Qualcomm Ultra Sound NotePad

Gadorian

Hey, polycounters
Just saw this neat gadget on the interwebs, just wanted to share the news. What do you think about it? Discuss.

"Qualcomm has demonstrated how a device equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor and special microphones can listen for vibrations made by a pen. Inside the tablet there are microphones that can hear ultrasonic vibrations from our digital pen. Snapdragon can use this ultrasonic data to figure out what you’re writing, even if you’re not touching the screen."

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/qualcomm-ultra-sound-notepad-digitises-your-notes-video-05-01-2014/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9w2oEWZ-mY

Two Listen

In the immediacy of the moment, I don't see a whole lot of information and what I do see isn't that alluring. The main draw is not having to draw on a tablet, since we have plenty of solutions for that already.

It says "inside the tablet in this video are microphones that can hear ultrasonic vibrations from our digital pen", ok, but do I always need to use that pen? If so, what type of pen is it? How accurate is it? Do factors like type of paper you're writing on influence precision? Do I always need to have the tablet 4 inches away from whatever I'm writing/drawing or do I actually have some space to work? How does it track where you want the marks (or starting marks) to go on the screen if there's no tablet surface to map it out? Will it work in anything other than some proprietary software the company has on the tablet? If not, how good is that software - can I work on a decent canvas at a high ppi, or is it only worthwhile for simple sketches with simple tools?

Though really - ignoring all of those questions, unless it's direct input going from pen -> my desktop PC, I can't see myself wanting it regardless of the answers to those questions. I already have a "middle man" going from paper to my PC, a scanner, and it's probably a lot more precise than any of this could be.

Edit: I will note I watched the video without sound, so if any of those questions were answered in the video, feel free to let me know.