Can anyone reccomend a decent, and relatively inexpensive, writing tablet ? I have a program for taking down written notes. Unfortunately trying to write with a mouse comes out looking worst than a doctors prescription. Looking for something simple, that plugs into a USB port and can be easily moved from machine to machine, works on Linux, Windows, Mac, etc.
I keep my 2 feet on the ground, and my head in the twilight zone.
Wacom Bamboo. $50-60 online, will work with OS X or Windows. Not sure if there's a driver for Linux.
On Edit: There is: http://www.wacom.com/productsupport/linux.cfm
Last edited by NQ6U; 02-06-2011 at 01:15 PM.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
Looks interesting. What if an optical sensor (similar to that used on a mouse) were placed into a kind of stylus, such that it is held in the fingers similar to a pen. The user could then write against any optical sensor friendly surface (i.e. a desk, peice of paper, etc.) and the writing would come out on screen. It should be relatively easy to build such a device using parts from a standard mini laser or optical mouse.
I keep my 2 feet on the ground, and my head in the twilight zone.
Building the device itself would be the easy part, it's writing the drivers that would be tricky. I know you can program to some extent, John, but writing that low-level stuff is a real art.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
In an earlier life I used tablets for input to CAD programs, both with "puck" and "stylus" sensors. The puck style was best for selecting menu items and digitizing drawings and graphs, the stylus was supposed to be better at freehand tasks. What I found was that without visual feedback at the sensor, it was difficult for me to obtain good stylus control. I had difficulty closing the motor-visual feedback loop while "writing" on a tablet and viewing the screen. Your mileage may vary, of course, and I'd wager Albi may have some valuable input to give on this particular aspect of computer graphics.Originally Posted by n2ize
Building a stylus such as you described shouldn't be difficult at all, from either a hardware or software perspective, if one is willing to sacrifice an optical mouse for components. On the hardware end, you may have to move the illuminator, optical sensor, and electronics away from the point and use a light pipe to reach the tip; even a plastic light pipe might work, depending on the illumination wavelength. If you don't change the electronics, it will still look like a mouse to the OS.
73,
When I got my first laptop with a trackpad, it took me about a month before I felt as adept with it as I did a mouse. Same deal with a graphics tablet--when I was doing a lot of Photoshop work (and actually getting paid for it), I would spend my entire day using a tablet and got quite good with it. I think it's just a matter of working at it.
All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
it comes with a stylus.
"... and another thing about you democrats ... you all believe in science!" -- denny crane
In my case I want it mainly for some basic black & white note taking , perhaps with an occaisional splash of colour. The way i see it it would be easier for me to organize my handwritten notes digitally instead of having stacks of paper notebooks. I have started to digitize a lot of my notes by scanning them page by page. The tablet would allow me to either transcribe them direct or, copy them over to digitized form by hand.
I keep my 2 feet on the ground, and my head in the twilight zone.
In my case I want it mainly for some basic black & white note taking , perhaps with an occaisional splash of colour. The way i see it it would be easier for me to organize my handwritten notes digitally instead of having stacks of paper notebooks. I have started to digitize a lot of my notes by scanning them page by page. The tablet would allow me to either transcribe them direct or, copy them over to digitized form by hand.
I keep my 2 feet on the ground, and my head in the twilight zone.
I know. I am just wondering if it would be possible to incorporate the optics of a mouse into some kind of stylus.
I keep my 2 feet on the ground, and my head in the twilight zone.
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