The Pen Is Mighty

The first time I tried out the LeapPad by Leapfrog at a department store(I was bored...), I was intrigued. Little wonder that this educational toy sold millions in the US. But I thought it was quite cumbersome as you had to place the book on the large pad to work and the pen is tethered to it.

Leapfrog finally has a new product called Tag coming soon next month in the form of a chubby digital pen. The technology behind this seemingly simple looking pen is actually quite fascinating which is based on pen-based reading technology created by a Swedish company called Anoto.

It works on books whose pages are imprinted with invisible dots that allow a small infrared camera at the tip of the Tag to recognize words or images on the page.

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There's also something for adults with the Livescribe's Pulse smartpen also releasing in the coming months. It is a note-taking pen that allows handwriting on special paper printed with invisible dots to be captured to a PC.

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It will be interesting to watch how successful these digital pen products will be in the near future.

Tag by Leapfrog | Pulse smartpen by Livescribe