Geeky tech

[gothick]

Just stumbled across the Pen-It. Which is a pen and pad where you can write stuff on the pad with the pen. Not particularly revolutionary, especially as we're talking a paper pad and a pen that writes with ink.

Except for the fact that the paper has a clever pattern of dots on it, and the pen can tell where it is on the page. And has a memory. And a bluetooth connection. So when you've jotted your notes down on paper when you're on the road, you can come back to your computer, wipe the pen across a special "upload now" pattern of dots on a piece of card, and whatever you've written will get uploaded to your computer as vector graphics, on an electronic copy of your notepad.

Now that's just downright funky.

Unfortunately, it's also downright expensive. Damn.

Comments

[kentonuk.livejournal.com]

Hmm, think my boss has something similar:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/features/digitalwriting/GB/EN

I seem to remember the pattern of dots allows it to uniquely locate itself within an area of about 4 km2 or something ridiculous. This lets it do wizzy stuff like adding things to the correct page if you go back later and squiggle on something you have already uploaded etc, without you having to tell it which page you are on in the notebook.

I think the dot pattern is beyond most home printers, it looks like they are aiming to make the money out of the paper at least to start with.

Oh and there are some gesture things that do some clever stuff, but I can't remember exactly what, I only had a brief demo and didn't pay too much attention as I knew it was too expensive for me.

Clever, but far too expensive at the moment.