Wacom (company)

Wacom Co., Ltd. (株式会社ワコム, Kabushiki-gaisha Wakomu) (/ˈwɑːkəm/) is a Japanese company headquartered in Kazo, Saitama, Japan, that specializes in graphics tablets and related products.

Headquarters locations

The American headquarters are located in Vancouver, Washington, and those for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) in Krefeld, Germany. Wacom is a Japanese portmanteau: Wa for "harmony" or "circle", and Komu for "computer". Wacom tablets are notable for their use of a patented cordless, battery-free, and pressure-sensitive stylus or digital pen. In addition to manufacturing and selling tablets, Wacom also provides graphical input technology for some tablet computers, which it calls "Penabled Technology".

Functionality

Wacom tablet functionality was used in the screen of the Compaq Concerto computer in 1992, making it an early tablet computer.

Market share

Product lines

Wacom produces several tablet lines, three of which are marketed worldwide. Most are sold with a software bundle, such as Corel Painter Essentials and Photoshop Elements, which take advantage of the tablet features. Each is sold with a compatible digital pen. Some pens feature buttons on the shaft or an "eraser" at the other end. Some models include a puck (mouse) based on the same technology. Software drivers for recent versions of Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows are included with most models. All current models of external tablets connect to computers via USB or Bluetooth.

Bamboo

The bamboos ⁱ/bæmˈbuː/ are a subfamily (Bambusoideae) of flowering perennial evergreen plants in the grass family Poaceae.

Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. In bamboo, the internodal regions of the stem are usually hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross section are scattered throughout the stem instead of in a cylindrical arrangement. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. The absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots, including the palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering.

Bamboos are the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow 91 cm (3 ft) within a 24-hour period, at a rate of almost 4 cm (1.5 in) an hour (a growth around 1 mm every 90 seconds, or one inch every 40 minutes). Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, being used for building materials, as a food source, and as a versatile raw product. Bamboo has a higher compressive strength than wood, brick, or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel.