Andreas points to this interesting article of unusual use of iPad for photographers (though it could work for many others too).
Update:
Just one word from Ctein made me take notice: "yet". As in "there's no pressure sensitive pen for the iPad. Yet."
I had sort of been thinking that pressure sensitivity was build into the Wacom Cintiq itself, which is silly now I think about it: it has to be in the pen! In connection with software in the tablet, of course. The pad has bluetooth, I don't see any barrier for anybody making a pressure-sensitive pen for the iPad for making professional art. And then we will for the first time have a quality, serious alternative for artist to to the exclusive Wacom machine. Not to mention the iPad is portable, much cheaper, self-powered, wireless, and can do a ton of other things the Cintiq can't. Very interesting.
8 comments:
Well, a pen supposed to transmit more than it's touch position (pressure/angle) needs energy. And I don't think the iPad can supply it wireless the way a Wacom does; i.e., such a pen would need a battery, as opposed to the Wacom offerings...
Well, it could be wired, or use a battery.
But Bron points here. It seems somehow it does it using a "dead" pen, a Pogo.
I'm a little suspicious: how does the iPad feel the pressure?
I'm a little suspicious: how does the iPad feel the pressure?
It doesn't. In many applications, such as music keyboards, velocity is used to substitute, or synthesize, pressure information.
The same could be done on an iPad. Whether some iPad app does that or not, I have no idea.
I have seen that at least one app does it with velocity. Which is great. But this company claims it is by pressure.
Which company?
Ten One Design. here.
From watching the demo, it looks like it's a combination of velocity and stylus tip area.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple introduced an API call for this in a future version of iOS.
It would be very convenient because then if a future iPad did get real hardware based pen pressure, the implementation of the API could then use that and Apps would work unchanged, only better.
Pressure sensitivity would surely be useful for a surprising number of things, just like device motion turned out to be.
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