Fresh on the heals of being named the Most Innovative Device Manufacturer of the Year at Mobile World Congress 2014, LG does something to make us scratch our heads. Check out this image from tipster @evleaks:

It appears to be a slap-bracelet stylus. Though it is unique, LG is not the first to offer such a product, not by a mile. Back around the 2013 holiday season, we featured a company that makes all sorts of mobile accessories: CHIL. One of these accessories is a Slap Stylus:

According to a Geek.com article, “Earlier this year, it was discovered that LG filed a patent for a stylus that doubled as a slap bracelet so one could easily lug it around and prevent themselves from losing it.”¹ The patent shows that the two are, in fact incredibly different. It appears that LG has some pretty major plans for this stylus.

According to LG’s patent application, the stylus will have a secondary role as, “a short-range communication module mounted to a second end of the body and configured to communicate with a mobile terminal located within range of the short-range communication module; and a control module configured to control the short-range communication module to transmit and receive an electric signal to and from the mobile terminal.” So what on earth does that mean?

A diagram illustrating an example of a method for controlling a mobile terminal, using a touchscreen of a display module according to still further embodiment of the present invention

Essentially, then, the slap stylus is – or rather will be – much more than a simple stylus. LG envisions this accessory to be a sort of short-distance wearable that can sync to a mobile device. More of a watch-lite, if you will, lacking the top-level functionality of some of the higher end smartwatches.