Digital World-4: "Pulse", the Smart Pen

Picture this scene: a student attends a classroom lecture, switches on a high tech pen, starts jotting away the points he considers necessary, while his pen records both his handwriting as well as the lecturer's voice or any other audio available then. Minutes later, the student does a playback of the lecture by simply tapping away on any word on his special 'paper notebook' and presto, the entire lecture is recreated down to each and every word.

Technology experts are bracing themselves for what they call the 'next big thing' in writing technology. The smart pen named as 'PULSE' has been launched by a company called Livescribe aims at bridging the gap between the traditional world of paper and the new age of voice recognition.

The specialty of the device is its ability co-relate everything that you have written to the corresponding audio available at that given point of time. Later on, you can simply tap on the handwritten notes and hear the audio playback from the exact moment it was written, so that you never miss out on any word spoken by anyone.

It can greatly help people with or without learning disabilities easily recall and review information for better understanding.

The brainchild of Jim Marggraff, an entrepreneur and the inventor of paper-based computing, including the LeapPad and Fly Pentop computer and who founded Livescribe in 2007, the Pulse pen has become a hit among college goers, journalists and other professionals for whom taking notes on the go is part and parcel of their jobs. Priced at $149, the 1GB version can capture over 100 hours of audio, while the 2GB version (priced at $199) can capture over 200 hours of audio. Although it is currently unavailable in India, the pen can be purchased through the Internet.

Excerpt from "A 'smart' pen mightier than the sword' by Bijoy Bharathan in the "Chennai Chronicle", Supplement to Deccan Chronicle, Chennai, Sep.15, 2008.

Wikipedia article on "LIVESCRIBE": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livescribe

Grateful thanks to Bijoy Bharathan, Deccan Chronicle and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.