Also known as | GRiD PalmPad (235# models) GRiD Convertible (22#0 models) |
---|---|
Developer | Grid Systems Corporation |
Type | Tablet computer or 2-in-1 PC |
Release date | sep 1989 |
Discontinued | 1994 |
GRiDPad was a trademarked name for a series of pen computing tablets built by Grid Systems Corporation.
The GRiDPad 1900, released in 1989, is regarded as the first commercially successful tablet computer. Jeff Hawkins went on to use the GRiDPad as a predecessor for his best known-invention, the Palm Pilot.
The GRiDPad 1900 measured 9 by 12 by 1.4 inches (229 mm × 305 mm × 36 mm) and weighed 4.5 pounds (2.0 kg). [1] The main distinguishing aspect was its touchscreen interface with a stylus, a pen-like tool to aid with precision in a touchscreen device. The stylus was able to use handwriting-recognition software. The GRiDPad also included these features: [1]
Device | Model No. | Processor | Memory | Storage | Display | Software | Weight & dimensions | Introduced | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GridPad | 1900 | Intel 8086 (10 MHz) | 1 MB RAM | PCMCIA | 10", 640 × 400 B&W | MSDOS 3.3, GridPen | 4.5 lb (2.0 kg), 12.5 x 9.25 x 1.5" | Sep 1989 | 1st tablet |
GridPad HD/RC | 1910 | NEC v20 (9.5 MHz) | 2 MB RAM | 1–2 PCMCIA; 20 MB HDD option | 10", 640 × 400 B&W backlit | MSDOS 3.3, GridPen | 4.5 lb (2.0 kg), 12.5 x 9.25 x 1.5" | Jul 1991 | 20MB HDD on HD; RC has 2 PCMCIA and wireless option |
PalmPad | 2350/51/52 | NEC v20 (9.5 MHz) | 2–2.5 MB RAM | PCMCIA | 6.5", 640 × 400 B&W backlit | MSDOS 5.0, PenRight | 2.8 lb (1.3 kg), 9 x 6.25 x 1.9" (318 x 235 x 38 mm) | Mar 1992 | 1st Wearable; Wireless 902-928 spread spectrum radio on 2352 |
GridPad SL | 2050 | Intel 80386 (20 MHz) | 20 MB RAM | 40–120 MB HDD; PCMCIA | 10", VGA, 32 greyscale | Windows 3.1 for Pen, PenRight | 2.26kg, 292 × 236 × 37.6 mm | 1992 | Licensed variation of Samsung Penmaster |
GridPad Convertible | 2260/2270 | 80386/80486SL (25 MHz) | 4–20 MB RAM | 80–120 MB HDD; PCMCIA | 9.5", VGA, 64 greyscale | Windows 3.1 for Pen, PenRight | 9.6 lb (4.4 kg) | Dec 1992 | 1st Convertible; Screen moves up to reveal full keyboard; Also sold as AST PenExec 3/25SL and 4/25SL |
GridPad | 2390 | 7.5-MHz 8088-compatible CPU | 4 MB RAM | PCMCIA | 320 x 256 | MSDOS 3.3, GEOS 2.0, PenRight | 0.95 lb (0.43 kg), 7 x 4.25 x 1" | Jun 1993 | Casio Zoomer/ Z-7000, XL7000, Tandy Z-PDA and AST Gridpad 2390 |
Because of its use for inventory management, the United States Army specified more durable versions of the tablet made out of magnesium that were not sold to the general public. The US Army specially ordered magnesium because it is a strong yet light metal, making it ideal for use in demanding environments. [2] [3]
According to a patent submitted in 1992 by an engineer at GRiD Systems, the touchscreen in the GRiDPad works by magnifying an internal Cartesian plane and calculating the displacement. [4] Further patents by Jeff Hawkins describe flipping the screen orientation between landscape and portrait. [5]
Because of its text-recognition interface, the GRiDPad was marketed toward specialist consumers who would use the tablet for bookkeeping. The GRiDPad was "designed to streamline the chores of workers such as route delivery drivers and claims adjusters, who typically recorded data on paper forms." [6] Some of the agencies that used the GRiDPad included Chrysler, San Jose Police Department, [7] and even the US Government. The first commercial customer to use the GRiDPad and who contributed to the overall requirements was Best Foods Baking Group, a division of CPC International.
The average selling price for one unit was US$2,370 without software, and $3,000 with software. [1] [3] It was so successful that it sold approximately $30 million in its best year. [8]
Although the GriDPad had the same operating system as personal computers, it was not designed to be a replacement for computers. Hawkins once said, "I never saw pen computers as a replacement for a full PC..." [8] Although it did not replace computers, it did pave the way for other companies to invest more into tablet computers.
Not only did the GRiDPad start paving the way for tablet computers, it also helped propel Jeff Hawkins' career. Hawkins used the same stylus technology to develop his most commercially successful product, the Palm Pilot, making the GRiDPad its predecessor.
A pointing device is a human interface device that allows a user to input spatial data to a computer. CAD systems and graphical user interfaces (GUI) allow the user to control and provide data to the computer using physical gestures by moving a hand-held mouse or similar device across the surface of the physical desktop and activating switches on the mouse. Movements of the pointing device are echoed on the screen by movements of the pointer and other visual changes. Common gestures are point and click and drag and drop.
A graphics tablet is a computer input device that enables a user to hand-draw images, animations and graphics, with a special pen-like stylus, similar to the way a person draws images with a pencil and paper. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten signatures. It can also be used to trace an image from a piece of paper that is taped or otherwise secured to the tablet surface. Capturing data in this way, by tracing or entering the corners of linear polylines or shapes, is called digitizing.
Handwriting recognition (HWR), also known as handwritten text recognition (HTR), is the ability of a computer to receive and interpret intelligible handwritten input from sources such as paper documents, photographs, touch-screens and other devices. The image of the written text may be sensed "off line" from a piece of paper by optical scanning or intelligent word recognition. Alternatively, the movements of the pen tip may be sensed "on line", for example by a pen-based computer screen surface, a generally easier task as there are more clues available. A handwriting recognition system handles formatting, performs correct segmentation into characters, and finds the most possible words.
Graffiti is an essentially single-stroke shorthand handwriting recognition system used in PDAs based on the Palm OS. Graffiti was originally written by Palm, Inc. as the recognition system for GEOS-based devices such as HP's OmniGo 100 and 120 or the Magic Cap-line and was available as an alternate recognition system for the Apple Newton MessagePad, when NewtonOS 1.0 could not recognize handwriting very well. Graffiti also runs on the Windows Mobile platform, where it is called "Block Recognizer", and on the Symbian UIQ platform as the default recognizer and was available for Casio's Zoomer PDA.
A portable computer is a computer designed to be easily moved from one place to another, as opposed to those designed to remain stationary at a single location such as desktops and workstations. These computers usually include a display and keyboard that are directly connected to the main case, all sharing a single power plug together, much like later desktop computers called all-in-ones (AIO) that integrate the system's internal components into the same case as the display. In modern usage, a portable computer usually refers to a very light and compact personal computer such as a laptop, miniature or pocket-sized computer, while touchscreen-based handheld ("palmtop") devices such as tablet, phablet and smartphone are called mobile devices instead.
The PenPoint OS was a product of GO Corporation and was one of the earliest operating systems written specifically for graphical tablets and personal digital assistants. It ran on AT&T Corporation's EO Personal Communicator as well as a number of Intel x86 powered tablet PCs including IBM's ThinkPad 700T series, NCR's 3125, 3130 and some of GRiD Systems' pen-based portables. It was never widely adopted.
Jeffrey Hawkins is an American businessman, neuroscientist and engineer. He co-founded Palm Computing — where he co-created the PalmPilot and Treo — and Handspring.
A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an electronic device.
GEOS is a computer operating environment, graphical user interface (GUI), and suite of application software. Originally released as PC/GEOS, it runs on DOS-based, IBM PC compatible computers. Versions for some handheld platforms were also released and licensed to some companies.
ShapeWriter was a keyboard text input method for tablet, handheld PCs, and mobile phones invented by Shumin Zhai and Per Ola Kristensson at IBM Almaden Research Center and the Department of Computer and Information Science at Linköping University.
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computers, have similar capabilities, but lack some input/output (I/O) abilities that others have. Modern tablets largely resemble modern smartphones, the only differences being that tablets are relatively larger than smartphones, with screens 7 inches (18 cm) or larger, measured diagonally, and may not support access to a cellular network. Unlike laptops, tablets usually run mobile operating systems, alongside smartphones.
The term PenPad was used as a product name for a number of Pen computing products by different companies in the 1980s and 1990s. The earliest was the Penpad series of products by Pencept, such as the PenPad M200 handwriting terminal, and the PenPad M320 handwriting/gesture recognition tablet for MS-DOS and other personal computers.
In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface to recognize the presence of more than one point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CERN, MIT, University of Toronto, Carnegie Mellon University and Bell Labs in the 1970s. CERN started using multi-touch screens as early as 1976 for the controls of the Super Proton Synchrotron. A form of gesture recognition, capacitive multi-touch displays were popularized by Apple's iPhone in 2007. Plural-point awareness may be used to implement additional functionality, such as pinch to zoom or to activate certain subroutines attached to predefined gestures.
Pen computing refers to any computer user-interface using a pen or stylus and tablet, over input devices such as a keyboard or a mouse.
Grid Systems Corporation was an early portable computer manufacturer, based in United States and oriented for producing of rugged and semi-rugged machines; currently the Grid computer brand still exist as Grid Defence Systems Ltd. in United Kingdom.
In computing, a stylus is a small pen-shaped instrument whose tip position on a computer monitor can be detected. It is used to draw, or make selections by tapping. While devices with touchscreens such as newer computers, mobile devices, game consoles, and graphics tablets can usually be operated with a fingertip, a stylus provides more accurate and controllable input. The stylus has the same function as a mouse or touchpad as a pointing device; its use is commonly called pen computing.
The history of tablet computers and the associated special operating software is an example of pen computing technology, and thus the development of tablets has deep historical roots. The first patent for a system that recognized handwritten characters by analyzing the handwriting motion was granted in 1914. The first publicly demonstrated system using a tablet and handwriting recognition instead of a keyboard for working with a modern digital computer dates to 1956.
Microsoft Tablet PC is a term coined by Microsoft for tablet computers conforming to a set of specifications announced in 2001 by Microsoft, for a pen-enabled personal computer, conforming to hardware specifications devised by Microsoft and running a licensed copy of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system or a derivative thereof.
An active pen is an input device that includes electronic components and allows users to write directly onto the display of a computing device such as a smartphone, tablet computer or ultrabook. The active pen marketplace has long been dominated by N-trig and Wacom, but newer firms Atmel and Synaptics also offer active pen designs.
The Surface Book 2 is the second generation of the Surface Book, part of the Microsoft Surface line of personal computers. It is a 2-in-1 PC which can be used like a conventional laptop, or the screen can be detached and used separately as a tablet, with touch and stylus input. In addition to the 13.5-inch screen available in the original Surface Book introduced two years before, it is also available in a 15-inch screen model. It was released in November 2017, and replaced in Microsoft's product line by the Surface Book 3 in May 2020.