The smartphone or tablet stylus of the future could charge via NFC

Many touchscreen devices, mostly those intended to be light, portable and yet have powerful productivity features, offer pen support as a selling point. Therefore, they come with the slight drawback that this accessory needs to be charged occasionally, often continually off the gadget in question. Now, there might be a new and possibly more convenient way to do so in the works.

The near-field communication (NFC) Forum and Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) are interest groups for the development and standardization of their respective technologies. They have announced that they believe the two can be combined to give an improved pen experience.

This would involve integrating NFC charging (a possible spec of the future) into the implements in question. USI and the Forum project that the resulting styli will be able to use the wireless tech's 13.56MHz base frequency to charge at up to 1 watt (W) while simultaneously leveraging its ever-popular data-transfer ability.

This, then, might be an option for the iPad Pros or Galaxy Tab S devices of the future. Then again, according to recent rumors, it might be too late for the Galaxy Note line. However, phones such as future Moto G Stylus generations could come equipped with this new potential spec.