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Back to basics

Yuichi Inada
General Manager, Product Engineering Department

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A brand that lives up to the trust of pros

I have overall control of product development for the Wacom brand.I was originally a hardware engineer, but I ended up here after working in electronic circuit design and then software development and product planning. I spend my days progressing the development of new products and technologies, but I am often reminded of the weight of the trust that professional creators have in Wacom.

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The core of Wacom's technology

Wacom uses the technology of electromagnetic induction.This involves sending electromagnetic waves from a sensor, receiving the signals returned by the pen and then creating the functions and capabilities of a digital pen by subjecting these signals to algorithm-based analysis.I think that it is the quality of this technology that lies at the heart of the trust that our professional customers have in Wacom.This technology may appear simple at first glance, but it is not that straightforward.

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How to quantify feeling?

To begin with, we faced technological hurdles on the hardware side of things, such as how to optimize the performance of the sensor that imports information.If this part is insensitive, you cannot obtain accurate signals.These signals are analyzed by the software and output as data.However, it is not that easy to analyze and output these signals. You need to reconcile human feelings with digital information.

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Between digital technology and human feeling

For example, the Intuos Pro has an estimated pen pressure sensitivity of at least 2000, but it would be a mistake just to try to output an exact value like that.The human hand is blessed with sensitive feelings and complex tendencies. If you tried to express the hand's data as a graph, you would end up with a distinctive curve and not a straight line.You cannot achieve authentic pen pressure sensitivity by combining simple data returned by hardware with the unquantifiable and unique sensations of the human hand.You could probably say that our technology and experience in this area are the largest advantages that Wacom has.

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Proving ourselves worthy of the trust in Wacom

Us developers must think about the weight of the brand that Wacom has.We have a duty to supply the best products so that we can live up to the weight of the brand and to the trust of creators that has been built up over many years.I think that all employees should have this awareness, not just people in product development and technology development, but also those working in marketing and sales.

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Expectations of growth and future potential

I originally worked for an AV maker. I spent six years in Japan and a further 10 years in America, before coming back and joining Wacom. Looking at the market for Wacom's products and the state of technology, I realized then that there were still areas where we should grow and that there was huge potential out there.

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Universality of writing and drawing

Writing and drawing are, needless to say, universal human actions.We aim to digitally reproduce the relationship between pencil and paper and grow it in a way that reflects the times we live in.However, you should really stop and ask yourself what exactly these actions are.You've got the "drawing" that professional creators do.And then you've got the "writing" that we all do countless times in our daily lives.

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In pursuit of various types of creativity

It's always important to get back to basics. What can you create with a pencil and paper? Why are a pencil and paper useful? And how are a pencil and paper changing in line with the changes in our lives? Obviously writing and drawing are creative acts and the works created by creators are also creative. However, I think that living amidst various changes is also a very creative act in itself. For example, you could call Bamboo a product that was created for normal people by people with that sort of awareness.

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The future of drawing and writing

Clues to the future development of Wacom's technology may be glimpsed in our daily lives. As well as professional creations, we also want to focus on everyday creations. One of the things that we are thinking about now is using the cloud to allow multiple people to write in the same document at the same time. I am excited to see what sort of lifestyle this idea will produce. It has plenty of potential. I would like you to keep on eye on Wacom in the future.

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