There have been many attempts to categorize the technologies that have been used for graphic tablets: The actual drawing accuracy is restricted to pen's nib size. Typically tablets are characterized by size of the device, drawing area, its resolution size («active area», which is measured in lpi), pressure sensitivity (level of varying the size of strokes with pressure), number of buttons and types and number of interfaces: Bluetooth, USB etc. In the 1980s, several vendors of graphic tablets began to include additional functions, such as handwriting recognition and on-tablet menus. Competing tablets were eventually produced the tablets produced by Atari were generally considered to be of high quality. Though originally designed for the Apple II, the Koala eventually broadened its applicability to practically all home computers with graphic support, examples of which include the TRS-80 Color Computer, Commodore 64, and Atari 8-bit family. The first home computer graphic tablet was the KoalaPad, released in 1983. In 1981 also was released an Quantel Paintbox color graphic workstation This model was equipped with a first pressure sensitive tablet. In 1981, musician Todd Rundgren created the first color graphic tablet software for personal computers, which was licensed to Apple as the Utopia Graphic Tablet System. ![]() This technology also allowed Proximity or "Z" axis measurement. These tablets used a magnetostriction technology which used wires made of a special alloy stretched over a solid substrate to accurately locate the tip of a stylus or the center of a digitizer cursor on the surface of the tablet. These digitizers were used as the input device for many high-end CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems as well as bundled with PCs and PC-based CAD software like AutoCAD. This lower cost opened up the opportunities for would be entrepreneurs to be able to write graphics software for a multitude of new applications. The Bit Pad model was the first attempt at a low cost graphics tablet with an initial selling price of $555 when other graphics tablets were selling in the $2,000 to $3,000 price range. Key to this accuracy improvement were two US Patents issued to Stephen Domyan, Robert Davis, and Edward Snyder. This embedded processing power allowed the ID models to have twice the accuracy of previous models while still making use of the same foundation technology. The ID model was the first graphics tablet to make use of what was at the time, the new Intel microprocessor technology. The Summagraphics digitizers were sold under the company's name but were also private labeled for HP, Tektronix, Apple, Evans and Sutherland and several other graphic system manufacturers. The system was fairly complex and expensive, and the sensors were susceptible to interference by external noise.ĭigitizers were popularized in the mid-1970s and early 1980s by the commercial success of the ID (Intelligent Digitizer) and BitPad manufactured by the Summagraphics Corp. The clicks were then triangulated by a series of microphones to locate the pen in space. The acoustic tablet, or spark tablet, used a stylus that generated clicks with a spark plug. The stylus received the signal by capacitive coupling, which could then be decoded back as coordinate information. The RAND Tablet employed a grid of wires under the surface of the pad that encoded horizontal and vertical coordinates in a small electrostatic signal. Better known (and often misstated as the first digitizer tablet) is the RAND Tablet also known as the Grafacon (for Graphic Converter), introduced in 1964. The first graphic tablet resembling contemporary tablets and used for handwriting recognition by a computer was the Stylator in 1957. The first electronic handwriting device was the Telautograph, patented by Elisha Gray in 1888. Some tablets are intended as a replacement for the computer mouse as the primary pointing and navigation device for desktop computers. The image is shown on the computer monitor, though some graphic tablets now also incorporate an LCD screen for more realistic or natural experience and usability. The device consists of a rough surface upon which the user may "draw" or trace an image using the attached stylus, a pen-like drawing apparatus. ![]() Capturing data in this way, by tracing or entering the corners of linear polylines or shapes, is called digitizing. It can also be used to trace an image from a piece of paper that is taped or otherwise secured to the tablet surface. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten signatures. A graphics tablet (also known as a digitizer, digital graphic tablet, pen tablet, drawing tablet, or digital art board) is a computer input device that enables a user to hand-draw images, animations and graphics, with a special pen-like stylus, similar to the way a person draws images with a pencil and paper.
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