Taking notes with a stylus on a capacitive touch device - how do you prevent your hand from causing multi-touch problems?

Question

When taking notes with a stylus on a capacitive touch device like the ipad or android tablets how do you prevent your hand from causing multi-touch problems? When you write, both the stylus and your hand are touching the screen. Does the presence of your hand screw up your touch entry just as accidentally placing a second finger on the screen at the wrong time would?

Answer 1

While iOS does not have an OS-level palm-rejection algorithm, many apps have implemented that feature in one way or another. Some have a specific "writing window" in which you have to write, while others have a "palm rest" area that will not respond to touches.

A few of the many options for iPad: Notability, Notes Plus, Penultimate. By no means a comprehensive list but these are some of the top sellers and best reviewed. I've used all 3 and enjoy each one for different scenarios, but any one of them would be good for the vast majority of uses.

In addition, another solution you can pursue is using a stylus that promotes a grip style that doesn't necessitate resting the palm. e.g. The just-released Cosmonaut by Studio Neat, which I'll be trying out as soon as they ship it to me.

Finally, there's a project on Kickstarter for a new "active" stylus technology that is being developed for iPad. This is a different approach that seeks to give finer control than the other styluses out there. Palm rejection is an inherent feature because the stylus generates an active signal recognized by the sensor. The downside to this approach is it will only work with apps that implement the SDK for the stylus.

My recommendation is to start with one of the apps I mentioned, since that's the cheapest solution to try. Step up to the stylus options only if you find that's not working for you, or you want more control.

Answer 2

You are not going to be able to solve this with just the iPad. Typically, tablets like Wacom's will have Palm rejection technology. The screen can detect when the stylus gets close to the screen and switches to stylus mode. The stylus itself isn't a typical piece of plastic.

I believe the stylus outputs some sort of signal or field that the screen can pickup to switch states.

Now it is possible to code the application to detect which inputs are your hand and which is the stylus, but this is application specific and the capability is not provided by the iPad itself.