
The Pen Gets Mightier - frossie
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2010/09/the-pen-gets-mightier/8184/
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seldo
I've played with one of these and they are pretty neat. As others have
mentioned, most of the functionality relies on using special paper which is
printed with patterns of dots. The paper doesn't _look_ special though -- the
dots are almost unnoticeable, and it's ordinary paper in texture and thickness
etc.

The piano-playing functionality mentioned in the article really does work like
magic -- draw keys, play keys, done.

In general though, I struggle to think of a reason I'd use it: I type much
faster and more accurately than I write, and I seldom have any reason to be
matching audio with text transcriptions.

~~~
pragmatic
Serious question:

Aside from school note taking and small meetings, is there any other purpose
to this?

I'm trying to think of another scenario this would be useful.

It would be cool if this could do some basic Visio diagrams or something (even
though I haven't used Visio in years).

This seems so darn cool, but I barely write anything by hand anymore. Just
some basic design (layout, diagrams) and lists (groceries, supplies, to-do's,
etc).

~~~
Jtsummers
It has an API so people can develop new applications for it. I didn't find
anything like that in my quick scan through it.

Link to their developer page:

[http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-
bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/De...](http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-
bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/DeveloperOverviewPage)

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Nycto
Kind of lame that the article doesn't link back to the actual product:
<http://www.livescribe.com/>

I also found this video of someone demoing the pen:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU_RKv5zemM>

------
10ren
The business model of similar pens is selling the paper. Because the dots make
each square inch globally unique, they are effectively selling - and _making_
\- real estate (a bit like ICANN selling domain names.)

I think this is unbelievably cool and clever - but I also really don't like
it.

<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.04/anoto_pr.html>

~~~
dlytle
It is _possible_ to print the paper at home, if you have a color laser
printer. (600+ dpi required, but I haven't seen any lately that aren't at
least 600.)

Newegg has printers that fit the bill starting at $150-ish. No special toner
required, although Anoto does make some sort of custom ink you can buy for the
purpose.

So it is possible to avoid buying their paper, just possibly annoying.

------
gojomo
The pen depends on this technology -- a special dot pattern on the required
paper allowing the pen to know the page and position where it is pointed:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoto>

The first 'C-Pen' using the technique was launched in Sweden in 1998,
internationally in 1999. Jim Marggraff's LiveScribe was formed in 2007, to
create other products based on the technology -- following the successful
'pentop' product Marggraff created at LeapFrog using the paper.

~~~
joezydeco
Anoto is pretty damned cool and I've been tracking the products for a while.
LeapFrog has 4-5 products using the tech now (the Tag family) and has cost
reduced it significantly.

I guess Microsoft even considered it a threat to the point where they
announced their own product as one of their amazing R&D discoveries, but
quickly dropped any discussion of it.

------
frossie
Does this thing work as well as he makes out? If so, very cool.

------
kiba
Look like the paper and the pen ain't dead just yet!

