`Anoto' with a Chatpen

Pratap Ravindran

IT'S the most advanced digital input screen that's been made in the world so far. It offers perfect contrast and an extremely high level of resolution and any graphical interface that you can think of can be printed on it. It costs a pittance to produce. And you've probably spent years learning how to use it.

We're talking paper here.

Anoto (which means `I scribble' in Latin), a company established in Sweden by Christer Fahraeus, is currently working on a network that will, literally, transform paper into a new front end for the Internet. The company has already invented a writing instrument called the Chatpen, to be introduced in the market by Ericsson shortly, that will allow users to send e-mail, faxes and so on -- directly on paper without the intermediation of a personal computer or a wireless device.

According to Christer, there are three technologies currently available for gathering, storing and disseminating information: voice, computer and paper and pen. His company is, in short, working on making paper digital and wireless.

In order to bridge the gap between paper and the digital world, people will need devices such as the Chatpen as also a special kind of paper, called digital paper, which will not cost much more than ordinary stock paper.

Going by current indications, the smart pens and digital paper will be available by the end of the current year. And, by 2003, heavily branded writing devices including Anoto-enabled roller pens, up-market models from Montblanc, digital legal pads, digital post-it notes and so on and so forth will be available everywhere.

Armed with these, people will be able, for instance, to tick a particular item in an ad and get additional information about it or buy it. And then again, they'll be able to scribble a message on a business card or the company letterhead and send it to the recipient by checking a box for `Send as e-mail.' Or `Send as fax.'

Anoto got pipped at the post at Comdex 2000 by Microsoft and its Tablet PC, a platform that supports handwriting -- but the industry buzz is that the Swedish start-up's network is much bigger than anything that Microsoft may have to offer in the hand-held sector.

The critical difference, according to technology analysts, is that the Anoto network doesn't require a PC. Anoto pens contain a Bluetooth chip that communicate with any other Bluetooth device within a 30-feet radius. With the cost of Bluetooth chipsets falling rapidly, their market penetration is expected to increase manifold shortly. Combine this scenario with the one that involves the going on stream of public-access Bluetooth nodes that are currently under development by Cerulic and NomadNetworks and so on -- and people will be able to use the Anoto network from airports, hotels and shopping malls if they are carrying the enabled pens and digital paper.

Further, with the porting of handwritten text to the Net, people not comfortable with English will be liberated from the stranglehold of the QWERTY keyboard.

Please e-mail us at bleditor@thehindu.co.in if you have queries on computer usage or if you find an interesting way of using the computer.