Benefits of a graphics tablet..

[x-ray]

I have a medium size INTUOS 2 that I've had for years. I think it's a 6x8 which is just about right for me. I also have a smaller one and don't care for it after using the larger one for so long. The small one is just too cramped.

I use mine every day and hate using a mouse now. Like mentioned above about half the people I know that have them are split between love and hate. I personally love mine and don't think I could go back to a mouse. I think at some point I will buy a smaller cintique.

 

[damien.murphy]

3d scanning gesture controllers are not that new - I used several for video art installations starting in the early nineties, and even back then there was a choice among several that could be bought off the shelf. Arguably this thing seems to be way more accurate, but even back then it did not fail on accuracy, but on comfort. The only niche where these devices succeeded was for hand tracking in consumer research.

Then and now waving your hands about in front of a monitor stinks in terms of ergonomics - manipulating the air in front of you without any resistance is much harder than it might seem, and can hardly be done for hours on end, as any T'ai Chi practitioner can tell you. And doing so at a micro scale is even more strenuous. I severely doubt that this thing will make it into a mouse replacement for nine-to-five jobs...

Yes, would imagine the technology has been there for a while, I guess just surprised to consider it on a mainstream level. I hear what you say about repetitive gestures, etc, still I can see this coming to an Apple near me soon, seems right up their street, can almost imagine the Apple video right now.. lol

 

[intheviewfinder]

3d scanning gesture controllers are not that new - I used several for video art installations starting in the early nineties, and even back then there was a choice among several that could be bought off the shelf. Arguably this thing seems to be way more accurate, but even back then it did not fail on accuracy, but on comfort. The only niche where these devices succeeded was for hand tracking in consumer research.

Then and now waving your hands about in front of a monitor stinks in terms of ergonomics - manipulating the air in front of you without any resistance is much harder than it might seem, and can hardly be done for hours on end, as any T'ai Chi practitioner can tell you. And doing so at a micro scale is even more strenuous. I severely doubt that this thing will make it into a mouse replacement for nine-to-five jobs...

It's very accurate (the math involved is pretty cool) and detects digit movement. There's a neat paint program that allows for some very intuitive brush strokes that emulate pressure very nicely. The developers kit is pretty good even at this early stage but I can see that once folks get their hands on it the feedback loop should cause some wonderful improvement.

We've all ready seen what Apple's touch screen technology has done to nine-to-five jobs so I wouldn't be so fast predicting what will happen with this technology. There are a lot of physical problems cause by mouse technology including tendonitis, carpal tunnel or some other repeitive stress injury. It's been around a long time and I believe a tech shift is in the offing.

--Rich

 

[damien.murphy]

Just a quick one, to say thanks for all the advice offered, you've given me a good overview of using and selecting a tablet, and have a much better idea of what I would seek, should I decide to pick one up to try in the near future and see if a tablet is for me 🙂