Adobe reveals new foray into hardware with Project Mighty smart stylus, Napoleon ruler
Creative software giant Adobe unveiled on Monday the company's new move into hardware for creatives, showing off its Project Mighty stylus and Napoleon ruler and hinting that more hardware products may be in the offing.
The new hardware offerings from Adobe pair via low-energy Bluetooth with a mobile device and leverages Adobe's mobile Creative Cloud software to enable rich content creation features. The Project Mighty stylus is a pressure-sensitive pen with a single button which, when pressed, brings up a menu of design options and content, including drawings and files from a user's Creative Cloud clipboard. Adobe's software recognizes whether a user is interacting with the screen with the stylus or with a finger, allowing for using the stylus solely as an input method and one's fingers to erase.
The stylus was designed in collaboration with industrial design firm Ammunition. The firm decided on a twisting, triangular shape for the stylus in order to give it a more ergonomic feel that conforms to the hand.
The Napoleon ruler can be placed atop a user's mobile device screen and, in combination with the stylus, allows for the creation of sharp and specific shapes such as lines and curves.
Adobe gave no information on when consumers could expect to buy either device. The company did mention, though, that Project Mighty and Napoleon are "just the beginning" of Adobe's efforts in pairing hardware and software, possibly hinting that more devices are in the offing.
The hardware announcements came in the midst of a big day for Adobe, one in which the company revealed it was going subscription-only and rebranded its Creative Suite lineup as Creative Cloud.
The new hardware offerings from Adobe pair via low-energy Bluetooth with a mobile device and leverages Adobe's mobile Creative Cloud software to enable rich content creation features. The Project Mighty stylus is a pressure-sensitive pen with a single button which, when pressed, brings up a menu of design options and content, including drawings and files from a user's Creative Cloud clipboard. Adobe's software recognizes whether a user is interacting with the screen with the stylus or with a finger, allowing for using the stylus solely as an input method and one's fingers to erase.
The stylus was designed in collaboration with industrial design firm Ammunition. The firm decided on a twisting, triangular shape for the stylus in order to give it a more ergonomic feel that conforms to the hand.
The Napoleon ruler can be placed atop a user's mobile device screen and, in combination with the stylus, allows for the creation of sharp and specific shapes such as lines and curves.
Adobe gave no information on when consumers could expect to buy either device. The company did mention, though, that Project Mighty and Napoleon are "just the beginning" of Adobe's efforts in pairing hardware and software, possibly hinting that more devices are in the offing.
The hardware announcements came in the midst of a big day for Adobe, one in which the company revealed it was going subscription-only and rebranded its Creative Suite lineup as Creative Cloud.
Comments
Napoleon ruler
Gee, I hope it isn't too complex.
What's next from Adobe, Suleiman drafting compass? Alexander protractor? Gorbechev theodolite?
I still don't like their push into the Creative Cloud. I'll take backups online, but no way I want file size restrictions, them constantly pushing me to upgrade storage and recurring monthly fees.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgregor
The ruler looks pretty nice and I'd like to see some more features of the pen. Looks like a nice start.
"And boy, have we patented it."
If you have to worry about where you place your hand on the screen and hold the pen in an un-natural or unusual way to get it to work, then it isn't "drawing."
They should have implemented more touch interfaces. Then again Apple has patented what I just described so they are working around it.
He's accurate with the ruler because the arc/line are pre-snapped so any idiot can draw a perfect arc or straight line.
I've got other pens for my iPad that have software that ignore your palm or finger when the pen is touching down and between. Apple is supposed to be working on newer software to eliminate a problem with activating a screen touch with a thin bezel, and perhaps that could be used to solve this problem as well.
I do wish that Apple adopted something like what Samsung is doing with a screen that uses Wacon technology for level control and precision. Of course, Android has always had a problem with precision anyway, but still.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
I've got other pens for my iPad that have software that ignore your palm or finger when the pen is touching down and between. Apple is supposed to be working on newer software to eliminate a problem with activating a screen touch with a thin bezel, and perhaps that could be used to solve this problem as well.
I do wish that Apple adopted something like what Samsung is doing with a screen that uses Wacon technology for level control and precision. Of course, Android has always had a problem with precision anyway, but still.
There are at least several display types I've seen (on YouTube) that enable pressure sensing in a natural way without a pen. A display that can sense a pen and ignore the palm and also still function using fingers only would be a good path for Apple to follow... at least to get ahead of Microsoft, Samsung and whichever low-cost Chinese companies rise as competitors in the future.
There are several Bluetooth (and other) pressure sensitive styluses already available for iOS devices, so I don't think Adobe patents are going to be a big issue (unless they buy these other companies).
I hope so, too, but looking at the Galaxy Note 8.0' starting price of $399 I'm guessing that Wacom digitizer is still too expensive to put into each and every iPad they sell.
It looks pretty cool until I saw the lag of the stylus movements to the iPad. But this has more to do with the iPad limitations. Right now the iPad input latency is around 100ms. Apple needs to get the input latency down to about 10ms (or better 1ms) then the iPad will be very good at drawing and markup. Microsoft made an interesting mockup tablet video comparing various input latencies at
These are available to rent, right?
Doh! bdkennedy beat me to the punch!
Quote:
Originally Posted by am8449
The ruler is a neat idea. But couldn't they have implemented it without the physical ruler? What about just using the fingers of your left hand to define the path of the straight lines & arcs?
How are you going to control the arc? The end points? The ruler acts as a guide for both the human hand and the sensors.
There must have been some interesting battles inside Adobe's Marketing department, between the Sell It Standalone crowd, and the We Must Create Value For Cloud crowd.
Hm. Maybe someone will jailbreak it ... :-D