Livescribe shows off Leapfrog Fly-esque pen computer for grown-ups

It looks like those intrigued by Leapfrog's Fly pentop computer but turned off by its "toy" status will soon have an option that's a little more in line with their sensibilities, as The New York Times reports that a former executive at Leapfrog has now branched out on his own to produce a similar device aimed at adults. Set to make its debut at this week's D conference, the pen from Jim Marggraff's newly-founded Livescribe company is apparently a "more advanced" version of the Fly computer, relying on the same dot-laden paper to capture whatever you write or draw with it. The pen also packs two microphones to record what it hears while you writing, which can be played back simply by tapping on the paper. Marggraff thinks that'll make the pen particularly well-suited to students, although he not surprisingly sees virtually endless uses for the device, saying that it'll appeal to "anyone that is writing notes on paper." While the pen's only just making its first public appearance now, it doesn't look like you'll have to wait too much longer to actually get your hands on one, with it set to be released sometime this fall for under $200.

[Photo courtesy of Peter DaSilva/The New York Times]

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ May 30th 2007 3:14PM]

You still need special paper? No, thanks. When you don't need the paper anymore, these will sell like CRAZY!

[tiuk @ May 30th 2007 4:47PM]

Agreed, as a student I'd buy one of these in a heartbeat if it worked with normal paper.

[RY @ May 30th 2007 4:05PM]

Yeah, it's annoying, but the dot pattern is actually quite simple. Any modern laser printer (>= 600DPI) can augment sheets of paper with the dot pattern. However, the companies owning the intellectual property has not provided tools to make this easy. If there were more software that could automatically augment your word documents, say, with the Anoto pattern... then this could really take off.

[Mike @ May 30th 2007 4:32PM]

MEGA COOL!

Screw the $15k virtual white board for hand drawing stuff, I'll use this and just e-mail everyone what I sketched!

Brilliant!

[rektide @ May 30th 2007 4:37PM]

you need the special paper. and the like 3000 million dollar SDK if you want to actually use the sensor data in realtime. if the people who keep licensing this tech out dont make something the hackers can play with, no one will use pen based input ever.

i swear to god you primitive screw head mortals, open the frigging data or PLEASE DIE. i'm so tired of having to ignore all these great pens that i really want to buy. but without the realtime data its soo pointless.

[Anthony @ May 30th 2007 4:48PM]

Even with the special paper I'd buy one of these *IF* they weren't so honkin' big! I considered the Nokia a few months back & it's just too huge. Those of us without giant hands need not apply, it would seem.

[Pete @ May 30th 2007 5:12PM]

Isn't there a logitech version that's far cheaper than this (possibly without the microphone)?

[Gopi Flaherty @ May 30th 2007 8:23PM]

This system will work without special (ie: pre-printed dot) paper once somebody figures out some other way to figure out what page I just started writing on.

With an Anoto pen, I can open up a 50 page notebook to page 34, write a word, turn to page 2, write another word, etc. etc.

The pen stores it all and then lets you nifty things.

Well, the nifty things require that you either pay for the SDK or write your own. I opted to write my own. :)

I believe that the Logitech one actually has a bit of an SDK available for free for _processing_ strokes, but not for creating your own paper. Logitech pens only work over USB. The Nokia one can work over Bluetooth, which is much niftier.

[Nick @ Feb 4th 2008 7:57PM]

Hey Gopi,

Can you share with us the SDK that you have written to print the Anoto paper for free? Or can you send us the link if it is online?

I think these pens will sell like hot cakes once we can print the paper for free.

Thanks,

Nikunj.

[Ryhan @ May 30th 2007 8:30PM]

I would definately invest in one of these if it didn't need special papers. I would actually find it to be interesting if the pen could be run via a small computer kept in say, a backback or on a desk, wirelssly. Bulky pens with dotted paper isn't really that usefull...

Of course, one could always invest a bit more and get a tablet pc if it's that neccesary...

[Cale @ May 31st 2007 2:49AM]

Apparently you will be able to print the paper out yourself on your printer at home. They're going to be making the money off of the software and all that crap instead of the paper, which actually makes this a very promising product in my eyes.

[Jon A. @ May 31st 2007 6:17AM]

All you sceptics have got to check out the demos on their website. This thing oh so cool!

http://livescribe.com/sneakpeek/index.html

[Russell Watkins @ Feb 19th 2008 5:11PM]

Great idea and I will be one of the first to buy one. If there is one thing I could add, it would be to press a button and record voice memo's without having to use the paper. I have often phoned my office and told them to leave a message on my desk to remind me to do something on my return. Maybe this could be added on the newer version.