History Of Computer Tablet

The tablet computer and its associated operating system began with the development of pen computing.[14] Electrical devices with data input and output on a flat information display existed as early as 1888 with the telautograph which used a sheet of paper as display and a pen attached to electromechanical actuators. Throughout the 20th century devices with these characteristics have been imagined and created whether as blueprints, prototypes, or commercial products. In addition to many academic and research systems, several companies released commercial products in the 1980s, with various input/output types tried out:

1,Fictional and prototype tablets
Tablet computers appeared in a number of works of science fiction in the second half of the 20th century, with the depiction of Arthur C. Clarke's NewsPad,in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the description of Calculator Pad in the 1951 novel Foundation by Isaac Asimov, the Opton in the 1961 novel Return from the Stars by Stanislaw Lem, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in Douglas Adams's 1978 comedy of the same name, and the numerous devices depicted in Gene Roddenberry 1966 Star Trek series, all helping to promote and disseminate the concept to a wider audience. A device more powerful than today's tablets appeared briefly in Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven's 1974 The Mote in God's Eye.

In 1968, computer scientist Alan Kay envisioned a KiddiComp, while a PhD candidate he developed and described the concept as a Dynabook in his 1972 proposal: A personal computer for children of all ages] the paper outlines the requirements for a conceptual portable educational device that would offer functionality similar to that supplied via a laptop computer or (in some of its other incarnations) a tablet or slate computer with the exception of the requirement for any Dynabook device offering near eternal battery life. Adults could also use a Dynabook, but the target audience was children.

The sci-fi TV series Star Trek The Next Generation featured tablet computers which were designated as PADDs

In 1994, the European Union initiated the NewsPad project, inspired by Clarke and Kubrick's fictional work.[23] Acorn Computers developed and delivered an ARM-based touch screen tablet computer for this program, branding it the "NewsPad"; the project ended in 1997.
During the November 2000 COMDEX, Microsoft used the term Tablet PC to describe a prototype handheld device they were demonstrating.
In 2001, Ericsson Mobile Communications announced an experimental product named the DelphiPad which was developed in cooperation with the Centre for Wireless Communications in Singapore, with touch-sensitive screen, Netscape Navigator as web browser and Linux as its operating system.
Following their earlier tablet-computer products such as the Pencept PenPad[30][31] and the CIC Handwriter,n September 1989, GRiD Systems release the first commercially available tablet-type portable computer, the GRiDPad. All three products were based on extended versions of the MS-DOS operating system.

In 1991, AT&T released their first EO Personal Communicator, this was one of the first commercially available tablets and ran the GO Corporation's PenPoint OS on AT&T's own hardware, including their own AT&T Hobbit CPU.

In 1992, Atari showed the Stylus, later renamed to ST-Pad prototype to developers, this one was based on the TOS/GEM Atari ST Platform and included already an early handwriting recognition. Shiraz Shivji's company Momentus demonstrated in the same time a failed x86 MS-DOS based Pen Computer with its own GUI

Apple Computers launched the Apple Newton personal digital assistant in 1993. It utilised Apple's own new Newton OS, initially running on hardware manufactured by Motorola and incorporating an ARM CPU, that Apple had specifically co-developed with Acorn Computers. The operating system and platform design were later licensed to Sharp and Digital Ocean, who went on to manufacture their own variants.

In 1996, Palm, Inc. released the first of the Palm OS based PalmPilot touch and stylus based PDA, the touch based devices initially incorporating a Motorola Dragonball (68000) CPU.

Intel announced a StrongARM processor-based touchscreen tablet computer in 1999, under the name WebPAD. It was later re-branded as the "Intel Web Tablet"

In 2000, Norwegian company Screen Media AS and the German company Dosch & Amand Gmbh released the " FreePad". It was based on Linux and used the Opera browser. The Internet access was provided by DECT DMAP, only available in Europe and provided up to 10Mbit/s wireless access. The device had 16 MB storage, 32 MB of RAM and x86 compatible 166 MHz "Geode"-Microcontroller by National Semiconductor.The screen was 10.4" or 12.1" and was touch sensitive. It had slots for SIM cards to enable support of television set-up box. FreePad were sold in Norway and the Middle East; but the company was dissolved in 2003.

In April 2000, Microsoft launched the Pocket PC 2000, utilizing their touch capable Windows CE 3.0 operating system.The devices were manufactured by several manufacturers, based on a mix of: x86, MIPS, ARM, and SuperH hardware.

In 2002, Microsoft attempted to define the Microsoft Tablet PC[40] as a mobile computer for field work in business,[41] though their devices failed, mainly due to pricing and usability decisions that limited them to their original purpose - such as the existing devices being too heavy to be held with one hand for extended periods, and having legacy applications created for desktop interfaces and not well adapted to the slate format.

Nokia had plans for an internet tablet since before 2000. An early model was test manufactured in 2001, the Nokia M510, which was running on EPOC and featuring an Opera browser, speakers and a 10-inch 800×600 screen, but it was not released because of fears that the market was not ready for it.[43] In 2005, Nokia finally released the first of its Internet Tablet range, the Nokia 770. These tablets now ran a Debian based Linux OS called Maemo. Nokia used the term internet tablet to refer to a portable information appliance that focused on Internet use and media consumption, in the range between a personal digital assistant (PDA) and an Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC). They made two mobile phones, the N900 that runs Maemo, and N9 that run Meego

Android was the first of today's dominating platforms for tablet computers to reach the market. In 2008, the first plans for Android-based tablets appeared. The first products were released in 2009. Among them was the Archos 5, a pocket-sized model with a 5-inch touchscreen, that was first released with a proprietary operating system and later (in 2009) released with Android 1.4. The Camangi WebStation was released in Q2 2009. The first LTE Android tablet appeared late 2009 and was made by ICD for Verizon. This unit was called the Ultra, but a version called Vega was released around the same time. Ultra had a 7-inch display while Vega's was 15 inches. Many more products followed in 2010. Several manufacturers waited for Android Honeycomb, specifically adapted for use with tablets, which debuted in February 2011.
2010 and afterwards


Apple is often credited for defining a new class of consumer device with the iPad, which shaped the commercial market for tablets in the following years, and was the most successful tablet at the time of its release. iPads and competing devices have been tested by the US military Its debut in 2010 pushed tablets into the mainstream. Samsung's Galaxy Tab and others followed, continuing the trends towards the features listed above.

In 2013, Samsung announced a tablet running Android and Windows 8 operating systems concurrently; switching from one operating system to the other and vice versa does not require restarting the device, and data can be synchronized between the two operating systems.[The device, named ATIV Q, was scheduled for release in late 2013 but its release has been indefinitely delayed. Meanwhile, Asus released its Transformer Book Trio, a tablet that is also capable of running the operating systems Windows 8 and Android.
By 2014 around 23% of B2B companies were said to have deployed tablets for sales-related activities, according to a survey report by Corporate Visions.
Touch interface
3.Samsung Galaxy Tab demonstrating multi-touch
A key component among tablet computers is touch input. This allows the user to navigate easily and type with a virtual keyboard on the screen. The first tablet to do this was the GRiDPad by GRiD Systems Corporation; the tablet featured both a stylus, a pen-like tool to aid with precision in a touchscreen device as well as an on-screen keyboard.
The system must respond to touches rather than clicks of a keyboard or mouse, which allows integrated hand-eye operation, a natural use of the somatosensory system.[This is even more true of the more recent multi-touch interface, which often emulates the way objects behave.
Handwriting recognition
Chinese characters like this one meaning "person" can be written by handwriting recognition (人 animation, Mandarin: rén, Korean: in, Japanese: jin, nin; hito, Cantonese: jan4). The character has two strokes, the first shown here in brown, and the second in red. The black area represents the starting position of the writing instrument.

All versions of the Windows OS since Vista have natively supported advanced handwriting recognition, including via a digital stylus.] Windows XP supported handwriting with optional downloads from MS. The Windows handwriting recognition routines constantly analyze the user's handwriting to improve performance. Handwriting recognition is also supported in many applications such as Microsoft OneNote, and Windows Journal. Some ARM powered tablets, such as the Galaxy Note 10, also support a stylus and support handwriting recognition. Wacom and N-trig digital pens provide approximately 2500 DPI resolution for handwriting, exceeding the resolution of capacitive touch screens by more than a factor of 10. These pens also support pressure sensitivity, allowing for "variable-width stroke-based" characters, such as Chinese/Japanese/Korean writing, due to their built-in capability of "pressure sensing". Pressure is also used in digital art applications such as Autodesk Sketchbook.
4.Touchscreen hardware

Touchscreens usually come in one of two forms:

    Resistive touchscreens are passive and respond to pressure on the screen. They allow a high level of precision, useful in emulating a pointer (as is common in tablet computers) but may require calibration. Because of the high resolution, a stylus or fingernail is often used. Stylus-oriented systems are less suited to multi-touch.
    Capacitive touchscreens tend to be less accurate, but more responsive than resistive devices. Because they require a conductive material, such as a finger tip, for input, they are not common among stylus-oriented devices, but are prominent on consumer devices. Finger-driven capacitive screens do not currently support pressure input.

Some tablets can recognize individual palms, while some professional-grade tablets use pressure-sensitive films, such as those on graphics tablets. Some capacitive touch-screens can detect the size of the touched area and the pressure used.
Features

Today's tablets use capacitive touchscreens with multi-touch, unlike earlier stylus-driven resistive touchscreen devices. After 2007 with the access to capacitive screens and the success of the iPhone, multi-touch and other natural user interface features, as well as flash memory solid state storage and "instant on" warm-booting; external USB and Bluetooth keyboards defined tablets. Some have 3G mobile telephony applications.

Most tablets released since mid-2010 use a version of an ARM processor for longer battery life. The ARM Cortex family is powerful enough for tasks such as internet browsing, light production work and mobile games.

As with smartphones, most mobile tablet apps are supplied through online distribution, rather than boxed software or direct sales from software vendors. These sources, known as "app stores", provide centralized catalogs of software and allow "one click" on-device software purchasing, installation and updates. The app store is often shared with smartphones that use the same operating system.[64][65]

*Hardware

    High-definition, anti-glare display
    Wireless local area and internet connectivity (usually with Wi-Fi standard and optional mobile broadband)
    Front- and/or back- facing camera(s) for photographs and video
    Lower weight and longer battery life than a comparably-sized laptop
    Bluetooth for connecting peripherals and communicating with local devices
    Early devices had IR support and could work as a TV remote controller.
    Docking station: Keyboard and USB port(s)

Special hardware: The tablets can be equipped with special hardware to provide functionality, such as camera, GPS and local data storage.

*Software

    Mobile web browser
    E-book readers for digital books, periodicals and other content
    Downloadable apps such as games, education and utilities
    Portable media player function including video and music playback
    Email and social media
    Mobile phone functions (messaging, speakerphone, address book)
    Video-teleconferencing

*Data storage

    On-board flash memory
    Ports for removable storage
    Various cloud storage services for backup and syncing data across devices
    Local storage on a LAN

*Additional inputs
Besides a touchscreen and keyboard, some tablets can also use these input methods:

    Accelerometer: Detects the physical movement and orientation of the tablet. This allows the touchscreen display to shift to either portrait or landscape mode. In addition, tilting the tablet may be used as an input (for instance to steer in a driving game)
    Ambient light and proximity sensors, to detect if the device is close to something, in particular, to your ear, etc., which help to distinguish between intentional and unintentional touches.
    Speech recognition
    Gesture recognition
    Character recognition to write text on the tablet, that can be stored as any other text in the intended storage, instead of using a keyboard.
    Near field communication with other compatible devices including ISO/IEC 14443 RFID tags.