Hitachi Maxell Bluetooth pen

We've seen other Bluetooth pens before, but that won't stop us from telling you about the DP-201 digital pen from Hitachi Maxell. Sure, it's essentially the same product — an optical sensor detects where you draw lines on a dotted piece of paper and relays the signals back to another device via Bluetooth — but this one is both smaller and lighter than previous models. Also of note is its support for both Bluetooth and USB for transferring writing, so those of us who haven't made the jump yet can rest assured that when we do, we won't have to buy a new digital pen. The pen's internal battery is good for about 2 hours of writing and recharges via USB.

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

and this costs how much? i couldn't justify all that money just so that my crappy handwriting shows up on a cell phone screen...i'd much rather shell out the $$ for a low-end tablet pc w/handwriting recognition or a decent pda that i could transfer notes to a computer later...
2 hours of writing time? i sit through 8 hour meetings...what good would that be? "oh, i guess we have to stop now guys, my pen ran out of batteries..." yeah, that'd be fun

[lianggeofus @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

arg... more anoto? i'm sure this pen is an improvement over earlier models... but i still have a big problem with the anoto technology:

first, i don't want to pay monopoly ip rents on my flippin' paper. its paper darnit.

second, anoto technology doesn't do what it does very well... resolution isn't good, so handwriting recognition isn't good. needs more work guys.

full disclosure: my first generation logitech io sits idle. i use an acecad digimemo and 3rd party software every day. not perfect, but a better experience than anoto.

[Ian Wood @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

have been using my nokia digital pen for just over a year now. have used five a4 red & black notebooks as well some a5 and b7 note books. have to say that the whole experience is great as have been able to keep notes electronically without having to take out laptop.

everyone who has seen me use the pen has been impressed and asked questions. five clients have now also started using digital pens.

as for life of the pen, i have used it all day without the battery running out as eight hours of work is not eight hours of writing unless you transcribe for a living!

pen looks a lot like the logitech. might just be worth looking at, what i would love is one that is built into my mont b ink pen, but then i am a consultant ;-)

[gopi @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

if you get a logitech io2 pen, there is an sdk that lets you extract the strokes from the .pen file. if you have an original logitech io pen, you can extract the stroke information from the .pen file fairly easily:

the .pen file looks like an xml file. in the middle of it is an entry that looks like it's binary. it's actually mime. if you de-mime it, and then use the zlib decompressor on the binary data that comes out, you'll find the pen strokes in xml.

if you have a bluetooth version of the pen, you can get paper and service at:
http://www.sysnet.co.uk
if you use the "chatpen" paper, it works just fine with the nokia su-1b pen, and almost definitely with the hitachi maxell pen as well. you need a cellphone with bluetooth and gprs. it will send your notebook over your cellphone, and e-mail you an xml file with all your handwriting in it! very nifty.

so, yeah, if you're interested in researching and hacking, anoto pens can do interesting things. the anoto sdk is designed for expensive business apps; last i looked it was >$6000 plus around $1000/year to license paper. but you can use other people's paper and service and make it work for a lot less.

[Jeremy Nixon @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

when they make one of these things that doesn't require special paper, just remembers what it writes for later offloading to computer... i'm, like, so there, dude. until then... feh, special paper.

[Trejkaz @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I can't believe you didn't mention that it needs to use "specially printed dogs".

[alexis @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I have a Nokia SU1-B, which looks the same and also offers Bluetooth. However, annoyingly, you can only use Bluetooth to send the pen data to cellphone --which is useless-- and not for ordinary synchronization with your desktop -- which would actually be useful. I wonder if this pen has the same limitations.

I find it most useful for archiving lecture and meeting notes. It's also great when I want to do quick diagrams or write up notes with equations. It's a thousand times faster than whipping out Visio or a scientific word processor.

Guys, the paper doesn't cost that much if you shop around. The battery life issue is a bit annoying, tho. The other main drawbacks are a lack of Mac compatibility, and that their SDK is closed source and outrageously overpriced.

[A @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

So will this allow you to write to your PC screen in realtime? or is it only for storage and then download?

They need a device that will allow for realtime PC handwriting without the special pad or tray.

[A @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

So will this allow you to write to your PC screen in realtime? or is it only for storage and then download?

They need a device that will allow for realtime PC handwriting without the special pad or tray.

[SR @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

i'd really like a wacom-like tablet pen without having to lug around and plug in the bloody tablet itself. there is a real market for graphic and video artists if they could do this pen action OFF a tablet. it just integrates much better into sketching/painting/etc. workflow. gotta check this out.

[Robert Swirsky @ Dec 19th 2005 2:28AM]

I use the IO2 pen...I take a lot of handwritten notes during the day. It works well. It fatihfully records what I write, and the upload time is quick and painless (after I fixed their .NET problems...see my link!)

Paying a premium for paper does stink, but I don't know a way around it. What's nice about it is it knows which *page* your're in in a given notebook. So if I go back and scribble something on top of some notes I made a few days ago, when I dock the pen, it updates the correct page.

A pen that captured strokes "on any surface" would have a hard time knowing what page in a notebook you were on.

I just wish I could order custom notebooks...quad-ruled paper with the name of my firm on it...for a reasonable price!