Logitech to introduce Digital Bluetooth Pen

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=4180' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.a...?ContentId=4180</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Logitech has announced plans to offer business solution providers a Bluetooth wireless technology enabled version of the Logitech io2 Digital Pen. According to the company a digital pen with Bluetooth technology, used in combination with a wireless handheld communication device featuring Bluetooth technology can help an organization's mobile workforce more efficiently gather, transmit and share important data in real time &lt;...> industries such as sales, field services, insurance, financial services, healthcare and government regulation are reliant on their mobile workforces' ability to collect accurate data in the field and share it quickly."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/logitechbtpen2.jpg" /> <br /><br />I've seen a handful of companies enter the market with digital pen products, though Logitech will be the first I've seen to use Bluetooth with their pen. In fact, for Logitech, this isn't their first digital pen as seen as they have a lineup of products surrounding their <a href="http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/features/digitalwritingtopics/US/EN,crid=2095&categoryid=401">1st generation digital pen</a>. This is advertised as a "business solutions" device, so before anyone comments on how useful this is to the common consumer, consider the target market. Anyone out there who rely on digital pens for work or otherwise? Let us know.

[biglouis]

What exactly do you do with this - of any practical value?

LouisB

[freitasm]

This pen is based on same technology used by Nokia. Actually Nokia does have a Bluetooth Pen for two years now - Logitech decided to launch their version with USB connection only, and now this updated.

What does it do? You write with it like normal pen, on a paper with some special markings. Everything you write is recorded in the pen's memory. Later you can synchronise the contents with a computer or PDA and have this sent to a database, scanned through a OCR program, whatever you need.

I've seen this working a couple of years ago during the Bluetooth Americas 2003, in San Jose. Pretty cool, and can have lots of applications in data collection for remote workers, hospitals, warehouses, etc...

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

This pen is based on same technology used by Nokia. Actually Nokia does have a Bluetooth Pen for two years now - Logitech decided to launch their version with USB connection only, and now this updated.
http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,4879,5787,00.html

Ahh... I knew Nokia had a digital pen, but didn't realize it was Bluetooth as well.

Thanks for the info Freitasm!

[TheDenman]

The originators of the technology. They use to have a cool video which gave a good understanding of the concept behind it. I still have the video saved somewhere.

http://www.anoto.com/
Check it out.

[beq]

Interesting, but would it always require special paper (or perhaps regular paper but must use a pad)?

Anyways, so in one specific example we have a Pocket PC user using something like PhatPad to write digital ink notes on his PPC's small screen (and later optionally OCR'ed with Calligrapher) -- or a Tablet PC user using OneNote/EverNote to write digital ink notes on his Tablet's larger screen (and later optionally OCR'ed with one of the various Windows packages).

Now instead he can use this BT pen to write on the special (letter-size) paper which is captured and transmitted as digital ink notes (and later optionally OCR'ed -- what OCR does Logitech/Nokia include BTW?).

[Anjuan Simmons]

This would be cool if it could be a poor man's drawing tablet. Assuming that the pen could be used to trace over a drawing on any type of paper, this would allow an artist to digitally render and change an image.

[lsbeller]

Probably one of the best applications of this technology was with Franklin Covey planners. They offered their planning pages with the special Anoto grid background for use with the Logitech IO pen. The data of what you wrote was saved and later sent to your computer (ie laptop, tablet, or PPC) for processing. The endgame idea was for you to write in an appointment on the calendar page and an appointmnet would show up in Outlook. Or, add a task to the task page and a new task would show up in Outlook.

They marketed it as a low cost entry as opposed to a tablet pc. It apparently did not sell well as the only items left in their inventory are just the pages here. (http://shopping.franklincovey.com/shopping/catalog/category.jsp?id=cat110002)

I also read that they originally wanted to get newspapers and magazines to print the same background grid do you could just circle an ad or check a box on an article and you would receive an email with more details or an electronic copy of the article.

Great idea, but I think it was about 10 years too late.

[Fuego]

The fact it uses special paper is not so good. Personally I use a Seiko Smartpad to take meeting notes. This use an inductive pen writing on a tablet over which you can use any kind of normal paper. The tablet links to my PPC via infrared (BT would be nicer here, of course). Works very well, producing ink notes which can be E-mailed etc. Picked it up cheap on e-bay since they don'y make them anymore (AFAIK).