DIGITAL PEN

INTRODUCTION

Lyndsay Williams of Microsoft Research Cambridge UK lab is the inventor of the Digital Pen, a pen that can remember the words that it is used to write, and then transform them into computer text. The idea that it would be neat to put all of a handheld PDA type computer in a pen , came to the inventor in her sleep. “It’s the pen for the new millennium,” she says. Encouraged by Nigel Ballard, a leading consultant to the mobile computer industry, Williams took her prototype to the British Telecommunications Research Lab, where she was promptly hired and given money and institutional support for her project. The prototype, called Digital pen, has been developed by world-leading research laboratories run by BT (formerly British Telecom) at Martlesham, eastern England. It is claimed to be the biggest revolution in handwriting since the invention of the pen.

The sleek and stylish prototype pen is different from other electronic pens on the market today in that user don’t have to write on a special pad in order to record what they write. User could use any surface for writing such as paper, tablet, screen or even air. The Digital Pen isn’t all space-age, though it contains an ink cartridge so that users can see what they write down on paper. Digital Pen contains sensors that record movement by using the earth’s gravity system, irrespective of the platform used. The pen records the information inserted by the user. Your words of wisdom can also be uploaded to your PC through the “digital inkwell”, while the files that you might want to view on the pen are downloaded to the Digital Pen as well.

It is an interesting idea, and it even comes with one attribute that makes entire history of pens pale by comparison if some one else picks your Digital pen an tries to write with it, it won’t. Because the user can train the pen to recognize a particular handwriting. Hence Digital Pen recognizes only the owner’s handwriting. Digital Pen is a computer housed within a pen which allows you to do what a normal personal organizer does. It’s really mobile because of it’s smaller size and one handed use. People could use the pen in the office to replace a keyboard, but the main attraction will be for users who usually take notes by hand on the road and type them up when returning to the office. Digital Pen will let them skip the step of typing up their notes.

IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGIES

Personal Digital Assistance (PDA):

A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a handled computer also known as small or palmtop computers. Newer PDAs also have both color screens and audio capabilities, enabling them to be used at mobile phones,(smart phones),web browsers, or portable media players. Many PDAs can access the internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi, or wireless Wide-area Networks (WWANs). Many PDAs employ touch screen technology.

Typical features:

Currently, a typical PDA has a touch screen for entering data, a memory card slot for data storage and at least one of the following for connectivity: IrDA, Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi. However, many PDAs (typically those used primarily as telephones) may not have a touch screen, using soft keys, a directional pad and either the numeric keypad or a thumb keyboard for input. Software typically required to be a PDA includes an appointment calendar, a to-do list, an address book for contacts and some sort of note program. Connected PDAs also typically include E-mail and Web support.

DIGITAL PEN:

A digital pen is a battery-operated writing instrument that allows the user to digitally capture a hand written note or drawing. Typically, a digital pen comes with a Universal serial Bus (USB) cradle to let the user upload the hand written notes to a personal computer (PC). The pen looks like a regular ball-point pen and can be used as such, but requires special digital paper, which can be purchased in traditional pad or sticky-note size, has small dots on it that allow the pen to “see” what has been written.

Here’s how it works: When the user is done writing on his digital paper, he puts a checkmark in the “save” box. The pen vibrates or beeps to confirm that it knows the box has been checked and that the user is done with that page and wishes to save it. Typically, a digital pen can store up to 40 pages of saved digital paper in its memory. Only pages that have been checked will be saved. Most pen have the handwritten data as an image file (GIF or JPEG, depending on the pen’s manufacturer) although some digital pens use a proprietary file format. When the user wants to upload his saved notes from the pen , he docks the pen in its USB cradle. The cradle automatically senses the pen’s presence, opens the accompanying software application on the user’s PC, and transfers the saved files to a specifies folder.

Many digital pens come with handwriting recognition software that allows the user to import their handwritten notes into typed texts. Some of the newer high-end digital pens are wireless, taking advantage of Bluetooth technology. These pens do not require a docking station ,but instead send the captured notes or drawings directly to the user’s PC or cell phone.

DIGITAL PAPER:

Digital paper , also known as interactive paper, is patterned paper used in conjunction with digital pen to create handwritten digital documents. The printed dot pattern uniquely identifies the position coordinates on the paper. The digital pen uses this pattern to store the handwritten and upload it to a computer.

Digital paper should not be confused with electronic paper.

The paper

The dot pattern is a kind of two dimensional barcode; the most common is the proprietary Anoto pattern. In the Anoto pattern, each dot is spaced about 0.3mm apart; the full pattern consists of 669,845,157,115,773,458,169 dots, and encompasses an are exceeding 4.6 million km2 (this corresponds to 73 trillion sheets of letter-size paper).

The complete pattern space is divided into various domains. These domains can be used to define paper types, or to indicate the paper’s purpose (for example, memo formatting, personal planner, notebook paper, Post-it notes, etc.).

The Anoto pattern can be printed onto almost any paper, using a standard printing process of at least 600 dpi resolution (some claim a required resolution of 1000 dpi), and carbon-based black ink. The paper can be any shape or size greater than 2mm to a side. The ink absorbs infra red light transmitted from the digital pen; the pen contains a receiver which interprets the pattern of light reflected from the paper. Other colors of ink, including non-carbon based black, can be used to print information which will be visible to the user, and invisible to the pen.

Magnified view of Anoto dot pattern

ELECTRONIC PAPER(e-Paper):

Electronic paper, also called e-paper, is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels, electronic paper reflects light ordinary paper and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed later.

To build e-paper, several different technologies exist, some using plastic substrate and electronics so that the display is flexible. E-paper is considered more comfortable to read than conventional displays. This is due to the stable image, which does not need to be refreshed constantly, the wider viewing angle , and the fact it uses reflected ambient light. While it has a similar constant ratio to that of a newspaper and is lightweight and durable, it still lacks good color reproduction.

Application include e-book readers capable of displaying digital versions of books and e-paper magazines, electronic pricing labels in retail shops, time tables at bus stations, and electronic billboards.

Electronic paper should not be confused with digital paper, which is a pad to create handwritten documents with a digital pen.

What's inside a digital pen?

1. Pen cap: It just keeps the ink off your clothes and protects the light detector.2. Ordinary ink refill: Leaves a trail on the paper so you know what you've written.3. Docking connector: When the pen sits in its docking cradle (not shown), this

connector charges the battery and downloads your words, via the docking station, to your computer.

4. Pen optics: This compartment holds the most imporant parts of the pen: the LED light that shines onto the paper and the photodiode that detects the reflected light. Unlike an optical mouse, a digital pen uses invisible infrared, so you can't actually see the light it uses.

5. Refill holder: Holds the refill in position.6. Indicator lights: These shine up through the pen case to tell you when the pen

needs recharging, when it's full of words, and so on.7. Reset button: You can push a tiny little rubber button on the base of the pen case

to reset it.8. Rechargeable battery: This should last a few years at least.9. Vibrating motor: Have you ever wondered how cell phones, pagers, and other

mobile devices give you one of those vibrating alerts? Here's the answer. It's a tiny electric motor with a wonky bit of metal on the end. As the motor spins, the wonky metal wobbles around on the end making the whole thing shake like a badly loaded washing machine.

10. Indicator lights on pen top: The lights on the circuit board shine up through transparent areas on the plastic pen case.

11. Bluetooth transceiver: Just check send option on the paper to send handwritten information any where in the world you just through with procedure. The information is transmitted by the Bluetooth transceiver, user can directly send to your computer.

12. .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.

WORKING OF DIGITAL PEN

Digital pen is slightly larger than an ordinary fountain pen. Users can enter information into these applications by pushing a button on the pen and writing down what they would like to enter. The digital pen does not need a screen to work. The really clever bit of the technology is its ability to read handwriting not only on paper but on any flat surface- horizontal or vertical. There is also a small three-line screen to read the information stored in the pen; users can scroll down the screen by tilting the pen slightly. The users trains the pen to recognize a particular handwriting style-no matter how messy it is, as long as it is consistent, the pen can recognize it. The handwritten notes are stored on hard disk of the pen. The pen is then plugged into an electronic “ink well”, text data is transmitted to a desk top computer, printer, or modem or to a mobile telephone to send files electronically. Up to 10 pages of notes can be stored locally on the pen. A tiny light

at the tip allows writing in the dark. When the pen is kept idle for some time, power gets automatically off.

1> The ink refill leaves an ink trail on the page. You can see this but the pen can't. 2> The infrared LED in the base of the pen shines onto the page. You can't see it because your eyes can't detect infrared. 3> The light detector, also in the base of the pen, picks up the infrared reflected off recognition marks printed on the special paper. 4> The microchip in the pen uses the pattern of reflections to store images of the words you're writing 5> The Bluetooth antenna built into the pen transmits the stored data wirelessly and invisibly through the air. 6> The wireless receiver in your computer picks up the Bluetooth signals and stores what you've written. Software in the PC converts this data into normal, editable text you can import into a word-processing program.

Working of a digital pen

ACCELEROMETER

What is accelerometer?An accelerometer is an electromechanical device that will measure acceleration forces. These forces may be static, like the constant force of gravity pulling at your feet, or they could be dynamic-caused by moving or vibrating the accelerometer.

What are accelerometers useful for?By measuring the amount of static acceleration due to gravity, you can find out the angle the device is tilted at with respect to the earth. By sensing the amount of dynamic accelerating, you can analyze the way the device is moving.At first, measuring tilt and acceleration doesn’t seem all that exciting. However, engineers have come up with many ways to make really useful products using them.

An accelerometer can help your project understand its surroundings better. Is it driving uphill? Is it going to fall over when it takes another step? Is it flying horizontally or is it dive bombing your professor? A good programmer can write code to answer all of these questions using the data provided by accelerometer. An accelerometer can help analyze problems in a car engine using vibration testing, or you could even use one to make a musical instrument.

In the computing world, IBM and Apple have recently started using accelerometers in their laptops to protect hard drives from damage. If you accidentally drop the laptop, the accelerometer detects the sudden freefall, and switches the hard drive off so the heads don’t crash on the platters. In a similar fashion, high g accelerometers are the industry standards way of detecting car crashes and deploying airbags at just the right time.

3 axis accelerometer board

How do accelerometers work?There are different ways to make an accelerometer! Some accelerometers use the piezoelectric effect-they contain microscopic crystal structures that get stressed by accelerative forces, which cause a voltage to be generated. Another way to do it by sensing changes in capacitance. If you have two microstructures next to each other, they have a certain capacitance between them. If an accelerative force moves one of the structures, then the capacitance will change. And some circuitry to convert from capacitance to voltage, and you will get an accelerometer. There are even more methods, including use of the piezoresistive effect, hot air bubbles, and light.

CONCLUSION

The system we will try to improve a pen, which helps people get rid of typing problems on computer by the technology, which converts your handwriting to text format on your PC. We encounter some similar products in the market. However our technology provides opportunity to write on air, which means it, needs no item to convert the typing to your computer such as 3D view. Besides this, it can be used like all other classical pens. Therefore, we assume that this device will increase the capacity of noting the texts, lessons and project you work on. One other fact that appear is similar products generally works in a way that can store the writing by memory systems and direct the data to computer. We will vanish this time lag using a technology that the data will be sent to PC directly not by stored. It is sure it will be hard to eliminate the future of digital pen.

REFERENCES

• Einstein, Albert (1920) Relativity: The Special and General Theory. New York: Henry Holt. pp. 168. ISBN 1-58734-092-5.

• http://www.bartleby.com/  

• Shelly, Gary B.; Misty E. Vermaat (2009). Discovering Computers: Fundamentals. Cengage Learning. ISBN 9780495806387.

• http://books.google.com.au/books  

• Wall Street Journal, Nov. 27, 2008, pg. B8, These Mightier Pens Scan, Translate, Fa

• http://sites.google.com/site/sensecam/smartquill • http://www.wikipedia.org • http://www.seminarprojects.com • http://www.nist.gov/it • http://www.penguinbooks.com