Custom Software Development & ecommerce software solutions provider

Digital Pen and paper :

• Introduction
• Technology
• Application and Industries

Introduction

With Anoto’s incredible new functionality the power of digital communication is delivered in a simple way. Understanding that even laptops aren’t mobile enough and PDA’s make data acquisition on arduous task Anoto has developed a smarter, more efficient solution. One where users don’t need to learn a new way of computing. They just apply what they learned in kindergarten: writing with pen on paper.

Technology

From the technology side, of course, it’s not so simple. To deliver “digital ink” the pen has specialized digital functions. The paper has a customs dot pattern design. And together with intelligent back end system, they combined to capture and transfer data that becomes meaningful to your business to your business.

All paper form design can be used as direct input to any digital application. Digital Pens enabling Anoto functionality allows you to utilize the speed and opportunities of digital technology but at the same time keep all the advantages of using ordinary pen and paper.

The Anoto functionality combines advanced digital pen, paper and server technologies that bridge the gap between writing and computing. The digital pen write on ordinary paper printed with a unique dot pattern almost invisible to naked eyes. A tiny camera in the pen registers the pens movement across the printed grid and stores it as a series of map coordinates. These coordinates corresponds to the exact location of the page you are writing on.

The digital pen writes on ordinary paper printed with a unique dot pattern almost invisible to naked eyes. A tiny camera in the pen registers the pens movement across the printed grid and stores it as a series of map coordinates. These coordinates corresponds to the exact location of the page you are writing on.
The dot pattern makes up a huge map of tiny distinctive squares, so small portions of it can also be given specific functions, such as “send”, “store” or “synchronize”. When you make a mark in the send box with your digital pen, it is instructed to send ( via Blue tooth technology or USB port) the stored sequence of map coordinates, which are translated into an image. The result is an exact copy of your hand writing displayed on any computer or mobile phone, or received as a fax anywhere in the world.

Anoto technology consists of:

The Digital Pen:
Digital pen is the pen that remembers what you write. It digitally captures the handwritten notes, drawings and ideas then convert handwritten information to text. It keeps all your information organized, accessible and stored in one place on your PC.

The pen takes digital snapshots of the pattern as the pen moves over the paper. The digital pen uses a camera and an infrared LED (light-emitting diode) to take the snapshots between 50 and 100 times per second. The camera can detect only pen strokes made on the pattern.

The pen processes the snapshots, by calculating the exact, absolute position on the entire pattern, stores the snapshots in the memory, and sends an exact copy of what is drawn or written to the application in the form of pen stroke data (continuous curves). The pressure of the digital pen is also taken into account.

The camera takes snapshots of the pattern up to 7 mm from the tip (above, below, to the left, or to the right depending on how the user holds the pen), rather than exactly where the pen tip is. This means that if the user writes less than 7 mm from the edge of the pattern, the camera may take snapshots outside the pattern and the pen strokes will not be registered. Thus, each pattern page element should be designed with a 7 mm margin that has no functionality

The Anoto pattern:
Anoto functionality derives from a proprietary pattern of very small dots printed on paper that is perceived by the eye as a slightly off-white color. The dots have a nominal spacing of 0.3 mm (0.01 inch). A minute portion of the total pattern uniquely defines its position in the full pattern, The pattern of dots allows dynamic information coming from the digital camera in the pen to be processed into signals representing functionality, writing and drawing.

Paper & Ink
The choice of paper and ink when printing paper enabling Anoto functionality is of great importance. The Anoto pattern is more sensitive than other printed products in terms of scuffing and smearing, and the choice of paper greatly depends upon what product you will print

Applications and Industries

Anoto functionality fits in from small business to the largest enterprises, it will make operations easier for virtually any type of company, in any type of industry.

Anoto functionality brings digital life to your paper products. All paper form design can be used as direct input to any digital application. Digital Pens enabling Anoto functionality allows you to utilize the speed and opportunities of digital technology but at the same time keep all the advantages of using ordinary pen and paper.

Uniquely Anoto functionality not only transfers what you have written or drawn into digital information, it also keeps track of what piece of paper that you are writing on, and more specifically exactly where on the paper you write. This means that you can flick swiftly in between different paper products (applications). It also means that the design of the paper is the interface for your application.

Using an application enabled by Anoto functionality is as easy as using normal pen and paper. The main differences are that the paper must have so called Anoto pattern printed on it and the user must use a digital pen when writing and drawing on the paper. The user also needs some kind of device in order to connect the pen to the Internet. It can either be a Blue tooth compatible mobile phone or a PC where the pen uses a USB connectivity stand to connect.

The application and business categories are endless, but here are few examples where the Anoto functionality can replace the existing facility or modify the current paper forms to have a major impact:

Enterprises Document Management
In virtually any industry the ability to immediately capture, send and store forms based data would provide significant efficiencies. The time and cost to fax forms, transcribe information, or scan for archiving would simply go away. And in combination with optical character recognition (OCR) technologies, forms based data can be quickly parsed and checked, with an immediate trigger of systematic operations.

Sales Force Environmental Application, Subscription sales using Anoto functionality
A company offer owners of credit cards a service to lock the cards in case they are lost or stolen. They store all information about your credit cards so you only have to call one number to lock all your accounts immediately. The sales of this subscription are done at stands in public areas during rush hours.

Using a digital pen and subscription contracts with Anoto functionality, the processing of the contracts are done immediately so that the service can start and the invoice sent much faster. Within the system the company has also been able to develop an employee bonus program based on sales per hour. In addition support staff can access subscriber information instantly and assist customers instantly if needed.

Contract generating for Television Company
Both retail shops and traveling sales staff are using digital pens to capture customer data and signatures on subscription contracts. Previously all contracts needed to be mailed or faxed before the subscription could be effectuated. This normally took at least a day with delay in starting the service and invoicing. Using the digital pen the central order office gets a copy of the signed subscription contract within seconds and the service can be started immediately.

Banking and Financial Transaction Management
“Sign at closing” environments make for the perfect applications of the Anoto functionality. From contracts to insurance policies to loans, critical documents can be executed with digital copies being immediately posted to digital archives, without scanning or manual intervention.

Healthcare
Anoto functionality has recently become more and more interesting for health care and pharmaceutical companies. With electronically submitting prescription, converting handwritten notes and records to data or collecting and archiving medical or dental office information, the health care industry works faster and smarter with digital ink. To address the critical nature of this data, Information is captured as it’s written, date and time stamped, and digitally stored, always at the ready for instant recall.

Maintenance and Service profession
A company use to have problems in receiving weekly reports from their 400 service- and support engineers. The engineers who are constantly traveling did not priorities to get Internet access for their PC’s in order to send in the report every week. Management did not receive the reports in time and had a hassle to process the information.

The service engineers now fill out a paper based weekly report form enabling Anoto functionality that is identical to their previous report form. The form is then sent quickly and easy over their mobile phone. The information is processed automatically and creates a report to management.
The company is very positive and says that this is the first time new technology instantly works for the users.

Shipping and order tracking management
Using paper based forms will allow shipping companies to avoid lugging around heavy, expensive, tablets while addressees will benefit by getting hard copies at the point of receipt.

Government and Municipal
Currently saddled with slow and manual movement of information from the field to institution, government is an ideal setting for the efficiency presented by the anoto functionality. Now such item traffic and parking violation, surveys, field report, and other documentation can all be processed into government records systems in real time, reducing subsequent labor cost and reporting inaccuracies.

Education and training
Due to its close resemblance to ordinary pen and paper, Anoto functionality has gained increased interesting for educational and training purposes. Below is an example of how Anoto functionality currently is being evaluated to enhance effectiveness and increase quality in education.

Student tests with digital pens
A company that runs most student evaluation testing is conducting trials with digital pens. Today all tests are sent to a central processing center where they are scanned and the information is processed. This process is very costly and it takes weeks before the students receive their results from the tests.

During trials the tests are made digital with Anoto functionality and the students get a digital pen when entering the test facilities. When the student has finished the test he/she gives the digital pen back to the test facilitator who docks the pen in a cradle transferring all the information via a PC with internet connection to the processing center. The trial is showing a significant gain in time and money can be saved in the distribution, scanning and processing of the tests.