Re: [Phys-L] Possible to use a tablet computer as a Wacom drawing tablet?

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 08/05/2014 03:31 PM, rjensen@ualberta.ca wrote:

> This may be a crazy request: I want to use a tablet computer as a
> Wacom drawing tablet so that the screen can be visualized on the
> tablet computer.
>
> See 4:40 in the video at 
>
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByUCUIMTnRDIdV9XRzZRVzFNUXM/edit?usp=sharing

I didn't see anything special in the vicinity of 4:40.

> The handwritten information was input using a Wacom Intuos drawing
> tablet. A PC is running the PowerPoint and recording the video. *This
> cannot change.* I struggle with writing on gray plastic while looking
> at the screen. I would much prefer to see what I am writing where I am
> writing it.

I assume the aforementioned PC is not a tablet PC, and
cannot be upgraded to a tablet PC.  Otherwise, the objective 
would be trivially achieved.
 
> I have access to a Samsung Note 10.1 2014. Is there an app that
> regularly receives a screen shot from the computer and displays that
> on the tablet, and then upload the annotation from the tablet to the
> computer?

It's possible.  I have been known to use VNC for that sort 
of thing.
  http://www.tightvnc.com/

In particular, to answer a question that wasn't asked, 
this allows walking around the room with a portable tablet.
A wireless VNC link back to the "main" computer allows 
the whole class to see what happening on the tablet.

==============

Even though it is possible to use a tablet PC in place of
a graphics tablet, it is not necessarily a good idea.

Note that the digitizer on a tablet PC is typically very
much worse than the digitizer on a Wacom tablet.  You lose
a lot of XY resolution, and all but one bit of Z (pressure)
resolution.

For me, this was too much of a price to pay.

Long ago I learned to touch-type without looking at my
fingers, and I learned to play the piano without looking
at my fingers, and it didn't take me very long to learn
to use a non-display tablet.  I started by controlling the
geometry.  I rigged up a two-layer table so that the tablet
is directly under the PC keyboard, arranged "just so", like
an organ with two manuals.  There is a definite geometrical
relationship between the tablet and the screen.

YMMV, but for me this quickly became /more/ convenient than 
using a touch-screen tablet PC.  Among other things, the fact 
that I can't see through my hand is not a problem.

In particular, because the tablet has excellent Z information,
I can hover the stylus /above/ the tablet.  This allows me to
move the cursor without drawing.  When I'm ready to draw, I
know where the cursor is.  No surprises.