Digital pen and paper

Philipp Schmid, former API developer in the speech team (and my fellow Mercer Island resident), is now working at a Seattle company, Adapx, that's in the news today for their work on new new applications for digital pens and paper.  The cool part of their software is that it allows you to use normal paper (with special codes printed on an ordinary printer), making it good for field work for scientists, firefighters, or others.

They also make a version that works well with OneNote.

Published 29 April 08 11:32 by sprague
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# Microsoft news and tips » Digital pen and paper said on April 29, 2008 2:51 PM:

PingBack from http://microsoftnews.askpcdoc.com/cool/digital-pen-and-paper

# Esther Morigeau said on April 29, 2008 5:03 PM:

this is the first time I heard of Digital pen and paper.

What is a Digital Pen and how does it work? Please email the answeres to my questions.

# Philipp Schmid said on April 29, 2008 7:18 PM:

Esther, you can find information about the digital pen and paper technology and how we use it to enhance existing applications in the office, GIS, and CAD space at our web site www.adapx.com.

Basically at print time we add a pattern (some people compare it to a watermark) to the background of the page you are printing. We also remember what you printed (e.g., a map, a CAD drawing, etc.). Then when you use the digital pen, which has a tiny camera built into the tip of the pen (which adds to the cost of goods unfortunately), it records the x and y coordinates and timestamp of the pen tip. Using this information together with the information about what was printed on a particular paper page we can infer to user's intention and interact with the application to execute the user's intention (e.g., add notes to MSFT OneNote, or to create object on a digitial map, or to add annotations to a CAD drawing).

I hope this short description helps.

Philipp, Development Manager, Adapx Inc.

# Andy Van Schaack said on May 10, 2008 11:20 PM:

Hi Rick,

We haven't spoken, I believe, since the old days of Apple Japan. Lots to catch up on. (You can search on my name and get most of the work-related highlights.)

I happened to see this post because I was searching on digital pen and paper. I'm the Senior Science Advisor to Livescribe. Check out www.livescribe.com. I'm also a professor in the college of education at Vanderbilt. Let's chat sometime soon.   = )

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