The history of a graphic tablet is quite fascinating. Descending from what we come to know as a fax machine in the modern society, it has made a giant leap in the process of digitalizing a society. The first use of a graphic tablet was to recognize and digitalize handwriting. It is in the Common Era that graphic table is mainly used by designers, although, its full potentials are yet to be discovered.
Looking into the history of how the writing itself has developed, we can trace back the precedent of a graphic tablet in the religious teachings all around the world. Tablets of Stone, Tablets of Law, Tablets of Testimony, those have many names in different cultures, but the main idea is the same: something was written on them to be kept, taught and developed. The next step in development of written messages was made in the ancient Egypt. With the papyrus, the first paper, graphic tablet loses its relevancy and stays in the past and we do not hear about it until the Industrial Revolution.
The need to communicate instantly over the distances pushed forward the invention of a telephone in the 19th century. (Industrial Revolution, 2009) In 1888, Elisha Gray patents the Telautograph, which simply was “an analog precursor to the modern fax machine”. (Wikipedia, 2009) It was used to transmit handwriting or a drawing over a two-wire circuit, and was mainly used in banks and large hospitals to transmit signatures. This was a first step to the Online Banking, as we know it. Of course, it made lives of busy individuals as well as corporations much easier, when to complete a transaction one did not actually need to be at the bank branch; although, together with accuracy and speed, it did open a completely new field for the fraud. Later on, with the great wars at the World’s doors, the development of a graphic tablet slows down and we will not hear of it until the post-industrial era.
Beginning of the post-industrial era is symbolized by a radical change from manufacturing based economy to a service based economy. (Wikipedia, 2009) Understanding the importance of new technology’s impacts on itself, post-industrial society sets a new priority and special importance to the science as the basic source of innovation. The Information Revolution era began with the invention of the integrated circuit or computer chip, changing society on all levels. (Idea Works, 1995) The information superhighway permitted people to communicate using computers all around the globe; fax machines, satellite dishes, and cellular phones have changed how families spend their time, the kind of work they do, and many other aspects of daily lives. Graphic tablet comes back to the scene of modern technology developments with the RAND tablet input device sold together with the DEC Workstations. (Carlson, 2005) This was a very expensive device, which would receive the magnetic signals and decode them as a set of coordinates to work with within a CAD system. (Wikipedia, 2009) In 1984, “Dr. David Thornburg [designs] a low-cost computer drawing tool for [general consumers], the Koala Pad and the bundled drawing program, KoalaPainter” (Wikipedia, 2009) for Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari home computers.
It is clearly seen how the further development and simplification of a technology makes it available to the public. Throughout the ages, the impact that graphic tablet or its precedents had on the society varied from great, when it was a source of knowledge and information, to medium: when it affected and improved certain areas of social and personal aspects of lives. Graphic tablet has made a long way, evolving from a piece of rock with writings curved into it to a very sophisticated, state-of-art device, which is widely available to everyone.
References:
Carlson W.E. (2005, February 2.). (Ed.). An Historical Timeline of Computer Graphics and Animation. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from http://sophia.javeriana.edu.co/~ochavarr/computer_graphics_history/historia/
Graphics Tablet, Wikipedia. (2009, March 11, 04:27.). Retrieved on March 15, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_tablet
Industrial Revolution. (2009). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from http://search.eb.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/eb/article-9042370
KoalaPad, Wikipedia (2009, February 17, 11:41.). Retrieved March 15, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KoalaPad/Painter
Sociology Timeline. (1995.). Idea Works, Inc. Retrieved March 15, from http://web.missouri.edu/~brente/timeline.htm
Stone Tablet, Wikipedia (2008, November 3, 21:36.). Retrieved March 15, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_tablet
Telautograph, Wikipedia (2009, February 11, 14:05.). Retrieved March 15, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telautograph
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