Hi All,

I suspect that one would have to be very accurate to use this device for
any kind of optical character recognition.  Still, it might be worth
experimenting with as a portable scanning solution for reading small
amounts of text.  If the company could add some sort of audio feedback to
alert when print was found it might help with locating text.

August 25, 1999


NEWS WATCH

A Pen That Can Read as Well as Write

A new device could cut down on tedious note taking. The C Pen, from the
Swedish company C Technologies, works like a digital variation on the
popular yellow highlighter except that this highlighter also absorbs
information like a digital scanner, carries information like a personal
digital assistant and records handwritten words as you write them.

When the C Pen's tip is dragged over typed text, a tiny camera takes 50
pictures a second. It translates the pictures into plain text and displays
the words, two rows at a time, in a small display screen on the pen's side.
Magnus Manhem, the company's vice president for marketing and sales, calls
it "a pen that sees."

The text can be edited by pressing a button on one end of the pen.

The pen uses flash memory to store two megabytes of data and uses infrared
signals to transmit captured text to a laptop or PC.

It can also detect handwriting: Hold it as you would hold a traditional
pen, press it against a textured surface with variations that can be read
by the camera and spell out letters. The movement will be captured by the
pen and translated into plain-text characters.

The contraption, which weighs a little more than five ounces and includes
an address book, will be available in electronics stores nationwide next
month. Starting Monday, it can be ordered for $200 at www.cpen.com.
LISA GUERNSEY


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