Sweden-based Anoto AB recently launched a pen that allows one to communicate over the Net with pen and paper without cables. K Aysha Begum details the technology and other competitors in this space

Anoto was founded in Lund, Sweden in late 1999 as a subsidiary of Technologies, which is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The company currently has about one hundred employees working in offices in Lund, Stockholm, Boston, and Tokyo. Ericsson Mobile Communications holds an important minority stake in the company and is also represented on the board. The company focuses on research, development and marketing for the various aspects of Anoto technology and in creating a standard for digital paper. Ericsson has contributed with expertise in the areas of Bluetooth technology and cellular/mobile terminals, and Time Manager has developed the first paper product based on the Anoto-pattern.

About Esselte

Esselte AB, a leading provider of office supplies worldwide, develops the paper involved in the Anoto technology. Esselte brings innovation; efficiency and style to the way people work in the office and at home. The company’s principal brands are Curtis, DYMO, Leitz, Oxford and Pendaflex.

Smart pen

This technology allows you to communicate over the Internet with only pen and paper without cables. To use the pen, all you have to do is take off the cover and clip it to the top of whatever you will be writing on. Then you just write, scribble or draw. The pen works by emitting infrared light that is received by the two infrared sensors in the pen cover. After you are through with your writing, the pen can easily be connected to a cell phone, handheld device or a computer.

The Intelligent pen can record handwriting and send the information it collects as a fax, E-mail or cell phone short message .The digital pen which is only slightly thicker than an ordinary pen, is equipped with a scanning eye and consists of a combination of a digital infrared camera and an image processing system. After the pen touches down on paper, the digital camera begins taking a series of shots until the pen lifts up again. The shots are taken in rapid-fire sequence of 100 photos per second. This information is then sent via bluetooth technology that transfers the image to a mobile phone, laptop, PDA or any other digital environment.

The concept

Packed with a custom 100FPS CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) Sensor (its eyes), a 70MHZ proprietary ARM-based processor (its brain), a Bluetooth wireless transceiver (its ears), and a durable TBA battery, the Anoto pen is a digital derangement with attitude. This pen allows you to transmit accurate digital image to wireless Bluetooth devices, your personal computer, and other supporter devices and services, you can draw pictures, write full length papers or record your signature. The digital notepad consists of small dots spread out in unique combinations around a pre-printed grid. The pattern is visible only at a very faint grey tone any position on the notepad is exactly determined using X-and Y-co-ordinate.

The camera

The dots of the Anoto pattern are illuminated by infrared light, making them visible for the digital camera. Digital snapshots are taken of the pattern at a rate of 100 per second. (The ink from the pen is not visible to the camera. Therefore your writing does not degrade the pattern.)

The image processor

The image processor calculates, in real-time, the exact position in the entire Anoto proprietary pattern. During image processing, snapshots are compared and information about also gathered and stored.

The memory

All the data from the image processor is packaged and loaded into the pen memory, which can store several fully written pages. The pen can store 2MB of written information.

The Bluetooth transceiver

The information is transmitted by the Bluetooth transceiver, either directly to your computer, or forwarded via a relay device (e.g. mobile phone, personal computer or handheld device) to the Anoto Look-up Service. From here some information will be forwarded for further processing elsewhere.

The Bluetooth device is a small, low-powered radio on a chip that communicates with other Bluetooth-enabled products. Because it is a radio, bluetooth eliminates the necessity for cable to connect portable computers, personal digital device, cellular phones, and printers, fax machines and the like. Bluetooth-enabled devices can connect on a one-to-one or one-to-many basis. Bluetooth technology uses the 2.4-GHz radio band, which is unlicensed and available worldwide. It supports data speeds of up to 721 Kbit per second and 3 voice channels.

Ink cartridge and force sensor

The pen holds an ordinary ink cartridge to make visible all that you have written or drawn. A force-sensing resistor measures the stylus tip force.

Anoto pattern and paper

There’s one small catch to all this little pen’s glory; you can’t just draw on anything, you have to use Anoto paper or other paper specially printed with the Anoto pattern that appears as an off-white glaze to the naked eye. The Anoto pattern is responsible for much of the technology and functionality of the pen. Without it, the pen would be lost. Trillions of dots are printed with carbon-based black ink with a nominal spacing of 0.3mm.The dots create a pattern that uniquely defines the pen’s position on the paper. The pen’s infrared LED illuminates the carbon-based ink; other non carbon-based inks do not disrupt the pen’s digital functionality. Special patterns are reserved for pen commands and functions, such as: Send to, Send, To-do, etc. This allows certain areas of the paper to be reserved for specific pre-defined functions such as writing to be forwarded to your computer.

The Anoto pattern can be printed on almost any material that allows for 1000 dpi or greater resolution. It uses public-key infrastructure and 128-bit encryption based on the Advanced Encryption Standard’s Rijndael algorithm, the current US government standard. For certain applications, 192- and 256-bit keys are also used.

Internally encrypted before transmission, all messages are also time-stamped, a requirement for providing digital signatures. Such signatures can’t be duplicated.

Working principle

If you’re wondering how it works, it’s actually quite simple. The Chat-Pen has a regular ink cartridge in its tip and a miniature camera. When you write on paper, a CMOS sensor takes one hundred pictures per second of the Anoto paper, specially printed with Anoto’s proprietary pattern. Each picture is compared to the next by an on-board processor in order to map the change in direction and distance of movement .The tip of the pen is equipped with a special force sensor transistor that determines if or not the pen is being pressed to the paper. Special ink allows for normal pen functionality while also resisting illumination to the infrared LED that aids the camera in recording images taken from the Anoto paper. Finally, the on-board ARM-based processor gathers and stores information about how the pen is held and your position on the paper. The information is loaded into the pen memory (capable of storing several fully written pages) where it awaits transmission via the wireless Bluetooth transceiver located at the bottom of the pen.

The Anoto pen is well disguised, without buttons or display that hint at its uniqueness. It is activated by removing the cap, and deactivated by replacing it, which conserves juice in the on-board battery.

Anoto technology and wireless pen technology

The Anoto technology is a combination of an ingenious pattern, advanced image processor processing, Bluetooth wireless communication and an information infrastructure. These features let you use pen and paper together with all the possibilities of information technology. A user has the option of sending messages in his own handwriting.

Plug the device into a cell phone, PDA or laptop with wireless modem, as well as a PC, and Digital Ink’s server will convert the handwriting into PDF or JPEG format, and then send the message as an e-mail attachment. The handwriting appears cleanly on the cell phone or PDA screen. Digital Ink recently completed a development agreement and received significant venture financing from Intel Capital, Intel’s strategic investment program.

Virtually unlimited applications

Applications enabling Anoto functionality can be divided into three main groups: analogue output, communication and paper-based e-services. Within these groups, the application potential is virtually unlimited.

E-commerce: Service providers can design their own functionality into paper products and advertisements. The function, for example ordering a product, is transmitted to the service provider together with the unique identity of the pen.

Digital Storage: Everything written or sketched with the pen can be transferred to your computer or other digital device upon request. This can be done by ticking the ‘Store’ box.

Communication: Every sketch or note can be faxed, e-mailed or sent via SMS. Write the address and tick the designated box.

Competition at hand

Giving tough competition to Anoto’s intelligent pen is another Ink-to-digital conversion tool. A new device from Digital ink, christened n-scribe, combines an electronic transmitter that enables a uses to capture data for electronic storage and communication, while at the same time allowing them to see what they are writing. N-scribe technology will compliment and compete existing voice, data, image and video communications.

However, the key distinction between these two digital pens which come with a price tag of $100 is that Anoto needs special paper and uses Bluetooth to transmit the information, whereas the n-scribe can be used on any paper and is capable of transmitting data via infrared and serial as well.

The author is a final year MCA student at Crescent Engineering College, Chennai