Using the Pandora as a drawing tablet.

[PaulForey]

After watching lots of videos from EvilDragon, the idea struck me that a touch-screen surface attached to an open device could present a handy opportunity.


At first I just thought 'neat, I can practice non-mouse computer art using the pandora'. But then this occurred to me:


Would it be possible to somehow connect the Pandora to a host computer and use it's stylus and touch-screen as a sort of wacom tablet thingie?


I've got a little programming knowledge, and am always looking for projects which interest me which could improve my skills, but I don't know enough about this kind of hardware to know if this is even possible.


Any of the bright sparks here know?

 

[wardred]

I'd probably just go with a drawing program on the Pandora. I think they have the game controls & keyboard working as a usb and / or bluetooth controller, I'd imagine they could do the same for the screen.


It won't be as accurate as a Wacom, and probably limited pressure detection comparatively, but with the right driver it should work.


One thing that no drawing programs really do that I'd love to see, especially for small screens, is an "auto scroll." Say your work is 1024x768. Have the screen "auto scroll" your pointer relative to the position on your screen so you could draw a line from the top left corner to the bottom left, and the image is moved across the screen proportionately, rather than kinda sorta scroll as you hit an edge or a corner.


Edit: It's possible I haven't explored the options in the drawing programs close enough.

 

[rabidpoobear]

oh yes, it's quite possible, and not that difficult to boot. If you want screen sharing on the device it will be a little harder, but just syncing up the coords will be easy


I'm happy to mentor you in this project; where are you in the queue?

 

[-Tj-]

I'd love something like that. I'd like something like that for painting on Pandora first tho. I haven't kept up with software releases so I don't know what's there or not (other than Gimp), so perhaps there's already something there.


Would be neat to have something like this. Here's to hoping.

 

[rabidpoobear]

I wrote and mostly finished a pandora painting app about 8 months ago but since I don't have a Pandora to use it on I just let it sit.

 

[-Tj-]

Does your paint app support the pressure levels from the screen? Oh please, puh-leeeeze say yes it does...

 

[rabidpoobear]

Well it has full pressure support and works with wacom tablets as well. But no one ever helped me test the pandora pressure reading part. So it's a minor tweak I was never able to do.


Frustrating things like that are one of the many reasons I halted all my pandora dev.


If you are available at reasonable times, can chat on some IM program, and want this software then I'll see if I can track down the sources.


I think they released a painting app fairly recently that was supposed to be pretty good? What ever happened with that? Might be better than my program anyway, at least at this stage of development.

 

[PaulForey]

Those are some nice positive replies! Cheers for the info.


LukeVP, I really appreciate the offer of mentoring


I'm approximately number 3800 to 3900 in the queue, so it'll be a while yet.

 

[-Tj-]

Awesome! I really do need something for my Pandora (when it arrives... darn it) to paint with, and pressure support would be really, really handy. I'm in the same boat, no Pandora yet, probably around the 3000 mark. Looking forward to it.

 

[rabidpoobear]

Ah well i'm about 750 in craig's queue so I should be getting one right around the time they start shipping again. So I'll be able to test the software, and hopefully when you get it you can give it a test as well and give me some feedback!


Happy to help with code / other stuff whenever (applies to any of you guys on the boards), I may forget though so just send me a PM when you want assistance