Graphic Tablets & Mind Reading Computers

Graphic Tablets

Introduction

When talking about a graphics tablet, most people would associate it with someone doing digital illustration. Few people realize that digital animators, AutoCAD users and digital photographers to name a few also heavily use it [1]. In parts of Asia, graphics tablets are used to write Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters[2].

But what is a graphics tablet for someone who has not encountered them? Graphics tablets are input devices similar to a keyboard and mouse. Instead of inputting typing or clicking the tablet acts as a digital canvas, upon which you can draw, just like on paper with a pencil or pen. The tablet translates the image into data on a computer [2][3].

History

Elisha Gray first created graphics tablets in 1888. The device was named a Telautograph and worked by transmitting a signature or drawing from one device to another over telegraph. It wasn’t until 1957 until a device that resembled modern graphics tablets was produced in the form of the ‘Stylator’. This worked via acoustics. The stylus equipped with a sparkplug, produced clicking noises when it touched the pad. This noise was picked up and triangulated by a series of microphones to pinpoint the location of the stylus in space. Issues with this method were that it was susceptible to interference by outside noises and expensive. In 1964 the RAND graphics tablet was introduced with technology that is the basis of modern graphics tablets. The Rand employed a series of wires laid in grids under the surface of a pad. These grids encoded horizontal and vertical coordinates via electronic signals. For the RAND tablet, the stylus would receive the signals and decode it and send it back as information, other tablets use varying methods similar to this [4][5][6][7].

How it works

The company Wacom holds many of the key patents on graphics tablets forcing competitors to devise different technologies or pay Wacom license fees [1][8].  This resulted in different technologies for graphics tablets being developed.

Passive technology

Passive tablets make use of electromagnetic induction technology between the tablet and stylus [8][9].

Active technology

Active tablets work much in the same way as passive tablets except they use a battery operated stylus that transmits a constant signal to the tablet instead of using electromagnetic fields [9].

Optical technology

Optical tablets use a digital camera inside the stylus which matches the pattern on the specially printed paper it is being used on locate its position on the paper [9][10].

Capacitive technology

Capacitive technology is widely used by mobile devices such as touchscreen mobile phones and tablet computers. It relys on the electricity produced by the human body to detect where and when on the display the user is touching. This means that a user can use the tablet without using a stylus or gloved hand, but rather light touches of a finger. Recent development of this technology has enabled gestures to be used on the tablet involving multiple fingers. On other tablet technologies a user is restricted to one point of contact at a time [9][11][12].

Conclusion

With graphic tablet technology getting cheaper it has opened the market up to the average user instead of the serious illustrator. People are beginning to use graphic tablets more for general computer usage as they reduce the risk of repetitive strain injury and seem more natural to people.

Bibliography

1. Before You Buy a Graphics Tablet – Sue Chastain (graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/a/graphicstablets.htm)
2. What is pen tablet? – huion (huion-tablet.com/about/press.php?id=13)
3. What Is a Graphic Tablet? – Beth Bartlett (ehow.com/about_5181024_graphic-tablet_.html)
4. The Telautograph – Jeremy Norman (historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=3270)
5. The Technological Development of Graphics Tablet through History – Shin (xja1.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/the-technological-development-of-graphics-tablet-through-history/)
6. The complete guide to digital illustration – Caplin, S, Banks, A & Holmes, N. (books.google.ie)
7. Tablets: Sought by Nobody, Hyped by Everybody – Thom Holwerda (osnews.com/story/22287/Tablets_Sought_by_Nobody_Hyped_by_Everybody)
8. EMR® (Electro-Magnetic Resonance) Technology – Wacom (www.wacom-components.com/english/technology/emr.html)
9. Learn how drawing tablets work and why they can benefit your drawing – Vincenzo (drawing-factory.com/how-drawing-tablets-work.html)
10. The Technology – Anoto (anoto.com/lng/en/pageTag/page:products/mode/view/documentId/1001/)
11. History of Pen and Gesture Computing: Annotated Bibliography in On-line Character Recognition, Pen Computing, Gesture User Interfaces and Tablet and Touch Computer –  jrward (users.erols.com/rwservices/pens/biblio85.html#Scriptel84)
12. United States Patent US4600807 – Kable (freepatentsonline.com/4600807.pdf)

 

Mind Reading Computers

Introduction

Historic advances in technology are occurring continually with new discoveries and devices being created that previously were thought to be regulated to the realms of science fiction a mere ten years ago. While it is not unheard of for ideas devised in science fiction to translate into real science, Star Trek has birthed countless ideas and inspiration for scientists over the years from handheld communicators [1][2] (mobile phones) to interstellar travel via warp drive (currently entering prototype phase by NASA) [2][3]. The concept of computers interacting with people’s minds directly and reading them is now quickly emerging from science fiction to reality.

Already there are simple devices, which can do this in a limited capacity such as the ‘Star Wars Force Trainer’ [4][5]. Which uses EEG headsets to control the speed of a fan that floats a plastic ball at varying degrees through a tube.

More advanced technology such as ‘EPOC’ by Emotiv[6][7], allows a user to interact with a computer on a basic level by moving objects across the computer screen and selecting specific items. It is tomorrow’s versions of this technology that will achieve complete mind to computer interaction that is currently being researched and beginning to bear fruit.

This groundbreaking work is being performed by a handful of neuroscientists across the globe. Both private businesses such as Intel [8] and IBM [9] and research labs such as UC Berkley [10][11][12][13] and Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Labs [14] are making advances in different areas of this new frontier.

These groups have been performing research for the last ten years and are now each producing their own results, so much so that IBM in their annual ‘5 in 5’ [15] report announced that in 5 years time, the keyboard and mouse would be obsolete and people would be able to control computers with their minds, navigating the internet aswell as writing and sending emails with a thought.

This is achieved by the computer being able to read a person’s thoughts directly rather than though keyboards and mice.

To understand how the technology works, first imagine the visual cortex is like a camera. It takes snapshots of what it sees and registers this information with the rest of the brain. This technology deciphers this indexing within the brain via detailed scans of the brain so it can reconstruct the image [10][12][13]. This is possible because the brain is basically just a bunch of neurons firing in sequences. The visual cortex alone has an estimated 300 million neurons firing at any one time. So it is a case of examining and understanding this.

Currently this is performed by using a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine (fMRI). A subject is shown thousands of random images as the fMRI takes readings of how the brain responds to each image. These readings are analysed and certain matching brain activity is attributed to details such as shape and colour. Eventually the computer compiles all of this data and creates a master decryption key that is used to identify and reconstruct almost any object the subject sees without the need to analyse the image beforehand. Currently the evaluation and recreation takes hours, but it is hoped to speed it up to the point of where the computer can read a mind in real time [10][11][12][13].

If this technology does become more streamlined and the possibility of its widespread use becomes a reality, what will it be used for and what ethics issues will it raise? The different researchers have differing ideas of how it would be used. Neuroscientist and head researcher, Jack Gallant in UC Berkley sees a wide range of uses for the technology, mainly medical. He envisions the technology being used to help with studies into Dream analysis, in the practice of psychotherapy and for communicating with people who cannot normally communicate such as ‘locked in’ patients or people with neurological diseases.

ATR Computional Neuroscience sees potential for Artists to express their creative imaginations more easily and without any loss in translation via lack of expertise with drawing. Both Intel and IBM researchers hope that the technology will create the ultimate interface between people and everyday devices like phones and computers.

Whichever the case it will certainly bring technology into a closer bond with people and society. With advanced enough forms of the technology Judges could use machines to look into a suspects mind and see their involvement or innocence of a crime, the insanity plea could be found to be fake or real. However there are large ethics issues such as the fears of people’s private thoughts being invaded by government agencies or 3rd parties such as hackers or companies.

But for now we can only speculate and await the development of this technology into mainstream society and hope that it is not abused and that people will simply use their heads.

Bibliography

1. Engineers of the Future Design Star Trek-Inspired Tricorder Device – Marissa Fessenden (blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/11/12/engineers-of-the-future-design-star-trek-inspired-tricorder-device/)
2. Star Trek technology: how 21st century scientists are making it so – Corrinne Burns (www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/oct/19/star-trek-technology-scientists)
3. Alcubierre drive – Ana Sayfa (www.zamandayolculuk.com/cetinbal/HTMLdosya1/AlcubierreWarpDrive2.htm)
4. Star wars force Trainer (starwars.com/shop/toys/the_force_trainer/)
5. Star Wars Force Trainer in action – Darren Quick (gizmag.com/star-wars-force-trainer/11304/)
6. Epoc Features (www.emotiv.com/epoc/)
7. How the Emotiv EPOC Works – Jane McGrath (electronics.howstuffworks.com/emotiv-epoc.htm)
8. Computers that read minds are being developed by Intel –  Richard Gray (telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7957664/Computers-that-read-minds-are-being-developed-by-Intel.html)
9. Beyond machines – Dharmendra S Modha (ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/business_analytics/article/cognitive_computing.html)
10. The quest to read the human mind – Lisa Katayama (popsci.com/science/article/2010-01/mind-readers)
11. Mind-Reading Tech Reconstructs Videos From Brain Images –  Dan Nosowitz (popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/mind-reading-tech-reconstructs-videos-brain-images)
12. Scientists Reconstruct Brains’ Visions Into Digital Video In Historic Experiment – Jesus Diaz (gizmodo.com/5843117/scientists-reconstruct-video-clips-from-brain-activity)
13. Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our mind – Yasmin Anwar (newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies/)
14. Scientists extract images directly from brain – Maywa Denki (pinktentacle.com/2008/12/scientists-extract-images-directly-from-brain/)
15. IBM: ‘Your PC will read your mind by 2016’ – Iain Thomson (theregister.co.uk/2011/12/20/ibm_five_future_technology/)