The Pen Is Mighty; the Computer Pen Might Be Mightier

Now that we've become a nation of expert typists, it's only poetic justice that we're craving more natural input devices. One of the most familiar is the pen. The dream of pen lovers is that the power of the pen will some day meet the power of the computer. With Livescribe, a powerfully smart pen/computer that is a significant improvement over past attempts, the promise is looking better.

The Pen Story Thus Far

If you're going to write with one today, computers fall into two broad categories. Handwriting organizers like the Palm Z22, which rely on Palm's Graffiti and family, and tablet PCs like Toshiba's, which use Microsoft's Pen Computing. Both rely on housing the smarts of the operation in the computer or organizer. The pen is a dumb plastic stylus.

Smartpens got their first shot of adrenaline when LeapFrog introduced the FLY Pentop Computer. Designed for kids, the FLY is a pen with the computer and an optical scanner built right into it. As kids write on a special gridded paper, the pen's processor translates their penstrokes and presses. The pen also speaks via voice synthesis. Kids could be doing math problems and have the pen coaching them, or reviewing spelling where the pen could read their handwritten words. Selling for about $80, the FLY Pentop has not conquered the kids' market to the degree LeapFrog hoped.

Enter Livescribe

The creative force behind the FLY, Jim Maggraff, left LeapFrog to create a more adult version of the pen. That's Livescribe. It's about the size of a Montblanc but has the processing power of a computer, including memory for handwriting capture, audio recording, and applications.

You write on special paper that contains a grid of dots (Dot Position System), but unlike with the FLY pen, you can create the special paper on a laser printer and many inkjets.

One of the biggest improvements to the pen is that it has an audio recording feature. As you jot notes you can also record voice—say a class lecture, a business meeting, or your own train of thought. These audio notes can all be indexed on a PC and played back on the computer.

The company is hoping that software developers will create all sorts of special applications. But one of the fundamental applications, "Paper Replay," is already part of the system. Paper Replay lets you take notes with the pen while you're speaking at the same time. The smartpen records the conversation and digitizes the handwriting, automatically synching the two of them. Later you can tap the ink on paper, and the smartpen replays the conversation from the exact moment the note was written. How cool is that?

In a press release, Jim Marggraff says, "The basic modes of human communication—reading, writing, speaking, and listening—are enhanced by Livescribe with a completely intuitive, portable, low-cost tool. It is the harbinger of a new era of mobile computing." The release says the Livescribe will be available soon and will cost under $200.