Color Picker
Jinsun Park's design for a color-picking pen, hypothetically featuring a sensor and RGB ink tanks, carries well that quiet background hum of "Hmmm. So why doesn't this exist, then?"
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"The product would also be useful if it gave one a reading of how much red, yello..."
"Shouldn't the color cartridges be BLUE,YELLOW,RED since RGB only applies with el..."
"How about a pen that just deposits a layer of colour e-ink dropelets on a surfac..."
"Various chromatic issues aside, the challenge will be in transitioning cleanly f..."
"Hey, there's one of these in attached to the paint-mixer in every Home Despot an..."
Rob Beschizza on Color Picker...
"Cartridge shmartridge! I used to work in pre-press, with an ancient Goss monste..."
"Beschizza, my nizza, the design says RGB CARTRIDGES, not tanks. I wouldn't desc..."
Rob Beschizza on Color Picker...
""Hypothetically featuring a sensor and RGB ink tank" I guess t..."
"Just because it's ink doesn't mean it's reflective. It could be mixing the inks..."
"It is now obvious _after_ you edited it and added the diagram...."
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adamrice
#1 – 6:53 AM June 2, 2009
Just to pick a nit, this would hypothetically need to be filled with CMYK ink tanks, since inks need to be subtractive colors, not additive.
bmjames
#2 – 7:13 AM June 2, 2009
"RGB ink tanks"
More BeschizzaFail
AceJohnny
#3 – 7:29 AM June 2, 2009
For the RGB ink: we already do it on printers. Granted, there's a huge step to make before it can be translated into a pen.
Another big problem is that a color isn't just produced by a given surface (such as the leaf), but the light shining on that surface.
As a result, the green seen on the paper under artificial lighting will appear different from the green from the leaf in noonday sun.
And then all the kids will wail and ask Mom why god killed their unicorn ;)
(Hm, but then, the pen would just need another sensor to catch the ambient light and adjust accordingly.)
Wordguy
#4 – 7:39 AM June 2, 2009
Backing up from an actual pen with actual ink tanks -- why doesn't Wacom make one of these for use with Photoshop, etc? Point the sensor end of your stylus at a color, Photoshop selects the corresponding value in the color picker, and you does your art on your tablet.
Rob Beschizza
#5 – 7:45 AM June 2, 2009
Is it not obvious that the designer, not me, imagines RGB ink tanks?
bmjames
#6 – 8:23 AM June 2, 2009
It is now obvious _after_ you edited it and added the diagram.
dculberson
#7 – 8:37 AM June 2, 2009
Just because it's ink doesn't mean it's reflective. It could be mixing the inks and then passing light through them.
More assumptions fail. ;-)
Rob Beschizza
#8 – 8:49 AM June 2, 2009
"Hypothetically featuring a sensor and RGB ink tank"
I guess that would be ReadingcomprehensionFail, BMJames.
ds
#9 – 8:55 AM June 2, 2009
Beschizza, my nizza, the design says RGB CARTRIDGES, not tanks. I wouldn't describe something 10cm long x .25 cm diameter as a tank. But I'm quibbling too much over language.
I work in the printing industry (ink chemist) and I can tell you that CMYK printing can't match a lot of colors - the dyes and pigments available are not pure cyan, magenta, yellow and black, and the best match made by combining them comes out dirty. But that's really for marketing flunkies and color-match software. For the average user, this pen type of thing could come up with an amazing variety of colors that are very convincing. I could also forsee super cool ideas like random color mixing.
Rob Beschizza
#10 – 9:09 AM June 2, 2009
Cartridge shmartridge!
I used to work in pre-press, with an ancient Goss monster: squeezing convincing color out of it was always a nightmare. (But not as much of a nightmare as the rasterizer, which did daily battle with strange fonts.)
Anonymous Anonymous
#11 – 9:20 AM June 2, 2009
Hey, there's one of these in attached to the paint-mixer in every Home Despot and Lowe's in the tri-state area. For color-matching yo' trim, of course, gotta have the carpets match the curtains.
Except, um, it's HUGE. Like dorm fridge sized.
Wait, I know, we'll just say that hand is attached to the 50-foot woman, and all is well!
kpkpkp
#12 – 10:02 AM June 2, 2009
Various chromatic issues aside, the challenge will be in transitioning cleanly from one hue to the next - the 'dirty' issue.
Having optically sampled a new color, you must purge the prior color by drawing streaks on scratch paper until the new color is flowing.
Of course, for $20 you can get these (today):
http://www.kidsart.com/store/marker.html
kaiza
#13 – 10:28 AM June 2, 2009
How about a pen that just deposits a layer of colour e-ink dropelets on a surface? Nanobots, the solutions is ALWAYS nanobots! *goes off ranting and pulling hair out crazy-man style*
Q8GEEK
#14 – 1:15 AM June 5, 2009
Shouldn't the color cartridges be BLUE,YELLOW,RED since RGB only applies with electronic devices and monitors?
JMaster
#15 – 11:49 AM June 5, 2009
The product would also be useful if it gave one a reading of how much red, yellow, and blue pigments are needed in order to achieve a particular color. That way, whenever you come across a color that you want to use as paint, you will know how many parts of each paint you would need in order to get that color.