What is a digitizer? If you, like many other web users, do not recognize anything even familiar in this term, then this article is definitely for you. In it we will analyze in detail what it is and what it is eaten with, as they say.
Digitizer - what is it?
A digitizer is a physical device for entering handwritten information into a computer: be it text or graphics. The digitizer consists of a special manipulator called the “Pen” and the working surface in the tablet form factor, for which the digitizer is often called a graphic tablet.
This device has gained significant popularity these days mainly due to the fact that it opens up many opportunities in the field of both professional and amateur graphics. However, do not confuse it with scanners. Although they have the same essence, the methods for fulfilling the ultimate goal are different. For example, an X-ray digitizer was created only for digitizing X-ray images, however, according to the method of performing its task, it refers to digitizers.
The origins
The first questions that need to be answered by studying the digitizer: “What is this?”, “When did it appear?”, “How does it work?”, “What are its capabilities?” And if the first question we gave a short but informative answer above , then we only have to answer the following questions.
The first graphic tablet, or rather its prototype, was designed back in 1888 by the industrialist Elias Gray. His idea, of course, was ahead of its time, although it was based on the telegraph, universally known in those years, but Gray did not receive a timely patent for technology. The technology itself consisted of several stages:
- In paragraph “A”, a person, using a special electronic table, creates the graphic image or sequence of characters he needs.
- When a special “Pen” came into contact with the table, electrical signals arose that were instantly read and sent through the communication channel to point “B”.
- In paragraph “B”, the received signals were captured by special drives, which repeated the given pattern on paper.
This method was extremely complex and disadvantageous for large-scale production. That is why it was used only for signing particularly important documents at a distance.
Principle of operation
Well, we figured out what digitizers are and when their first prototype appeared. However, modern graphics tablets are somewhat different in their technological solutions. Consider what types of digitizers you may now meet.
Acoustic digitizer - what is it?
One of the first graphic tablets was just acoustic. The pen used to draw the pattern exuded a certain type of sound waves called “sound sparks,” which were captured by the speakers provided in the tablet. With the help of triangulation, the position of the pen in space was determined, and this is how the image was digitized.
However, this technology had one significant drawback: the digitization process had to be carried out in perfect silence, otherwise the speakers would pick up outside noise and visible noise would appear on the image.
Electromagnetic
In 1964, the design of graphic tablets underwent a significant rethinking. Now, under the working surface of the tablet, there was a network of thin wires conducting a weak current, which created an electromagnetic field. Leading it with a pen, it was possible to change this very field, and fix the changes and convert them into a picture.
Inactive pen
The principle of inactive pen was a timely breakthrough in the field of graphic tablets. Indeed, now, thanks to this technology, the pen remained completely autonomous, since the tablet itself now worked as a signal source and as its receiver at the same time, and the pen should only change the electromagnetic field accordingly.
Active pen
In this case, the signal source was moved to the pen, which, of course, required supplying power to it, however, as practice shows, this layout option allows you to achieve better quality that the digitizer can produce: photos, or rather, their processing, animation and graphics have become noticeably better.
Sensor
In models of recent years, a sensory system has been successfully used. That is, wires are located under the screen, but the working surface itself is separated from them by a thin insulator sensitive to pressure. This technology allows the artist to write even 3D-drawings.
Conclusion
So we figured out the concept of "digitizer". What is it, what types of tablets are, how they are arranged - now you know the answers to all these questions.