[Cool toys] Tablet PC (2)-- Manage your reprints electronically

Most practicing scientists are inundated with countless piles of photocopies and reprints. Since my chosen field is neuroscience, the situation is particularly acute; given that neuroscience is a complex patchwork of many disciplines, the nature of the field defies any simplistic effort towards classification/filing. I also have random reprints that I've accumulated as a medical student; this only complicates the mess. Furthermore, scientific literature is multiplying steadily in accordance with de Solla Price's exponential law; the paper mess can only become worse in the future.

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I have been addressing this problem by turning completely to PDF files on my tablet computer. Even old reprints, not available in electronic format, have been scanned. The tablet allows me to scribble, just as if I had a physical copy in front me.

I calculate that
(A) the time saved (no need to fish through piles, or re-copy lost papers) and
(B) the convenience (I have my whole library with me at all times, and it can be backed up)
more than justify the initial investment.

I use a combination of the following software packages...

• Reference Manager... this package allows me to maintain a sorted database of my references. The user interface is somewhat more to my liking than EndNote, especially because it allows fine-tuning of the display screen. I use a custom user-defined field to categorize my papers into little "piles," and by sorting with this field, I can browse through these piles in the main window.
  
  
• Ideally, I would like to switch to JabRef, which is an open-source Java database program based on BibTeX, but the lack of easy bibliography management in MS Word keeps me from switching. JabRef has a very useful categorization scheme, based on a directory-like tree structure (see upper left panel in screenshot); links from each reference can be dragged to multiple nodes on the tree, which is ideally suited for the multidisciplinary nature of neuroscience.
  
  
• PDF Annotator... Clicking on the Reference Manager entry brings up this software, with the PDF in question. The old version of Adobe Acrobat responded too slowly to pen input for scribbling hand-written notes. I haven't tried Acrobat v.8, but presently, I am quite happy with this shareware package. In combination with the tablet PC, it allows you to scribble and highlight your PDF files, just as if you had a real copy before you. Currently, it does not support text highlighting (i.e. you must carefully trace your pen over the line to highlight) or text copying, and you cannot type in comments.

[Cool toys] Tablet PC (1)-- Dissecting the tablet pen

I've been a tablet PC user (Toshiba Protege M200) for over a year now. The tablet is an amazing piece of engineering; it allows you to write directly on the laptop screen, as if it were a piece of paper. The digitizer pen writes like a smooth felt-tip. It even senses your writing pressure at 8 bit resolution, so in some graphics programs, if you press harder, you get a thicker line.

How does it work?

The digitizer pen has no power source, and is just an RLC circuit that resonates at a certain frequency-- this resonant frequency is modified by the pen pressure and by button presses.

To read the location of the pen, the tablet first sends out a pulsed radio wave through an antenna array which is embedded in the screen. This is recieved by the pen's circuitry, which resonates at a given frequency. Next, the tablet switches to antenna mode, and senses where on its antenna array the resonating pen is located. It apparently does this 50 or so times a second.

One of the few complaints that I have with the Toshiba unit is the ridiculously cheap digitizer pen. It's way too light, and feels like a cheap plastic ballpoint--which is not what you'd expect from an expensive unit.

This cheap digitizer pen broke on me recently, and I guess the least I can do is to post a photo for those who might be interested but don't want to destroy their pen for curiosity's sake. (The photo shows circuitry from the top part of the pen, which acts as an eraser. I imagine that another circuit exactly like it is embedded in the tip as well.)

Links

• How does a Graphics Tablet work?
• Wacom Graphire graphics tablet