Today me and my game group were discussing several alternative ways to keep track of hitpoints (obviously other than just writing down the number). I would have your opinion on these or, rather, I'd love to hear more of these alternatives even if they are somewhat cumbersome.

Using an abacus for hp calculation: I've always felt that an abacus would be an easy way to change hp on the fly, mostly because it doesn't require having to erase previous writing. However I don't think it'd be great for players since they'd have to carry the thing around coming to session or it'd need some place to store them lol. Perhaps it's better as a mainly GM tool? You tell me.

A literal sliding healthbar: An abacus-like healthbar with a single stick and a bead (perhaps two, if the system uses temporary hitpoints?). You could write down a kind of "hp ruler" to keep track of these. You could also use one of those construction rulers and take millimeters as single hitpoints but that could get ridiculous real fast lmao.

Little beads on a bowl: You have a number of small beads equal to your hp, and every time you get hit you take an equal amount of beads out. It could be used to obscure the exact number of hitpoints the character has.... Though it would obscure it to the GM also. It could keep tension up since the players could see they have 1/2 the usual beads or just count them if they're a small amount, but it could also get messy depending of how they handled these.

Dice as hp trackers: Keeping hp in either several d20s (adding them together) or d10s (one per digit). This one's for the dice hoarders, but perhaps it's the "least awful" of the lot? Lol. I really don't know.

Anyways what do you gents think? Any other useful/fun ways to do this?