The Wireless Word - Innovators make pens mightier than the cord Financial Times ,  April, 2002 By Jonathan Loades-Carter With 12 billion messages per month being sent worldwide, SMS continues to be the one irrefutable growth area in a downcast telecoms sector. But while teenagers may be content to work their thumbs and forefingers to the bone texting their friends letter by letter, those of us with less nimble digits but bigger budgets might consider the latest in wireless gadgetry pushed by two companies at this month's CeBIT technology fair in Hannover. Sony Ericsson's Chatpen is a digital device which enables direct communication via mobile phones, computers and the internet using a pen and paper. Chatpen users will be able to send hand-written messages or pictures to their mobile or PC using Bluetooth wireless technology. It is then forwarded to other mobiles phones or computers via the GPRS network. Chatpen, developed by Anoto, a Swedish company which has given Sony Ericsson first turn at marketing their concept, looks and works like an ordinary ballpoint, but reads its own position on paper printed with a unique pattern of almost invisible dots that the pen's camera can see. The pen can calculate its position relative to the paper and trace the path of its movement, drawing a virtual picture of the writing in its memory and storing it ready for transmission via a Bluetooth transceiver. Anoto (the name is dog-Latin for 'I scribble') announced the idea two years ago, but complex negotiations to establish their patented pattern as the global standard for digital paper and license an array of paper products from calendars to post-it pads delayed a global launch until this year. The company has also been waiting for mobile phone manufacturers to properly embrace Bluetooth technology. Chatpen was launched on Europolitan, Vodafone's Swedish network, late last year, with further roll-out intended this year retailing at about $300. Anoto foresees a myriad of uses for the Chatpen, aimed at consumers and the corporate world, from games to mail order to signing business contracts virtually. But also on display at CeBIT was an alternative concept for a wireless pen designed by Israeli innovators OTM Technologies, and if their product looks 'better on paper' it is precisely because it doesn't need it. OTM's VPen performs a similar messaging task to Anoto's device but can be activated on most surfaces from a table-top to the palm of the hand. OTM stands for Optical Translation Measurement, describing the patented technology inside VPen, which uses a laser measurement system that detects motion and translates it into digital information that, similarly to Chatpen, is transmitted via Bluetooth to mobile or PC. But unlike Anoto's design, VPen has a 'navigate' mode which turns your digital writing device into a highly-versatile PC mouse at the press of a button. Once engaged, you can edit, erase, and have full control of your mobile or PC, all through the written word. If OTM lives up to its word, the VPen will be able to recognise certain pen strokes as specific commands and users will be able to create their own shortcuts for instant access. For example, a stock portfolio could be accessed by writing '@stock'. Opher Kinrot, chief technologist of OTM, describes VPen as a "wireless stylus" that is conceptually different to Chatpen laying importance on interaction and output. "Anoto's usability concept is input-based and very limiting, as is their reliance on special paper. It's a more analogue concept, like a fax compared to a PC," he says. Indeed, Anoto's digital paper is limited and finite in concept, made up as it is of one uniquely-patterned sheet the size of Europe and Asia combined, to be cut up into more practical dimensions as demand dictates. It remains to be seen whether OTM's product can deliver on its ambitious claims, as it has yet to be thoroughly tested and won't be launched until next year. Question marks hang over pricing and marketing, with Siemens and Motorola put forward as potential partners and a "competitive price" of under $200 suggested. Other wireless pens may hit the market in time. In the UK, Cambridge Consultants, a technology and innovation company which turned around tea company Tetley by inventing the round teabag, has come up with E-pen. The device sends hand-written e-mails to a digital "inkwell", a receiver shaped like a small egg cup, which relays the messages on to phone or PC. What all wireless pens have in common is that they are among the first practical accessories to use Bluetooth and they need it to take off in a big way. The signs for this year are more positive as mobile phone and PC makers begin to bring out compatible products. It has important backers in Microsoft, IBM, Intel and Nokia and looks set to succeed eventually. However, the Bluetooth technology is expensive and it will be some time before it becomes more affordable. Some technology analysts think voice-recognition technology will make the concept of wireless pens obsolete before a market is properly established. If it is, it will be some time before we know which pen is mightier in the wireless world.