Word: anoto
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...letters, e-mail, memos, rEsumEs. For me, a pen, whether Mont Blanc or Bic, holds no more charm than a bullock-cart or a charcoal stove. And paper is for reading, packaging and folding into little planes. In my world, keyboard and trackball reign supreme. So the folks at Anoto AB have their work cut out for them if they're going to convince me that plain old writing is the best way to get on the Internet. This start-up Swedish company in the ancient university town of Lund is staking its future on pen and paper. Heck, even...
...digital. The pen "reads" what it writes on the special paper, then transmits this information as e-mail, fax or mobile-phone message. Why bother, I ask, when keyboards are already ubiquitous and so damn easy to use? "There's a reason people still use pen and paper," says Anoto's director of new concepts, Linus Wiebe, with only a hint of admonishment. "It's not because they are stupid or old-fashioned, but because pen and paper are the most innovative way to express yourself. It's a technology that's been refined over thousands of years...
Later, I put the question to Anoto founder Christer FAhraeus and get the same gentle reproach. "For 15 years, we've been pushed in the direction of keyboards," he says. "But still handwriting is the major way of taking notes and documenting meetings...
Here's how Anoto's technology works. Printed on the digital paper are microscopic dots within a near-invisible grid of 2 mm by 2 mm squares. Each square is unique, and in the realm of mathematical possibility there are enough such squares to cover the surface of the United States - four times. The digital pen, or Chatpen, as Anoto has christened it, contains a tiny infrared camera that recognizes the patterns and essentially photographs, 100 times a second, the pen's interaction with the paper. In this way, it "reads" what's been written. The pen then processes...
...other ideas? Contact Anoto. It expects independent developers to come up with hundreds of applications. Anoto is also working with penmakers like Mont Blanc to develop variants of the Chatpen, with papermakers like 3M (of Post-it fame) and Esselte, and with mobile network operators like Vodaphone. The initial Anoto-enabled pens, manufactured by Ericsson and Motorola, should be on the market this fall when the first network operator, the Swedish unit of Vodaphone, offers the service to subscribers. By that time, digital paper will be available in notepads, organizers and Post-it notes...