Livescribe: Never Miss a Word
What is Livescribe’s Pulse Smartpen?
Livescribe’s Pulse Smartpen revolutionises note taking in any setting or form, by connecting the paper world with the digital world. Livescribe combines all four modes of communication — reading, writing, speaking and listening — in the simple, low cost, and convenient format of pen and paper.
The Smartpen is fundamentally a Montblanc-size computer within a pen, allowing you to synchronise audio to your handwritten notes, bookmark text and audio, and upload your notes and diagrams directly to your PC where they can be searched, saved and shared.
In the case of taking notes during a discussion, meeting or lecture, the Smartpen records the conversation and digitizes the handwriting, automatically synching the ink and audio. By later tapping the written text, the Smartpen replays the conversation from the exact moment the note was written. USB uploading straight from the pen to your PC means the pen is easily recharged, and your captured notes and audio are accessible the instant the pen is docked.
The Pulse Smartpen has advanced processing power and substantial memory, as well as a broad selection of additional applications in the areas of learning, calculations, language translation and music.
Dot Positioning System (DPS) is a technology that enables interactive “live” documents using plain paper printed with micro-dots. The Smartpen’s high-speed infrared camera reads the dot-pattern, which enables a wide range of paper-based applications.
Livescribe’s dot paper notebooks and paper-based applications will be provided by the company and partners at prices comparable to standard paper products. Dot paper may also be printed on certified home or business printers for free.
The camera located at the tip of the Pulse Smartpen takes a continuous series of photographs of 6 x 6 dots, spaced 0.3mm apart, creating images of 1.8 x 1.8mm grids of 36 dots. The camera takes 72 snapshots per second, sufficient to capture and recreate handwriting.
Each picture of these dots is decoded by software in the Smartpen to provide an (x,y) coordinate pair, telling the Smartpen exactly where the pen tip is on any given page. The Smartpen's location, derived from the (x,y) coordinates, is interpreted by Smartpen software, and mapped to an "application" in the Smartpen.
The camera does not see ink written by a user, nor does it see artwork on a page. Rather, the Smartpen tracks and remembers where ink is written, and knows the coordinates of items such as buttons.
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