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(computer science)
A large drawing table connected to a computer video display and equipped with a penlike or pucklike instrument whose motions are reproduced on the screen. Also known as digitizer tablet.

digitizer tablet

A graphics drawing tablet used for sketching new images or tracing old ones. Also called a "graphics tablet," the user contacts the surface of the device with a wired or wireless pen or puck. Often mistakenly called a mouse, the puck is officially the "tablet cursor."

For sketching, either the pen or puck is used. For tracing, the puck is preferred because its crosshairs, visible through a clear glass lens, lets you precisely pinpoint ends and corners of detailed drawings.

Most tablets allow parts of the tablet surface to be customized into buttons that can be tapped to select menus and functions in the application.

Digitizer Mode and Mouse Mode
Tablets typically support two modes of operation. "Digitizer mode" creates a one-for-one correspondence between tablet and screen. Wherever the tablet is touched, the screen is drawn in the exact same location. In contrast, "mouse mode" moves the screen pointer (cursor) relative to any starting position on the tablet surface, just like an ordinary computer mouse.

The Output Is X-Y Coordinates
When drawing or tracing on the tablet, a series of x-y coordinates (vector graphics) are created, either as a continuous stream of coordinates, or as end points. See pen tablet, tablet PC and touchscreen.

Digitizer Tablet
Drawings created or traced on tablets are stored as mathematical line segments. Objects are drawn with a pen or puck, but are traced with the puck.

Digitizing Three Dimensions
The 3DRAW PRO 3D digitizer system from Polhemus records x, y and z coordinates of an object by touching its surfaces with a pen. It measures the tip position in 3D space and outputs directly to popular CAD and graphics programs. (Image courtesy of Polhemus, Inc.)
References in periodicals archive ?
Blocking also occurs when your motherboard or digitizer cable have pins that are missing or folded.
The goal is to take the RF/[mu]W signal from the antenna elements and frequency translate it down to an IF that is within the BW of the digitizer. To maximize the use of dynamic range of the digitizer, it is typical to amplify or attenuate the signal to levels that fall close to the full scale range of the digitizer being used.
VIDAR Systems Corporation, headquartered in Herndon, Va., is a provider of medical imaging and medical film digitizers worldwide, with more than 12,000 units installed.
This digitizer, combined with NI's LabVIEW software running on a host computer, can be used to replace the measurement capabilities of audio and spectrum analyzers, IF (intermediate frequency) analyzers, DC and RMS (root mean square) analyzers, and frequency counters.
Three-dimensional digitizers, or scanners, have been around for about 20 years now.
This is a small tool that automatically loads and recalibrates your digitizer:
Using an intrinsically safe Class 1 laser-light stripe triangulation, the VIVID 300 digitizer scans an object in 0.6 seconds and inputs the captured shape data and color texture maps into a computer.
One computer was connected to the digitizer and video camera: the other five computers had the software installed on them.
Digitizers (pen-shaped devices) and tablets transmit graphic and numberical information into computers.
According to Faro marketing director Dan Buckles, some molders are using the digitizer to check for wear or any dimensional changes to molds and cavities.
Digitizer vendors and the AXIe Consortium have made news recently on a variety of fronts.