While the world is enraptured with Apple’s voice assistant Siri, the company may be readying to enter yet another arena, the smart pen market. Smart pens lets users record everything they hear, say and write, while linking audio recordings to notes.
LiveScribe Echo Smart Pen
First, a bit of background about smart pens, which have been described as Montblanc‐size computers with advanced processing power and memory for handwriting capture, and usually include audio recording capabilities. The undisputed leader in the field is LiveScribe, founded in 2007 by Jim Marggraff, who invented the LeapPad and Fly Pentop Computer.
LiveScribe’s two models, the Pulse and the Echo, have a ball-point ink cartridge, an embedded microphone, speaker, OLED display, and internal flash memory that capture handwritten notes, audio and drawings and can convert ink handwriting to text in 26 languages. You can use the smart pens the same way you would use a regular ballpoint pen but you need to have special dot paper, which is based on technology called Dot Positioning System (DPS). LiveScribe licenses DPS from Anoto for use in its smart pen and dot paper.
LiveScribe Echo Smart Pen and Paper
DPS is a technology that enables interactive live documents using plain paper printed with micro‐dots. The smart pen’s high‐speed infrared camera reads the dot pattern, which enables a wide range of paper‐based applications. The camera does not see ink written by a user, nor does it see artwork on a page. Rather, the smart pen tracks and remembers where ink is written, and knows the coordinates of items such as buttons. LiveScribe’s dot paper notebooks and paper‐based applications are provided by the company and partners at prices comparable to standard paper products, according to LiveScribe. However, users can also print dot paper for free on some laser jet printers.
The smart pen records audio in a high quality AAC format. Users can export audio from LiveScribe Desktop software into different formats to use and share.
Using LiveScribe On A Laptop
The Mac version of the LiveScribe Desktop exports to AAC and the Windows version of the LiveScribe desktop exports into MP4 or WAV. Once users have transferred their notes and audio from their smart pen to LiveScribe Desktop they have the option to keep their paper replay sessions in their smart pen or delete them manually to create more storage space. They can still keep a digital archive of their notes on the LiveScribe Desktop application. LiveScribe Desktop allows users to back up, search, and replay notes from their computer. Users can export their notes into a pencast, Adobe PDF or an audio file.
The Echo is available in 4GB and 8GB models, recording more than 400 and 800 hours of audio respectively. The Pulse smart pen is available in 2GB and 4GB models, recording more than 200 and 400 hours for audio respectively. Prices start at $99 and up.
Now back to Apple. In September, the company filed a slew of patents, including one for a smart pen, as unearthed by www. patentlyapple.com.
“It should be noted that Apple has likely acquired this patent from a Great Britain inventor who originally filed the patent in 1998, or nine years prior to LiveScribe coming to market,” wrote Jack Purcher on the Web site. “This is important—as a recent Apple patent application which reflects LiveScribe-like capabilities is actually building on the foundation and advances the smart pen to include face and object recognition modules and more.”
Purcher said that the patents describes a smart pen as incorporating a speech recorder capable of recording up to 60 seconds of content, and uses a built-in microphone, speaker and touch-based pause and play control functions.
“The smart pen also incorporates all kinds of sensors including GPS and uniquely doubles as a pager, set with either an alarm or vibration alert,” Purcher said. “The invention [patent] further notes that when the smart pen is docked with a device or iPhone, the smart-pen will be able to receive data by way of cellular or radio transmission and display such on the pen’s display. Technically this might be able to extend to instant messaging as well. Note that the smart-pen is designed to work with iPhone and iPad-like devices which the patent technically describes as being cellular telephones and hand held PC’s.”
It remains to be seen if this is another case of Apple’s anything-you-do-we-can-do-better technology, but if and when an iPen hits the market, you can be sure LiveScribe will be listening.
“This is Apple’s thirteenth smart-pen related patent since 2009,” Purcher noted. “The trend illustrates that Apple is attempting to develop a family of smart pens for future iOS devices that would appeal to both the artist and enterprise user. The depth of innovation illustrated in Apple’s string of smart-pen patents goes far beyond purely defensive measures.”
