you’ll thank me later

in ten years wacomm will no longer be producing tablets because the tablet, as a piece of tech, will have been supplanted by the virtual pen. the ghost pen.

i’m predicting this. i should be trying to patent this idea but i’m just making assumptions based on existing tech i don’t technically understand, and i’d rather let someone else do the legwork and get rich. all i really want is to buy and use the product.

i’m still waiting for a classic trek communicator cellphone, motorola has consistently failed on that. i had that idea nearly 10 years ago and the closest we’ve come is a custom bluetooth speakerphone some guy kitbashed out of a garage door opener and a master replicas communicator. the market exists at trek conventions and in our hearts, yet nobody has tapped it. bizarre.

the virtual pen will be ingenius and the tech for it already exists, it simply needs to be combined into a battery-efficient wireless model. ten years from now this will be done, they’ll be as common as mice, and the apple i-pen will have a charging slot in your i-awesome notebook computer. which by the way, will hinge vertically in the middle like a real notebook, with a virtual keyboard at the bottom of both pages, and total touchscreen all over for massive meta control of the internet and your i-life.

but the pen is the key.* it will supplant both mice and tablets as the de-facto input device, and may even take out the keyboard as well. never entirely, of course. mice and keyboards will still have uses in gaming if nothing else, and heavy text input via handwriting translation software will never catch up to simple direct keyboard input unless we adopt and autocratically enforce standardized handwriting. and the doctors of america would never go for that. nor would the children, for that matter.

there are three key pieces of technology that will make the ghost-pen better than anything else.

the first is the three-dimensional motion detecting hardware seen in the wii-mote and the ps3 sixaxis controllers. essentially, the pen will be able to detect where it is in 3-d space, how far and fast it’s moving, and most importantly, what angle you’re holding it at to the page. the pen will function exactly like a real pen, even without fancy software to support virtual brushes and more esoteric uses, like a wireless virtual joystick for gaming.

these pens will exist too, and be largely considered too bulky and button-heavy to be usable for most graphics purposes. the graphics pens, meanwhile, will combine this sensitivity with custom nibs and software, such that your virtual paintbrush bristles will splay out accurately based on the angle of the pen, allowing for intuitively broader brushstrokes.

this will be combined with technology number two, the laser-sensor found in optical mice, adapted to a pen. the laser will detect when the pen is touching the ‘paper’, and will be measuring precise motions and translating them. in other words, the motion sensor will tell the computer where the body of the pen is, while the laser will tell it where the nib is.

so now we have angled control for brush width and other applications, and laser-precise handwriting capture. you can now write and draw with startling accuracy on any flat surface, and angle the pen for variable brushwork and line thickness. and you can write on the screen directly, on your desktop, on your thigh while you take notes on your smartphone. the possibilities are endless.

and this is where we bring in technology number three, which is a pressure-sensitive nib. technically two techs, since you’ll be able to swap out for alternate nibs, and go to the grocery store’s technology aisle to buy standard replacement packs. but the key is the pressure sensitivity. this will allow you first to control line thickness, color depth, gradiants, and other such subtleties.

but also, you’ll be able to draw on any surface and the pen will be able to capture the specifics of that surface. no more need for photoshop filters replicating watercolor paper, woodgrain, burlap, or what have you. you can simply lay down a sheet of canvas and capture that texture in your linework directly.

this will be standardized. this will be commonplace. this will be produced by dozens of companies in hundreds of styles, and you’ll be able to select the virtual pen that best suits your needs. they will be essentially disposable as keyboards and mice are today. the tech will be mass-production refined and inherently problem-free. if it breaks down, get a new and probably better one.

there will be expensive luxury models with ridiculous levels of sensitivity, models that can write on air, models that talk to your lcd sunglasses and let you write notes that nobody can see. there will be basic $20 microsoft models that work perfectly well for handwriting emails, doodling in chat programs, scribbling notes, keeping a handwritten blog. pocket models for mobility, tiny ones that fit into your phone, rechargeable ones that plug into your i-awesome.

bizarre variants like sensors on your fingertips with motion sensing, for minority report style 3d interfacing, and artistic capacity like virtual sculpting and modelling. pens that sync with your ipod to vary line thickness, color, brush, and so on, in time to your music, giving you a hybrid of visualization software and a spyrograph, for producing bizarrely hypnotic chat sessions where everyone draws different imagery to the same music. and so on, ad infinitum.

the best part of this is that unlike many of my ideas, this is not science fiction. it’s inevitable. all three of these technologies already exist in production form, it’s only a matter of time until someone combines them into a single device. and i can’t wait.

*ghost pen drinking game — everytime you read ‘the pen is’ and giggle, take a shot