section of the patent provides us with a closer look at how the display can work on a Surface Pen:

“A digital inking device can automatically adapt its interaction modality to provide contextually relevant status information and contextually relevant user interface control elements based on a user's activity. An interaction model of a digital inking device can automatically adapt the display of particular control user interface control elements and particular status indicators based on one or more factors.

For example, a digital inking device can select an interaction model from a number of interaction models based on a way a digital inking device is held by a user, a fingerprint of a user, an angle and/or distance of a digital inking device with respect to a paired computer, a particular grip a user has on a digital inking device, an amount of pressure that is used to hold a digital inking device, a contact pressure between a digital inking device and a paired computer, and/or one more gestures performed by a user.”

While patents are typically pretty solid evidence regarding the way companies see the future of their products, they aren’t by any means confirmation that something new is heading to users, so a Surface Pen with an integrated screen may never get the go-ahead unless Microsoft thinks this is something that could work.