5 ms·

The Pen Gets Mightier

45 points by frossie 16y ago

frossie 16y ago
Does this thing work as well as he makes out? If so, very cool.
Nycto 16y ago
Kind of lame that the article doesn't link back to the actual product: http://www.livescribe.com/ http://www.livescribe.com/ I also found this video of someone demoing the pen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU_RKv5zemM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU_RKv5zemM
gojomo 16y ago
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 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 16y ago
  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.
seldo 16y ago
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.
- csmeder 16y ago
  I would say its probably quite useful for taking math or physics notes.
  - cstross 16y ago
    Especially in a class where the professor has an unreasoning hatred of laptops. But seriously. I bought one out of curiosity and played with it for a couple of days. But while I'd have killed for one during my university days, today I just reach for a keyboard. To get the most out of it, you need to carry around: (a) the Livescribe pen, (b) at least one notepad, and (c) the earbuds/microphones. And you need (d) the docking/charge cradle and (e) a laptop to synch with at the end of the day. If you need pen-based on-the-go note taking, why not buy a second hand Palm TX, or an HP iPaq 210? And if you don't like writing by hand, why are you bothering? The killer use case for it is where you need to record an audio track synched to your handwriting. For lecture notes, it's a monumental and amazingly cool solution. For other applications, well, I'm still trying to think of one. This is a really nice implementation of an idea that is undoubtedly great for some people ... just not for me.
- pragmatic 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    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/DeveloperOverviewPage http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/De...
  - 16y ago
10ren 16y ago
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 http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.04/anoto_pr.html
- akkartik 16y ago
  I was reminded of that bubble-era wired article as well. It's interesting to reread - I remember even at the time thinking it sounded a bit too breathless.
- dlytle 16y ago
  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.
kiba 16y ago
Look like the paper and the pen ain't dead just yet!

45 points by frossie 16y ago

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

Nycto 16y ago

Kind of lame that the article doesn't link back to the actual product: http://www.livescribe.com/ http://www.livescribe.com/ I also found this video of someone demoing the pen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU_RKv5zemM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU_RKv5zemM

gojomo 16y ago

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 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 16y ago
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.

seldo 16y ago

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.

csmeder 16y ago
I would say its probably quite useful for taking math or physics notes.
- cstross 16y ago
  Especially in a class where the professor has an unreasoning hatred of laptops. But seriously. I bought one out of curiosity and played with it for a couple of days. But while I'd have killed for one during my university days, today I just reach for a keyboard. To get the most out of it, you need to carry around: (a) the Livescribe pen, (b) at least one notepad, and (c) the earbuds/microphones. And you need (d) the docking/charge cradle and (e) a laptop to synch with at the end of the day. If you need pen-based on-the-go note taking, why not buy a second hand Palm TX, or an HP iPaq 210? And if you don't like writing by hand, why are you bothering? The killer use case for it is where you need to record an audio track synched to your handwriting. For lecture notes, it's a monumental and amazingly cool solution. For other applications, well, I'm still trying to think of one. This is a really nice implementation of an idea that is undoubtedly great for some people ... just not for me.
pragmatic 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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/DeveloperOverviewPage http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/De...
- 16y ago

10ren 16y ago

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

akkartik 16y ago
I was reminded of that bubble-era wired article as well. It's interesting to reread - I remember even at the time thinking it sounded a bit too breathless.
dlytle 16y ago
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.

kiba 16y ago

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