Microsoft patents Surface Pen with touch-sensitive retention clip

[javajolt]

Microsoft is constantly looking at refining their Surface Pen, and their latest idea would make the control device a better mouse replacement.

Microsoft envisions adding a touch-sensitive retention clip (yellow) to the stylus, which can then be used in lieu of a scroll wheel. They note that a scroll wheel on a mouse makes it very easy to navigate long web pages while using a stylus normally means having to very precisely access the scroll bars.



Microsoft also has a few other ideas for the technology, including putting the pen into a low power mode and only activating it when a touch on the clip is detected.

Adding a convenient scroll function to the pen does appear to address one of the big issues I have using the pen as my primary input device day to day.

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