Ask Slashdot: Digital Pens On Linux?

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Ask Slashdot: Digital Pens On Linux?

Posted by timothy on Thursday November 1, 2012 @01:45AM from the pen-envy dept.

New submitter Gonzalez_S writes "There are many digital pens out there, but none of them seem to work on Linux; unless you combine them with a tablet. I have contacted many vendors (Lifetrons, Dane-Elec, ApenUSA, IntelliPen..) and only Intellipen responded that there is very limited support for Linux. Do any of you know of a digital pen that works fine using Linux on normal paper? Some options to explore: can the pen work in real time on my PC screen? Can it function as a mouse? Can the pen work offline? Do I need a tablet (preferably not)? I would be happy if anyone shares a success story here, as they seem a great tool."

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Pen's by Razgorov+Prikazka · 2012-11-01 01:50 · Score: 1, Insightful

Must...
Resist...
To make...
Easy joke...
I have an analogue pen with ink. It can write 0010010010110100101110101 without a problem...
Sorry, it was to easy, couldn't resist...

--
rm -rf --no-preserve-root / ...and let /dev/null sort them out...
Wacom Inkling by nightgeometry · 2012-11-01 01:57 · Score: 3, Informative

The Wacom Inkling should work fine, I think - it just dumps out vector files.

--
The best is the enemy of the good
1. Re:Wacom Inkling by eric2hill · 2012-11-01 02:30 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxwacom/forums/forum/236871/topic/4686734
  The Wacom Inkling shows up as a drive with WPI files on it. It should work just fine in Linux since the heavy lifting is all done on the pen. And I didn't spend very long looking either.
  
  --
  LOAD "SIG",8,1
  LOADING...
  READY.
  RUN
2. Re:Wacom Inkling by jedidiah · 2012-11-01 03:23 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  > I didn't spend very long looking either
  That is why you fail.
  It's hard to find a working solution when you aren't really trying and you are only out to make a troll point.
  
  --
  A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
3. Re:Wacom Inkling by Fallen+Kell · 2012-11-01 04:57 · Score: 2
  
  The main userbase of Wacom's products are actually graphics artists. If you hang out and talk with any of them, they will tell you that they are very good.
  
  --
  We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
4. Re:Wacom Inkling by huruixd · 2012-11-01 06:00 · Score: 2
  
  So, here's my story: There was once I installed Ubuntu 8.10 on an Acer tablet laptop with a wacom digital pen. In order to make the digital pen work (fully functional, e.g. with the ability to detect pen tip force), I installed a driver provided by the Linux Wacom Project (http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxwacom/). It seemed to work very well. Although one can use it as a mouse, it provided a much higher resolution. In addition, it was pressure sensitive. It can detect the force applied on the pen tip. This can be verified by using a painting software such as Gimp. One can use a brush and see the stroke width variations after enabling the pressure-sensitivity option in the configuration. The same driver works for tablets as well. I have a wacom tablet pad which uses a USB cable to connect my computer running Ubuntu. I have been using it to collect digital ink data. It worked fine. If you are looking for a digital pen with which you can write on real papers, you may want to take a look at Digimemo (http://www.digimemo.com/). I had seen it worked on Linux by using some open source third party software. The software doesn't come with the product, but only for offline use. You can load the data into Journal and some tools. The format is very simple, so it is easy to write your own transformer code. I hope this will help you.
5. Re:Wacom Inkling by Spugglefink · 2012-11-01 23:57 · Score: 1
  
  5. Linux Desktop Users for the most part hate new technology.
  Not unjustifiably so. The older generation Wacom stuff worked beautifully. Wear it out, go buy the most similar thing still available for sale, download an experimental driver, upgrade your entire operating system, replace half the packages on your operating system with other packages from a PPA to get the driver to work, and then your new thing you paid big money for mostly half works. Older hardware is a much safer bet on Linux. It takes drivers a long time to catch up whenever there's some new product line instead of a minor evolution of the old product line.
May be this can answer your question ? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-01 02:02 · Score: 3, Informative

I don't know so much about digital pen or digipen on linux, but you can get some info in here:
http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index_old.php
Non-existent beast by vikingpower · 2012-11-01 02:03 · Score: 1

Here in Austria there is a saying: "You are looking for a woolly egg-laying milk sow". You actually might be.

--
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
1. Re:Non-existent beast by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-01 02:08 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  The linux Wacom driver project is maintained by a Wacom employee and has positive feedback
2. Re:Non-existent beast by IndustrialComplex · 2012-11-01 02:54 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  In standard Slashdot fashion, I'm going to suggest something that ISN'T what the author requested, but it is something I found very useful.
  In our office, we have an HP digital 'sender'. It is little more than a glorified sheet feed scanner, but it is VERY useful for me. I take a lot of handwritten notes in meetings, and I'm never using the same notepad or pen. The result is that while I'd love to automatically digitize my notes on the fly, there would be many times in which I would forget the digital pen and be stuck with 2-3 sheets of paper that required extra effort to digitize (if it was possible).
  Relying on the scanner station is actually VERY simple. I just grab my notes, drop them into the sheet feeder, and press the button (preset for me). in about 2s/page, the machine scans my notes, converts it to a PDF, and either emails it to me or stores in my LAN receiving folder. I'm not sure if the station can do OCR on the fly (I'm sure some do), but a simple script can kick off an OCR job whenever a file is received from the document scanner.
  The entire process can be unattended, and for me, I just grab my notes and drop them right into the shredder. (It took me about a month of notes before I trusted the machine not to mess up).
  However, it works pretty well once you get it going. My notes get stored as a PDF, and I don't have to worry about compatability with a pen/tablet or batteries, or losing the pen, or buying special paper.
  It's not a perfect solution, but I've found it very useful, and if you don't find a compatible digitizing pen, this might be a fallback option, albeit a non-portable option.
  
  --
  Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
3. Re:Non-existent beast by Hognoxious · 2012-11-01 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  Nip over the border and get a Mangalica. 3 out of 4 ain't bad.
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
4. Re:Non-existent beast by kumanopuusan · 2012-11-01 07:53 · Score: 1
  
  There are also whiteboards that automatically scan and optionally print copies of what is on the whiteboard. Everyone gets consistent, persistent notes.
  I don't know if there's a generic name, but Panaboard is the brand I've used.
  It's nice to have proof of what was and wasn't mentioned during meetings.
  
  --
  Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
5. Re:Non-existent beast by dandelionblue · 2012-11-01 09:52 · Score: 1
  
  When the OP says he doesn't want a tablet, does he mean he doesn't want a device like an iPad etc, or is he saying he doesn't want a graphics tablet? If the latter, isn't the Wacom project primarily for use of Wacom graphics tablets?
6. Re:Non-existent beast by Gonzalez_S · 2012-11-05 00:35 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, i agree partially as i am already using this solution from time to time, just using a scanner voor my notes (without a good OCR available unfortunately) The added value of having a digital pen would be to make screencast while using the pen. Maybe i should have added this in the post.
That ink in sig by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-01 02:05 · Score: 1

i listened to your song. It's corny.
It's all about pens. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-01 02:06 · Score: 4, Funny

What is it with Slashdot and pens today?
1. Re:It's all about pens. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-01 02:32 · Score: 1
  
  Detachable pens.
Not really following the command-line paradigm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-01 02:12 · Score: 3, Funny

I fail to see how a "digital pen" is useful to enter commands in a bash prompt, or how it could really help you edit your apache config files or smb.conf.
Now a VT220, I can see plenty of use for that, as well as a line printer, to print log files as such. You should get that stuff instead.
1. Re:Not really following the command-line paradigm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-01 06:28 · Score: 1
  
  The VT220 was an awesome terminal. It was *the* interface for the visionary DoD electronic health record system (CHCS) for decades. While it did take about three years to learn, it was wicked fast and you could be very efficient.
  Along comes AHLTA, a Windows (VisualBasic client, none the less) GUI and suddenly things crawled to a standstill. Docs are leaving the military to get away from it. While CHCS was "ugly" and seemed ancient ("DOS" is what people said, even if it was really VMX/MUMPS--character interface is what they mean) it made people safer and more productive.
  It is all in the eyes of the beholder.
  Oh, and who ever said that Linux wasn't for desktops has their head stuck up their C:> prompt.
2. Re:Not really following the command-line paradigm by sumdumass · 2012-11-01 06:53 · Score: 1
  
  Well, you simply haven't watched enough Hollywood movies then.
NEVER let him live that down by Thud457 · 2012-11-01 02:36 · Score: 2

This is made even funnier by the fact that Connery was Zed in Zardoz, which had the catechism :

The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was, but the gun shoots death, and purifies the Earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth ... and kill!

--
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1. Re:NEVER let him live that down by drinkypoo · 2012-11-01 03:37 · Score: 2
  
  Proof onsh again that everything is funniar when read aloud in a bad sean connery ocksent.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
digital pens by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-01 05:24 · Score: 2

So, here's my story:
There was once I installed Ubuntu 8.10 on an Acer tablet laptop with a wacom digital pen. In order to make the digital pen work (fully functional, e.g. with the ability to detect pen tip force), I installed a driver provided by the Linux Wacom Project (http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxwacom/). It seemed to work very well. Although one can use it as a mouse, it provided a much higher resolution. In addition, it was pressure sensitive. It can detect the force applied on the pen tip. This can be verified by using a painting software such as Gimp. One can use a brush and see the stroke width variations after enabling the pressure-sensitivity option in the configuration.
The same driver works for tablets as well. I have a wacom tablet pad which uses a USB cable to connect my computer running Ubuntu. I have been using it to collect digital ink data. It worked fine.
If you are looking for a digital pen with which you can write on real papers, you may want to take a look at Digimemo (http://www.digimemo.com/). I had seen it worked on Linux by using some open source third party software. The software doesn't come with the product, but only for offline use. You can load the data into Journal and some tools. The format is very simple, so it is easy to write your own transformer code.
I hope this will help you.
1. Re:digital pens by Gonzalez_S · 2012-11-05 00:44 · Score: 1
  
  About digimemo: u are suggesting http://digimemo.com/dp100.htm in combination with http://digimemo.com/l2.htm ? Any idea which open source third party software that is needed then?
LiveScribe by bluefoxlucid · 2012-11-01 07:03 · Score: 1

LiveScribe has the best pen, but you need to use a Windows VM through VirtualBox to make it work.
LiveScribe uses Anoto paper. This is because the pen has a difficult time determining where exactly it is on a big, white sheet of paper. Think like being a sailor on the ocean with a star-free sky, no sun, no landmarks, no compass. You're fucked. The pen uses the dot pattern on Anoto paper to position itself on the sheet, to determine what page it's on, what book it's in, everything. The pattern is unique; the pen has a database of patterns it can reference to find the positional information based on the pattern it's given (effectively a 2D hash table).
On the flip side, LiveScribe pens are really crappy pens. The journal is the nicest journal you'll ever get; the pen is a crappy pen, not even a gel pen, and it'll wear out in 50 pages (at 2 cents per page, given pen cartridge prices).

--
Support my political activism on Patreon.
1. Re:LiveScribe by CjKing2k · 2012-11-01 09:13 · Score: 2
  
  LiveScribe has the best pen, but you need to use a Windows VM through VirtualBox to make it work.
  There is also LibreScribe and smartpen-browser. Last time I ran either of these, they were still missing a lot of features.
2. Re:LiveScribe by BigVig209 · 2012-11-02 08:26 · Score: 1
  
  LiveScribe has the best pen, but you need to use a Windows VM through VirtualBox to make it work.
  https://github.com/aliendude5300/LibreScribe/wiki https://masterbranch.com/librescribe-project/1186535
3. Re:LiveScribe by Gonzalez_S · 2012-11-05 00:50 · Score: 1
  
  Looks very promising, tnx for the links
Re:It is a tool by sumdumass · 2012-11-01 07:08 · Score: 2

I think his asking is about finding out if there is a tool for Linux in this range. I'm sure he knows he will be stuck with windows or OSX if he can't find one.
Lets look at it another way. I always wanted a trip meter for my car that gave miles driven, fuel usage, RMP and several other pieces of information like Average MPG, Idle time and so on. I had this in a truck I owned in the late 1990s and understand they are common in newer cars. My alternative is to buy a new car if I went with only getting what works. On the other hand, I can buy something very similar that plugs into the car and gives me everything I need. There are several offerings for after market trip computers and you have the added benefit of on board diagnostics readings if the check engine light ever comes on. This is really the same as looking for a digital pen that will work in a specific environment instead of changing the environment altogether.
Re:Pens? Tablets dont work right by chromas · 2012-11-01 07:25 · Score: 1

Disable compositing on your desktop (alt+shift+F12 in KDE) to get decent refresh speed in Gimp and Blender.
A REALLY cheap one, with linux support by pjr.cc · 2012-11-01 09:02 · Score: 4, Informative

I have a CHEAP digital pen (cost me 25$) called the "greenpoint mobile notetaker" (which i think is a pegasus notetaker rebadged).... its ultra simple. it works under linux and what the linux software gives you is a simple svg map of what you drew on a piece of paper. Its just a normal pen with a little tracking unit that somehow tracks everything you write... I dont use it too much, but the times i have its not failed me so far.
http://scratchpost.dreamhosters.com/software/Pegasus_Notetaker/ will pull svg's from the pens tracking device thing
but it looks very much like this http://www.gadgetvictims.com/2009/12/digital-note-taker-pen.html
I find it works ok, but i've not really used any other digital pens, so i have no point of comparison - but at 25$ (which was on sale at the time) i just went "sure why not" and later found out it supported linux (which was a nice surprise).
I had previously looked at things like livescribe and went "no linux support, wont bother". There are one or two i can see on aliexpress http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-USB-Digital-Pen-Digital-Mobile-Note-Taker-Digital-Handwriting-Capture-Device/519494331.html but i dont know if they're based on the same thing (and they're twice the price i paid) and hence will still support linux
1. Re:A REALLY cheap one, with linux support by pjr.cc · 2012-11-01 09:11 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, two other things (and i would test it if i could, but my better half has stolen it). It doesnt require special paper and im pretty sure when the tracking device is plugged in it comes up as a mouse and operates as such (in relative mode)... but dont quote me on that.
2. Re:A REALLY cheap one, with linux support by Gonzalez_S · 2012-11-05 01:00 · Score: 1
  
  If it would work like a mouse.., then this would hopefully also answer my question to make screencasts with it.. (math stuff); tnx
Good work around. by epSos-de · 2012-11-01 10:19 · Score: 1

Try Staedler USB pen that records the real pen on real paper and sends the drawing to the comp. You might be able to run their software in Wine, becasue it looked very easy and simple in the shop. I also claims to run on every Windows version, so you have high chances to get it to work in Wine. http://www.staedtler.com/digital_pen.Staedtler

--
~ Best man at your service.
For $25, worth a shot by jrmiller · 2012-11-01 12:43 · Score: 1

Just picked one of these up: http://www.amazon.com/Dane-Elec-DA-DP1-01GC5-R-Z-PEN-Wireless-Digital/dp/B0013JHJWE/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_3 from Amazon Prime for $25. Don't know if it'll actually work under Linux or not, but the description is certainly promising: "This Viewer software runs on virtually all recent operating systems, from Windows 2000 onward, Mac OS and even most versions of Linux." Even if all you get is a flash drive that stores SVG/JPG/GIF/PNG, seems like you could write a udev handler that would recognize the drive, then call a script to scan it for new files and pass them off to an OCR program. Let's see how well this guy works when I get it.
1. Re:For $25, worth a shot by Gonzalez_S · 2012-11-05 01:02 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, i also came across this one, but realtime interaction (aka mouse alike) didn't seem possible, i also contacted this vendor, with a negative answer to my requirements (linux, mouse, ..)
2. Re:For $25, worth a shot by jrmiller · 2012-11-05 19:09 · Score: 1
  
  Wanted to follow up and let you know where I'm at so far. I ended up ordering the Dane-Elec pen as well as a Yi Fang mobile notetaker from eBay: http://bit.ly/THnwPL. I found the Yi Fang pen by going out to the "Products" page of the Pegasus website: http://www.pegatech.com/?CategoryID=218. I received the Yi Fang (eBay) pen and reader today, and it is indeed a Pegasus Mobile Notetaker under the hood. I used m210, and was able to convert my note sample from the usb reader into an SVG file relatively easily. OCRing it so far hasn't been a huge success, but I'm working on it. I'll post back when I have some more results to share.
3. Re:For $25, worth a shot by jrmiller · 2012-11-05 19:11 · Score: 1
  
  And yes, you can use it in "mouse mode" as well.
4. Re:For $25, worth a shot by Gonzalez_S · 2012-11-10 04:05 · Score: 1
  
  So both work as a mouse? (Dane-Elec pen as well as a Yi Fang mobile notetaker) How did u convert it to a svg file?
!digitalpenis by uvajed_ekil · 2012-11-01 17:17 · Score: 1

Good lord, what is my life coming to? I read the title as something about a "digital penis on Linux."

--
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
I had the same question a few weeks ago by kusmin · 2012-11-01 20:20 · Score: 2

and I bought Fujitsu mobile notetaker plus. It does not need any special paper. According to forums/internet, it works with linux and there is a project for exporting notes from the pen to computer: http://m210office.sourceforge.net/. It can be used as a mouse as well (so they say). But I did not have time to test this pen neither with Windows (to check if it works at all) nor with linux (which I use exclusively) Maybe this weekend I'll have some time for it. Maybe later. But definitely before Christmas )).
1. Re:I had the same question a few weeks ago by kusmin · 2012-11-01 20:22 · Score: 1
  
  P.S. and it is cheap (I payed 30 euro incl. delivery)
2. Re:I had the same question a few weeks ago by Gonzalez_S · 2012-11-05 01:04 · Score: 1
  
  If u test it, plz let the readers (or just me) know if it worked and possible how u setted it up. tnx
3. Re:I had the same question a few weeks ago by kusmin · 2012-11-08 03:55 · Score: 1
  
  well, I tested a bit. uploading of notes to pc does not work either in Windows Vista or linux (slackware 13.37-64 bit). in connected mode, on Windows, the pen works both as a mouse and as a note taker. I will do some more testing. may be it is bad luck and device is broken. I will write an update later
4. Re:I had the same question a few weeks ago by kusmin · 2012-11-12 04:31 · Score: 1
  
  Update-1 Tested again; could not make uploading of notes to work. I am going to send the device to the online shop where I bought it. I hope I will get a reimbursement or another device which functions properly. in the second case I'll post some more info on testing.