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Pressure-sensitive drawing on the iPad

by Mike Schramm Jul 2nd 2010 at 9:00AM


Ten One Design has made a reputation for themselves by providing tools and technology to turn touch-sensitive surfaces into drawing tablet style interfaces. They sell a Pogo Stylus that works along with the capacitive touchscreen of the iPhone to make it an even better tool for artists. And in the video above, they're showing off a tech demo that seems to have a modified version of the Pogo Stylus that makes pressure-sensitive drawing possible on Apple's iPad.

Unfortunately, Ten One doesn't have software to sell yet; the tech above uses a private API call, which means it couldn't be approved on the App Store. As far as I can guess, they're somehow passing pressure information back through the stylus to the iPad, since the iPad's screen itself isn't pressure sensitive at all.

No matter how they're doing it, though, it's cool. I don't think this is exactly what Jobs expects the iPad to be used for, so it's not likely that we'll see official pressure sensitivity on an iOS device very soon. But it's cool to see a video like this that shows off the potential.

Update: As a few of our observant commenters noted, there's no Bluetooth call here -- the private API call is just tracking the size of the touch on the iPad's screen -- bigger touch means more pressure and a wider stroke. That does seem like something Apple could eventually implement, so hopefully they will make that official in the future.

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Ten One Design has made a reputation for themselves by providing tools and technology to turn touch-sensitive surfaces into drawing...
 

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Northorn

Try out OmniSketch for iPad. It's an amazing procedural drawing.

July 05 2010 at 11:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
caleb

Palm rejection/detection could get me interested in an iPad. Who wants to write with their fingers?

July 02 2010 at 3:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark 2000

This looks great and would make me rethink the iPad. But!!! Take a look at the lag. There was about a half a second between drawing and lines coming up. That's totally not acceptable. They're going to need to polish this before it becomes a reality.

July 02 2010 at 2:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
AdamY

Anyone got a clue as to whether or not "palm detection" and "pinch-to-zoom" are mutually exclusive?

I'm dying for a note-taking app with "palm detection" like Penultimate, but my handwriting is so bad, that without "pinch-to-zoom" or "two-finger scroll" actions, it basically looks awful (or awfully big).

I'm worried that the palm register is excluded in such a manner as to shut down P2Z/2FS. Any thoughts?

July 02 2010 at 1:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Kingery

i always wondered if they would incorporate a pressure sensor that could communicate to the ipad via bluetooth... i guess this works as well.

July 02 2010 at 10:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Pyromuffin

Yeah, I figured it would be a bluetooth accessory and report pressure data back that way. I suppose that would increase the already (much too) high price of the pogo stylus, however. Maybe it would be a fun DIY project.

July 02 2010 at 10:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cy Starkman

I would have thought it rather basic.

Have pogostick, with pressure tip, Bluetooth the pressure data as an accessory into the iPad. No private calls required.

They could license Brushes to promote it. Apps could be compatible etc.

July 02 2010 at 10:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TIm

I think that would be so cool, if they could release that .. would be perfect sitting in class and take notes that way .. or annotate a PDF.

Tim

July 02 2010 at 9:49 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brian

I've tried this with inklet on the MBP and the results were okay. I wouldn't get my hopes up for a Cintiq experience on the iPad, but a great step in the right direction for using the iPad as a mobile sketch pad.

July 02 2010 at 9:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
redravenwing

They aren't using a special stylus, its just a standard pogo, they actually say that right at the start. They are probably just basing pressure on how much area is covered by the tip of the stylus the harder you press. Apple doesn't current give an API call for that, just to register a touch event, not to track the size of that touch.

July 02 2010 at 9:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to redravenwing's comment
RandomTUWCommenter

Exactly what I wanted to say.

It's a pity, though, because the relevant API calls *are* exposed on multi-touch MacBooks. In fact, that's how their "thumb detection" (recognizes a resting 'click thumb' and will ignore its movements) works.

July 02 2010 at 9:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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