The future of the pen?

While digital pens have been around for almost ten years, most of us probably have never used one. Maybe that's because the market's been waiting for a superpen—nay, a smartpen—to emerge. Enter Livescribe, a company elevating pens to nearly unimaginable heights—and selling a half million smartpens in two years.

Jim Marggraff, CEO of Livescribe, shows us how it's done, using an 8GB Echo smartpen. Yep, a pen that has memory: for storing sound, your written notes for upload, and apps you can launch just by tapping a line you've drawn on paper. "Anything you write, hear, or speak, the pen will capture and make it accessible to you forever, and let you search it and share it," says Marggraff.

The pens can also be used to create "pencasts" which recreate the movements of the pen, as well as recording the accompanying audio. Some of the pencasts, which range from calculus lessons to cartoons, have been viewed more than 40,000 times.

There's an app store on the Livescribe site, but even the included apps elicit wows: A piano you can draw and then play. A translator that will speak in Spanish (or Mandarin or Arabic) the word you've just written in English. A user interface you draw yourself. Livescribe is writing just the tip of the iceberg.

More info:
Livescribe web site: http://www.livescribe.com/
Livescribe blog: http://www.livescribe.com/blog/
Livescribe profile on CrunchBase: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/livescribe

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• pen
• mobile
• paper
• recording
• livescribe
• echo
• smartpen
• school
• student
• jim marggraff

[Spookz47]

i like pie

[daniel151994]

This is really impressive, the fact that you can touch anywhere on the paper once your playing back the audio and it knows where you touched and goes to that exact time to what you were saying is amazing.

[HypertronicTeddy]

too bad theres is the ipad :(

[tubeman25]

I have a leaning disability so this would of Been good for me when I was in school

[tubeman25]

I wish that I had this when was in school since my notes where always messy because it was hard for me to keep up with the teacher unless I took forever to take the notes

[eponinegurl24601]

I was really worried about taking notes in Spanish when I study abroad next semester, but with the ability to record and connect to my writing effortlessly, I can't wait!

[Durango281713]

hey wat if i finish the ink wat happens and what comes in all the oackages of the pens?

[nipplenugget40268]

so coool



[mquiroz90]

this can be better than the other pens and pencils

[JohnyBravoSix]

@Skandar0007 999.99$ to be excact ;)

Awesome vid mate thanks for sharing it with me ;)