Google has just joined the Universal Stylus Initiative, an organization that promotes pen usage and tries to achieve an unified standard for styli on mobile devices. Such accessories have been used on Galaxy Note devices, some tablets and even some convertibles and laptops launched over the past years.
Google is now part of the USI (Universal Stylus Initiative), that serves to adopt an unified and standardized stylus specification. Actually, the big G is just one of the 5 new members, including 3M, Touch Systems, Lattice Semiconductor, Maxeye Smart Technologies and MyScript.
The total membership is at 30 companies and includes big names like Intel, Lenovo, Synaptics and Wacom. Dell, LG Display and Sharp are also in the mix. The USI 1.0 Stylus and Device Specification was finalized back in September 2016, allowing various pens from a variety of companies to work on multiple devices. That works via a two-way communication protocol, that shares data like pressure levels, button presses and eraser operation.
Starting with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Google proposed a standard data format for stylus connections via Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy and USB. The standard also supports 9 axis inertial measurement and 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. With Google on board we may just see more Chrome OS tablets like the leaked Acer one getting their share of stylus action.
