News from: Wacom Components Europe
Edited by: Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 16 January 2004
Note: Readers of the Editor’s free weekly email newsletter will have read this news the week it was announced. . It’s free!
A new ultra personal computer launched at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas makes full use of Penabled technology for navigation, drawing and note taking.
The OQO computer, measuring just 104 x 86 x 23mm, fits into a pocket yet runs off-the-shelf Windows XP and supports all existing Windows applications.
The OQO computer features a super thin Wacom digitiser, mounted behind an ultrabright, near-print quality 200dot/in colour display.
The display is optimised for hand viewing at a typical distance of 200-500mm inches from the eye.
Penabled technology allows for fully luminous colour transmission, making the display clearer and colours more vivid.
It also removes the issue of border "dead zones", substantially increasing the input area.
OQO users can use the Penabled cordless and batteryless pen directly on the computer's high-resolution screen for menu navigation and selection as well as handwritten notes using third party software.
The Penabled pen's pressure sensitivity allows for more flexible and accurate handwriting and drawing.
In addition, side switches allow right, left and double clicking and can also double as an eraser.
"The OQO ultra personal computer is a ground-breaking product that creates a new category in the personal computer industry - that of pocket-sized, full function computers", said Justin Staines, Sales and Marketing Director, Wacom Components.
"We are very pleased to have worked with OQO on this project".
"OQO relies on Wacom's Penabled technology to bring the benefits of a cordless and batteryless digital pen to the new generation of highly mobile PC users", said Jory Bell, CEO of OQO.
"Shrinking an entire pen-enabled notebook computer into the pocketable OQO required using the best available components.
Only Wacom's exceptional Penabled solution met our designers' criteria for performance, reliability, and miniaturisation".
Penabled technology creates a natural interface between users and electronic devices to enable simpler, more flexible and intuitive interaction.
The Penabled solution's ability to recognise the position of the pen and the pressure it is putting on the display screen is the main benefit for end users: they can create lines that are wider or darker according to how hard the pen is pressed.
In addition, as there is no need for contact with the screen for input activity, as the pen can hover up to 14mm from the display, enabling for a mouse-like interface.
The penabled cordless and batteryless pen uses Wacom's patented technology in which an electromagnetic signal is sent from a sensor board to a pen and returned for position analysis.
A grid of wires in the sensor board alternates between transmit and receive modes about every 20us.
In transmit mode, the sensor board's signal stimulates oscillation in a coil-and-capacitor resonant circuit in the pen.
In receive mode, the energy of the resonant circuit oscillations in the pen is detected by the sensor board's antenna grid and analysed for position, pressure, tilt and other information.
