Opening Intuos 3 Classic Pen
I am currently part of a team project that is working on analyzing how visually impaired users use tactile maps. You can see our project progress at our assembla page. We are mainly interested in tracking fingers and one of the ways we can track finger movement is using a tablet.
We are using a Intuos 3 tablet to track fingers. We worked out that if we can strap the pen to a users finger we can track their movement across the tablet. We decided to get a extra pen and break open to see what we can work with. My friend Craig Gardner and I worked on the pen and the instructions below.
Instructions to open a Intuos 3 Classic Pen:
- The Classic pen has a thick plastic coating and we first thought of attacking the eraser part of the pen but then realized that even though the center part of the pen is thick, if you can remove the plastic enough then you can separate the pen cover into two and remove the circuit. (Warning: doing the steps in this instruction are destructive and will void the warranty of the pen).
Cut the pen across the center and pry open the plastic
- As you can see you need to cut the pen across the center with a sharp knife. When you do that you can pry open the plastic just enough to separate the bottom part and the top part of the plastic (Keep the plastic top and bottom for later). Once you do that you can remove the circuit, the pen tip side will be hindered by the plastic buttons but you can slowly wiggle it out.
Circuit of the Intuos 3 Classic pen
- We were hoping that the eraser circuit and the pen tip circuit were separated but as you can see it is one big circuit. You have to be careful when handling the circuit, they use coil wires for the eraser and the pen tip so you don’t want to break any of the wires as it would be really hard to fix it.
Eraser side
Pen tip side
- You can use the plastic cover to keep the circuit safe, the box that the pen came in works well to hold the pen stable stopping it from bouncing around.
Prototype Glove:
- Even though the circuit is one big peace, it is quite flat and easier to put on top of a users finger with a modified thin glove. I used one of my thin gloves, cutting the top of the index finger so that the tip can feel the surface. You can then use the cut top to hold the circuit on the top of the finger.
Circuit on top the finger using a thin glove.
- We decided the eraser tip is the better part to have over the finger. As the user moves their finger over the tablet we can scan where the eraser is.
Eraser tip over finger
- We did some preliminary tests with the glove and it did not feel uncomfortable and it did not restrict the finger.
Moving the finger over the tablet
Conclusion:
- We are happy with the outcome and we will be working next to making a permanent glove that can hold a circuit on a finger and that can also be moved to other fingers.
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