- How does the paper work?
- How does the pen work?
- How does the digital pens convert and transfer ink to digital data?
- How do you transfer data from the pen?
- Wirelessly: by ticking a box on the paper, interpreted by the pen as a “send” command, the pen will use Bluetooth to instantly send data via a mobile phone
- Via a USB port: pens connect to any PC
- The location (coordinates for each pen camera picture taken by the pen)
- Exact time of when they were written
- Who wrote them
- The identity of the paper form and of the specific pages
THE PAPER
All types of ordinary paper can take advantage of the technology. To make the paper digitally legible a patent-protected dot pattern is added before printout.
The pattern is almost invisible to the naked eye, the pattern consists of numerous intelligent small black dots that can be read by a digital pen. The pattern indicates the exact positions of the digital pen. What’s more, the pattern on each paper has a unique identity so that each page can be kept separate from another.
THE PEN
A digital pen looks and feels like using its normal ballpoint counterparts. However, it contains an integrated digital camera, an advanced image microprocessor and a mobile communications device for wireless connection. When using a digital pen you capture, store and then securely send the handwriting.
When writing, digital snapshots of the pattern on the paper are automatically taken (in fact, more than 50 pictures per second). Every snapshot contains enough data to determine the exact position of the pen and what it writes or draws, including the time each pen stroke was made as well as which particular paper form was written on. All this data is then retained in the pen’s memory as a series of coordinates. The pen can store up to 50 full A4/Letter size pages of handwritten data.
The digital pen user transfers data after it has been temporarily stored in the pen, either:
Sent data is in proprietary PGC format and can either be handled locally or routed to the application server associated with that specific paper form for further processing.
Digitizing handwritten information
The application receiving the PGC data extracts all information using an Application Programming Interface (API). The APIs are available both for PC and server environments. The pen data includes all information about the pen strokes written on the page, including:
Data may be exported in any preferred format to suit the recipient system. Typically, data may be exported as a picture (for example, in .GIF format) but most often it needs to be translated into letters and digits by character recognition software. This requires, for example, an .XML file as an input. Finally, data can be integrated into the enterprise's back-end system for further processing.
