Transfer Drawings from Paper to Handheld with InkLink

Posted By: Ed Monday, April 8, 2002 9:37:13 AM

Seiko Instruments will soon release the InkLink, which transfers handwritten notes or drawings from any pad of paper to a handheld. The InkLink Data Clip is attached to the top of a pad of paper and continuously monitors the position of the InkLink pen. As the users writes on the pad, the Data Clip communicates its exact position to the handheld, which creates a drawing mirroring what's on the paper. Priced at $100, the InkLink is available from Seiko's webstore now and from retail electronics stores in about two weeks.

The InkLink is an improvement over Seiko's SmartPad, which required the handheld to be in a special carrying case fitted out with a pad and an infrared port. The InkLink can be attached to any pad of paper up to legal size.

A wire leads from the Data Clip to an infrared transceiver, which can be clipped onto the infrared port of almost any handheld and even laptops with infrared support.

The user can write in seven colors and edit images after they have been created. Lines can be straightened, image elements can me moved around, and much more.

Pages are arranged into 50-page tablets. InkLink's files can be saved onto a PC during a HotSync, where they can be accessed with the desktop version of the app.

The InkLink app, InkNote Manager 3.0, works with Palm OS 3.1 or later and Palm OS 4.x, which includes Palm, Handspring, and Sony models. It requires 1 MB of memory.

Thnaks to Mike Cane for the tip. Look for a review of the InkLink in a few weeks. -Ed

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Interesting

Lock @ 4/8/2002 10:32:02 AM #
It seems very interesting, especially for the small space it takes... :]

RE: Interesting
easypeasy @ 4/8/2002 1:06:35 PM #
Would be even better if the made more varied sized for the Smartpads. The ones they show are huge. A small and compact version would be very cool indeed. Can't imaging tagging a Sony NR70 in one though.

Study notes capture
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/19/2002 6:00:01 PM #
I think Seiko missed it once again in there software. Mimio has the ability to capture your notes as they are written adn then export them in an animation format. This is incredibly useful in school! Think complex math problems!

ANyone out there know if this is possible?
jgomez@atl.invesco.com

no substitute for paper

nategall @ 4/8/2002 10:44:16 AM #
as digital as the world becomes, there is no substitute for pen and paper. I love my palm and have been using it full time for 4 years (heck, i take it to the beach to read books on) but whenever I am in a meeting I always work on paper.

anyone have inside information on what type of resolution this thing has? Good enough to do mechanical drawings with? or only good enough for notes and quick sketches? Heck, I'll be happy with 72dpi.


nategall says "blah!"

Image quality
I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 10:58:40 AM #
Looking at their website, the dpi seems quite high, and if you infer from the technical drawings on the pocketpc, it should be good enough for your use.

RE: no substitute for paper
zigzago @ 4/8/2002 11:54:38 AM #
Can you imagine walking into a meeting and setting up this contraption? You'd be lucky if they didn't give you a wedgie on the spot. It might be useful for graphic applications, though (in private).

RE: no substitute for paper
I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 11:59:37 AM #
No way, man! My coworkers would think it was way cool. They'd all want copies of my notes emailed to them, too.

RE: no substitute for paper
I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 12:27:31 PM #
If this was Bluetooth, it would be cool. Then there wouldn't be any setup. You could probably keep your PDA in your pocket, and it would look like you had a fancy writing pad.

RE: no substitute for paper
easypeasy @ 4/8/2002 1:09:24 PM #
If it were Bluetooth, we wouldn't need a PDA anymore. Imaging combining it with say a Bluetooth watch (i.e. from IBM) and some of those visor displays. Way cool.

RE: no substitute for paper
I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 2:37:59 PM #
Couldn't agree more with the comment that they'd give you a wedgie for pulling this thing out. It would really be asking for it.

Incidentally, it's no accident that the same guy who thinks it's really cool is the smae one who will be emailing his notes to his co-workers. I can hear it now: "hey Melvin, that thing clipped to your notepad is really cool. I don't feel like taking notes, so email me yours when you're done. Be sure to have them to me by 11:00."

on a 160x160????

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 10:54:13 AM #
more like doodles, not drawings.

RE: on a 160x160????
I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 10:57:38 AM #
Ummm, no. Your drawings can be the size of legal size sheet of paper. That's 8.5" x 14".

This is a great idea

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 11:06:45 AM #
...the only way to make it better is to have the digital transceiver store the information--say up to five pages. then you don't have to mess with the IR link and such while you're writing out notes...

RE: This is a great idea
mtg101 @ 4/8/2002 11:28:27 AM #
or use bluetooth instead of IR

---
russ@russb.fsnet.co.uk
RE: This is a great idea
big_raji @ 4/8/2002 11:33:54 AM #
But if using Bluetooth, it wouldn't be universal...

Off-topic question - are there any miniature IR tranceivers out there that I can use to clip to my Palm and my Cellphone? It would probably be just as good as bluetooth, and hopefully cost alot less.

The only tranceivers I've seen are for home use on a tabletop.

---
If you sing in french while hopping on one foot, the evil birds won't come out of your bathroom mirror.

InkLink HWR?

mikecane @ 4/8/2002 11:28:49 AM #
This will be interesting when Palms have ARMed chips and can take the handwriting and convert it to text.

RE: InkLink HWR?
I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 11:52:04 AM #
Interesting idea. As far as I can tell, the PC version doesn't even do this. I'd be happy if they took care of it on that end. I'd be OK with enting it into my palm, syncing it onto a PC, then doing the character recognition there.

RE: InkLink HWR?
LC @ 4/8/2002 2:20:12 PM #
A while ago I got as a gift a crosspad it was kind of a 'time shifted notes synchornization device' You would write with a special cross pen on the pad which was a regular paper pad but if fit into the crosspad base, it had buttons on the bottom for telling it when you switched pages. The crosspad would digitize and store about 50 pages of notes, then you would hook it up to your PC and the IBM ink manager would let you manipulate your notes, it even did some not so bad HW recognition.....

www.hightech-store.com/crosspad.html
www.research.ibm.com/handwriting/applications.html

= = =
LC =
= = =

What about laptops

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 12:11:51 PM #
Actually I find this more usful on laptop than Palms.

RE: What about laptops
easypeasy @ 4/8/2002 1:03:37 PM #
Actually, IBM made something very similar based on the Thinkpads. They never sold very well, but I was still interested.

RE: What about laptops
I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 9:08:00 PM #
If you'd taken 5 seconds to actually click on the manufacturer's link to the product in the body of the article, you'd see that it works for laptops as well.

CompUSA Has'em

LC @ 4/8/2002 2:16:51 PM #
I saw this yesterday at the San Diego/Balboa CompUSA. They had it for 99.92. Held off on buying it doe to spousal pressence :( ..
But they had plenty

= = =
LC =
= = =

Why would I want this with a handheld?

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/8/2002 10:38:16 PM #
It would seem a lot more useful if the clip contained an MMC card that just stores the ink. Then, I wouldn't have to juggle several devices.

Another concern is: if this stores ink in some proprietary format, it's a useless toy as far as I'm concerned: I'm not going to start relying on a piece of hardware only to have it stop working when the driver/supporting app stops working with the next PalmOS/Windows release.

Unfortunately, the web page contains almost no technical information.

Seiko Instruments not honest

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/10/2002 5:50:42 AM #
Be careful when dealing with this company. I purchased a SmartPad2 for my m505 and found it to be useless as one critical point was missing - the pad can't display 4x resolution on the Palm and thus you can't read what you have written on paper! Apparently only monochrome Palms like the Vx will display 4x resolution (ie. approx. lifesize) and ALL COLOR Palm and compatibles will only show up to 2x (half lifesize). At 2x, my written text is too small to read.

On contacting Seiko Instruments, the replied that they have no intention of developing the Pad software any further for Palm and only Pocket PC versions will work due to "inherent limitations of the OS". What nonsense!

The web site hides this fact very well and it's not easy to figure out that SmartPad products just can't work practically with colour Palms and compatibles.

What else have they hidden with this new InkLink technology? Has anyone used it and can comment on it? Any cunning omissions to their claims?

RE: Seiko Instruments not honest
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/15/2002 9:34:26 AM #
Just cry...
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