Stylus Pen for Digital Drawing on Tablets

Pen computing returns: Revenge of the stylus

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For many years just about every portable device came with a stylus. Whether it was the revolutionary Eo Slate with its PenPoint OS, the doomed Apple Newton, the very successful PalmPilot, or Windows-based PDAs, a tiny stylus was necessary to navigate the shrunken version of applications they ran. Even the Tablet PC was tied closely enough to the stylus that the wave of computing it was supposed to usher in was called "pen computing."

In 2007, the introduction of Apple's iPhone changed all that. Suddenly there was a hot, new device that you could operate entirely with your ungloved finger. Stylus-based interfaces like Windows Mobile became extinct in record time. Fingers were the new mice for mobile. True stylus believers were stuck with cheesy capacitive pseudo-fingers that allowed them to smush things around on the screen. No matter how well-designed, capacitive styli are limited by the typically low resolution and lack of pressure-sensitivity of capacitive touchscreens.

To put my cards on the table, I'm a card-carrying member of the "I like to use a pen" school. As a photographer, I have several different Wacom tablets I use for Photoshop on the desktop. As a tech journalist I really wanted to find a tablet-based solution  for note-taking during talks and interviews that would let me ditch my reporter's notebooks. Capacitive stylus solutions, no matter how stylishly shaped, just didn't cut it for me. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one. The last couple years have seen a major revival in stylus-based products — bringing back the promise first offered by "pen computing."

Samsung uses Wacom for stylus-centric innovation

Samsung gets a lot of grief (and lawsuits) for imitating other firms' good ideas. In the case of active-stylus-based mobile computing, though, they have led the way with their extensive Note product line. With over 40 million units sold, a combination of large screen and note-taking capability has made the Note phablet one of the most popular high-end mobile devices. It's bigger sibling, the Note 10.1, has remained a niche product for die-hards like me, but definitely has a loyal following.

By using an active stylus in the Note, Samsung achieves several major advantages over a passive-stylus-based version. First, it is easy for applications to tell the difference between the pen and touch. That means that you can rest your hand or accidentally touch the screen while writing with the pen and not have it mess up your ink. Second, you get very high resolution to enable precision note-taking and drawing. Third, it is possible to detect the stylus even when it is only hovering over the display, allowing for some cool added features. Finally, you also get pressure-sensitivity, allowing more accurate modeling of different drawing and painting tools.

For the active stylus in the Note, Samsung — and later Microsoft — turned to leading tablet vendor Wacom to add the necessary sensing layer. Wacom uses Electro-Magnetic Resonance (EMR) technology to generate a small magnetic field that creates a resonance in the pen's other wise passive (non-powered) circuitry. Along with position, the sensor board receives data including the pen's speed, angle and writing pressure.

The downside of EMR is that it requires a separate layer of small antennas and a lower shield to block interference from other components. This can add as much as a millimeter to the thickness,  as well as to the weight and cost of Wacom-power devices — although the newest generation of Note products show that even EMR-equipped displays are getting thinner and lighter over time. A separate controller is also needed to turn the magnetic fields on and off based on pen location. Since fingers and capacitive styli don't have the same resonant circuits, the EMR sensor doesn't see them at all.

Wacom also has their own active-stylus tablets now — the Cintiq Companion product line. Cintiqs are clearly the king of stylus-based input. They've delivered high-quality pressure-sensitive input on a screen for years — but high-cost and dependence on PCs made them a special-purpose tool for well-heeled creatives. Now Wacom has extended the Cintiq product line to mobile, or at least portable, devices, with its Cintiq Companion products, available in both Windows 8 and Android versions. Their large size and high price tag will keep them out of the hands of all but a few, though.

Next page: Who is the stylus king?

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Stylus Pen for Digital Drawing on Tablets

Source: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/171438-pen-computing-returns-revenge-of-the-stylus

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