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Anoto Digital Pens

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Dec. 22nd, 2005 | 05:11 pm

At the Hackers Conference in Santa Cruz this year, somebody showed off a FlyPen. I'm glad to see Anoto getting its technology out into the market, and I'm impressed that a pentop computer can do untrained OCR in realtime.

And here's the kicker: it's a toy meant for 8 to 13 year olds!

But I want to be able upload everything I write and view it onscreen. The FlyPen lacks a USB interface; it doesn't do that.

I need one of FlyPen's big brothers.



Maxell, Nokia, and Logitech -- consumer products companies in quite different industries -- have each licensed Anoto's technology. Unfortunately, all three products say they work with Windows. The features are pretty snazzy, too: OCR'ing your handwriting into text is just the start; apparently it autogenerates diagrams, too. That's hot.

But I'm a Mac user. Am I out of luck?

I wonder if I can mount the pen as a USB device, pull the penstrokes off it, and construct a PNG. That would be enough of a start.

Anybody out there have OS X experience with one of these pens? Right now I'm leaning toward the Logitech IO2.
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Comments {12}

Eric

(no subject)

from: [info]escapade52
date: Dec. 23rd, 2005 02:13 am (UTC)
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I'm a Mac user

Since when? That really surprises me.

I've fallen behind the times. Somebody really needs to re-write In the Beginning was the Command Line...

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Nabaztag

from: anonymous
date: Dec. 24th, 2005 04:16 am (UTC)
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Meng... Speaking of interesting things... I recall a conversation earlier this year where we discussed using a wifi device to communicate (abstractly) to someone else online (by touch and lights/colors), using the same/similar wifi device... remember? Well, looks like some one in europe has done it.. meet Nabaztag (http://www.nabaztag.com/vl/FR/nabaztag_whois.jsp) .. I think it is only available in Europe/France, so next time you are over there for a conference, pick up one :)

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Greg Connor

(no subject)

from: [info]gconnor
date: Dec. 26th, 2005 12:15 am (UTC)
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Speaking of Mac, I wonder if SoftWindows is still alive? If I were to switch back to Mac, I would probably want some emulated windows thing to do the two or three things I can only do on Windows. Also, I wonder if VMWare works on Mac?

Hmm...

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Flypen USB? yes!

from: anonymous
date: Jan. 22nd, 2006 09:47 am (UTC)
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Dear Meng,

The charger base for the Flypen's rechargeable batteries has a miniUSB port on it. No mention in any of the docs or diagrams, but there it is. Haven't had a chance to get a miniUSB cable yet to plug it into my computers to see what pen-in-base comes up as, but thought you'd be interested.

pax / Ctein

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Digital Pen Mac Compatible?

from: anonymous
date: May. 2nd, 2006 06:11 am (UTC)
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I have had the same interest. I just saw this new product with Mac compatible software. It appears to make any of the pens Mac compatible. I wish someone would try it and review.

http://www.clairefontaine-paperpc.com

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Re: Digital Pen Mac Compatible?

from: [info]mirajah
date: Jun. 8th, 2007 08:24 pm (UTC)
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YOU CAN GET IT TO WORK WITH A MAC
ANOTO PEN WITH OSX!!!!!
iv got the solution
maxell pen DP-201
www.pen-it.com
I have got the pen, downloaded the software and it works fine with oxfordeasybook m3 - A5
I cant get it to work with the A4 book though.
But I am using MAC OSX with a anoto pen!
I just bluetooth the data direct to the mac from the pen.

The Maxell software is a bit tempermental but thats alright as its beta.
A rep from maxell told me its mainly B2B products right now, consumer products will be out for 2008.
As I couldnt get the pen from maxell i got it elsewhere, downloaded maxell's software, bought an oxford easybook and it all works fine. The technology is great, it really is and im using it on a mac.

If anyone wants details feel free to email me, im not posting my main address out here so here is my gmail, i check it once a week or so.
miraj.ahmed(at)gmail.com

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Re: Digital Pen Mac Compatible?

from: anonymous
date: Sep. 12th, 2008 07:04 am (UTC)
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where did u get the amato pen? Ken

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Nokia SU-1B

from: anonymous
date: May. 9th, 2006 01:31 pm (UTC)
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I have used the Nokia SU-1B for quite a while, mostly to keep a softcopy archives of my notes and for quickly producing diagrams. I have looked and looked, and I haven't found any OS X support. In the PC app, you can export all your files to PNG, so I can access the files from any OS, but that's as far as it goes. The notes files themselves are locked up in a proprietary vector format, I'm afraid.

If you go to the Anoto developer forums, I think they relesae a Java SDK, which should be cross-platform, but I don't know if anyone has implemented against it. I think they charge heavy licenses so that's killed any open source efforts. It's a shame. It's a nice technology, but it seems they're not trying to commercialize it in a way that might encourage wide adoption.

This pen is the one big stumbling block for me going to OS X completely. Maybe I'll use boot camp for it.

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Re: Nokia SU-1B

from: anonymous
date: May. 9th, 2006 04:38 pm (UTC)
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Me again. I emailed support at Clairefontaine, which offers the anoto-based PaperPC product. Here's the deal.

According to them, they are the ONLY way you can use an anoto- digital pen with OS X. The notes management application, MyNotes, is in Java, so it runs fine.

HOWEVER, no one has written OS X USB drivers for any of the anoto pens, so you can't save your pen's notes just by connecting the device to your mac's usb port. Instead, what you have to do is send the notes via bluetooth to a mobile phone, which will use its GPRS connection to send the notes to the PaperPC servers on the internet. Then you can get to your notes on the internet (either through the MyNotes app or, I presume, by downloading them locally).

In other words, it sounds like you need a subscription to the PaperPC product and a high end mobile with an all-you-can-eat GPRS subscription. The compatibilty details spell it out: http://tinyurl.com/e9kno .

So long answer: it's technically possible to use anoto with a mac. Short answer: you have to be rich or very brave to do it. Bummer.

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OCR'ing HAND WRITTEN DOCUMENT WITHOUT LOSS OF FONTS OR DISTORTION ESPECIALLY IN RESPECT OF DESIGNS

from: anonymous
date: Jan. 31st, 2007 11:09 am (UTC)
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Sir,
I saw your mengwong.livejournal.com and came to know about your write up on OCR'ing hand written document.
We are a book publishers especially in Science and Maths subjects, and we want to know whether it is possible to OCR'ing the handwritten document without distortion of fonts and diagrams. Please elucidate if possible.
Thank you for your help. We also want to know more about Fly Pens Big Brother and the cost and its utility part thereof in Publishing and Printing Industry. Thanking you once again, and sorry for the inconvenience.

R S MANI. GEMINI GRAAPHICS P. LTD., BIDAR - 585403, Karnataka, India.
E-mail: gemgraph@sancharnet.in

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gf2e

(no subject)

from: [info]gf2e
date: Sep. 13th, 2007 04:12 am (UTC)
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I know this is an old post, but I was just googling to see what sort of stuff other people had been doing with these. Are you still interested in Mac support for one? I may be able to assist. I've done a lot of poking and playing with the Nokia SU-1b pen and have made it do some interesting stuff - exclusively over Bluetooth. The USB protocols are quite proprietary and opaque.

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Mac OS X and Nokia SU-1B

from: [info]nicolaiw
date: Oct. 17th, 2007 09:51 am (UTC)
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Just switched to Mac, and would like to be able to use my Nokia SU-1B with the Mac, so would be very interesting to hear more about your progress.

Nicolai (nicolai@wadstrom.net)

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