Does anyone know of a Tablet PC that can input w
Does anyone know of a Tablet PC that can input writing from two pens simultaneously? I am ambidexterel.
Nope. The tablet can only recognize one pen at a time. I used to play tablet pool with my friend with each of us having one pen. It worked pretty well as we couldn't mess with each other's shots with the other pen. Using two pens would be pretty cool. I would feel like Darth Maul.
Yeah, I dont think a regular tablet can at all... Theoretically, you would likely need some proporietary software that would allow 2 pens to be doing something at the same time.
Wow... that would be cool, but very tricky from a hardware perspective. I think you would probably have to have two seperate digitzers for this to work (based on the current technology anyway). The way the digitizers are currently designed it only senses pressure at one point on the screen at a time (although it senses extremely rapidly, hundreds of samples per second). I'm not an expert on digitizer technology, but I don't really see that there would be a way to get around this using software.
Well it doesn't really sense pressure. When pressure is applied to the pen tip, the pen sends a different signal to the tablet. To demonstrate, hold your finger over the point of the pen and move the pen towards the screen, you'll see that the tablet reacts is if you are clicking. I think given that the digitizer only senses the signal of the pen, a software solution could be devised, albeit it would be very tricky.
I remember hearing the Microsoft people talking about some unique ID in the actual pens so that if you had several pens, you could like assign a different colour to each or something. Maybe I just misunderstood what they were saying though.
This is where they were talking about it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/theshow/Ep...36/default.asp
I copied the part of it from the transcript:
SAM GEORGE: I'm going to set the default drawing attributes property. The default drawing attributes property controls the drawing attributes that are rendered to the screen any time a new cursor appears on the screen. So if I had six or seven pens, each one as it came up would be associated with those drawing attributes. Now if I want, I could actually assign different drawing attributes to each of my pens, if I have more than one pen.
ROBERT HESS: You're talking physical pens now?
SAM GEORGE: Physical pens, yeah.
ROBERT HESS: So his pen works different than your pen, kind of?
SAM GEORGE: Yes. Yeah, it would have a different ID and it could pick up a different drawing attribute.
ROBERT HESS: I didn't know that.
I would like to try-writing with two hands on a Tablet. It would redefine writing as we know it. :-)
My aunt is ambidextrous and can write with both hands simultaneously (not all ambidextrous people can). She says it was very handy when the Nuns would make her write something on the blackboard a hundred times.
Awhile back in the Toshiba Forum there was a discussion about replacement pens not working correctly and the cause maybe being a bad lot. I had already ordered my replacement pen for the 3505 as this thread broke out. I recall receiving the replacement pen and pulling it out of the box and giving it a try and it exhibted the same problems and behavior that others complained of. (leaving small ghost-like lines in journal as you wrote, being difficult to calibrate, this sort of thing.)
Before I called CDW to get a return authorization I tried a few experiments. I shut down the tablet completely and removed the first pen from its holder and took it across the room. I then placed the new pen in the holder and fired up the machine. The problems seemed to diminish.
Secondly, I brought the other pen back to the machine, rebooted and tried to see if the original problems were reproduced. They were. Almost by accident I had both pens close to the screen at the same time. This caused all the bad behavior to completely disappear. And the problem never duplicated itself again, ever.
Now, I have no idea what that means for this discussion or what the causes/effects were. But I as I recollect the experience it seems more than tangential.
My laptop has a trackpoint (nipple) and a graphics tablet. If I attempt to use both at once I get a very confused computer. (I wonder what would happen if I plugged in a USB and a PS/2 mouse as well... Molten laptop, possibly.)
The problem is this goes against the grain of the whole Windows interface. The pen is your mouse after all, and with it you are telling the operating system what it should be paying attention right now. Windows isn't designed to switch between contadictory simultaneous inputs. This illustrates how fundamentally a tablet really differs from paper.
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