I go to MS Paint, and for fun, try to draw things with my mouse, but it’s hard to control.
Does anyone make a device that you could attach to the computer, that would look like a pen and you could use it with software like MS Paint?
I know they make tablet PCs but that’s not what I’m looking for. To be a bit more clear, what I want…
Instead of a mouse, there would be a device that looked like a pen. And I could draw a shape on the desk. The pen-like device (that is replacing the mouse) would then use a software program like MS Paint, to draw that shape.
Does that make sense? I’m sorry I can’t explain it better. I’m not looking to write on the screen as with a tablet PC, I guess I’m looking to replace the bulky mouse with an input device shaped like a screen, so I can use a program like MS Paint easier.
Does such a thing exist? If not, they should invent it
First, you might want to look at ‘graphics tablets’, which are not that much like tablet PCs. Graphics tablet - Wikipedia Basically, instead of your pen, you have something a bit like a bulky blank mousepad, that you plug into your computer, and you can draw on it with a plastic stylus.
To get a pen-shaped input device that you could ‘draw’ on with any surface, there would be a lot of technical issues to resolve I think. Detecting motion finely enough would be the big problem I think - optical-mouse technology might work, but you’d have to get very good at it to shrink it down to the size of a pen-head.
ETA: Darn it, tri-simulposted! I did check on preview, honest!!
I often use a graphics tablet instead of a mouse. This is possible on both Mac and PC. There’s a button on the side of the ‘pen’, which can be configured to give left and right clicks; moving the pen moves the pointer. Plus there’s the pressure-sensitive goodness of using it in programs like Photoshop, where the amount of pressure can be configured to control stroke width of lines, or their colour, or both, or other things…
I know this isn’t what you’re looking for, but Logitech used (may be still do) to make a pen that recorded what you hand wrote. You could then download it to your PC and OCR would transcribe it. I used to work for a major electrical retailer and we stocked it, but never sold any.
Would it really be that difficult to make a pen type thing? I ask because a ball point pen is simply a holder for ink and a ball that rolls, similar to a mouse. I think it is, right?
Sort of…
A mouse is a “relative” device. If you pick the mouse up, and put it down somewhere else, the cursor doesn’t move. A pen (when writing on paper) is an “absolute” device. If you pick the pen up, and move it somewhere else on the paper, it makes a mark there, not where you left off.
So, all current pen-type input devices require either a digitizer pad, or special encoded paper to use. Making a pen-type input device that would work on any surface would be a trick.
Actually there is at least one product, the Tablet Mouse, that claims to work on any surface. But it requires a sensor placed at the edge of the desk that tracks the tip of the pen.
I agree that a pen-shaped mouse (without absolute position measurement) would be of limited use. You’ll have to keep it in contact with the desk surface for it to register movement, and you have to keep it pointed in the same orientation (i.e. not roll the pen in your hand).
There was a light pen, like a poster, which was used years ago. It is basically a barcode scanner, and can be used like a Waccom tablet, but the tablet must be able to react to the light emitting from the pen.
Or perchance you are talking about this?. It seems to be an urban legend, but I did see images of a pen which supposedly projects its output from a small projector onto a piece of paper and such-like.
I suspect the OP is looking for something like this mouse pen. It’s exactly what it says it is: a mouse shaped like a pen or stylus and useable without the need for a tablet. Here’s another one.
