Google this week added its name to a growing number of companies that support an open active stylus standard. It officially joined the Universal Stylus Initiative along with 3M Lattice Semiconductor, Maxeye Smart Technologies, MyScript, and Tactual Labs.
The USI, which released its first specification last year, says it now has more than 30 member-contributors. The organization was formed in 2015 for the express purpose of developing and promoting an open industry specification for an active stylus.
The USI 1.0 specification lets hardware makers take advantage of the non-proprietary active stylus protocol. It ensures compatibility between devices made by different companies. In other words, consumers will be able to buy a stylus made by one company and be confident that it will work on the hardware made by another company.
The spec also introduced the ability for multiple styluses to work together on a single screen, and it can handle up to 4,096 points of pressure to enable a variety of use cases.
The USI 1.0 spec can be implemented on phones, tablets, computers, and other touch-based platforms.
