Smart Quill 🖊

Smart Quill is a computer housed within a pen. This pen replaces the keyboard in the office, but it is highly convenient for people who take notes by hand. The present fashion of computations has started desiring small computers.

Smart Quill was invented in Microsoft Research’s
Cambridge UK lab by Lyndsay Williams. According to
Lyndsay Williams Smart Quill is the pen for the new millennium. The idea of Smart Quill came to the inventor in her dreams.

It is an extraordinary pen that can remember the words it writes and then transfer them into the computer text. This pen is very classy and at the same time absolutely different from the pens that are available in the
market as it performs various functions other than writing.
It does not require any special surface and can write on any be it paper, tablet, air or any other screen. It contains sensors for recording the movements irrespective of the platform, by using the earth’s gravity.

The idea that “it would be neat to put all of a handheld-PDA type computer in a pen,” came to the inventor in her sleep. “It’s the pen for the new millennium,” she says.

Encouraged by Nigel Ballard, a leading consultant to the mobile computer industry, Williams took her prototype to the British Telecommunications Research Lab, where she was promptly hired and given money and institutional support for her project.

The prototype, called Smart Quilt, has been developed by world-leading research laboratories run by BT (formerly British Telecom) at Martlesham, eastern England. It is claimed to be the biggest revolution in handwriting since the invention of the pen.

~Working:-

Smart Quill measures the movement of the pen and then
matches them to the movements that produce the words and letters programmed into its memory. It is a bit larger than an ordinary fountain pen. By pushing a button on the pen and writing what the user would like to enter, users can enter information and it does not necessarily need a screen.

The user trains the pen to recognize a particular
handwriting, as long as the handwriting is consistent.
Even if the handwriting is quite messy the pen can recognize it.

~Features and Technology used:-

I.Display Technology
Kopin Corp’s Cyber Display which is ¼ inch diagonal LCD display is used in SmartQuill. It uses circuitry built on a silicon wafer then removed and mounted to glass.

II. Handwriting Recognition Software
Handwriting recognition software is a software that is
embedded in the microprocessor of the pen and is used to
recognize the handwriting of the user.

III. Display Scrolls Using Tilt Sensors
User can choose applications and scroll without using scroll buttons by tilting the pen. By keeping the pen in the left or right hand the text would get align. To measure tilt angle with earth Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) tilt sensors are used.

IV. Memory
Smart Quill has a memory 4MB EEPROM. At a time, the pen can store locally up to 10 pages of notes. Until the data is uploaded to the personal computer it is stored in the memory on the pen.

V. Power
Smart Quill is powered by Antiaircraft Artillery Battery
(AAA). With a single AAA battery, Smart Quill can work 25 hrs continuously. It exhibits an automatic on/off power system. The pen will automatically power down after a long period of no movement.

~Merits:-

i. Smart Quill can read on any flat surface and not only on paper.
ii. Smart Quill is protected by a password and can be linked with modems, printers, etc.
iii. It is portable and highly convenient.

~Demerits:-

i. Smart Quill has accelerometer errors and is bigger in size than a normal pen.
ii. People with hand tremors have inconvenience with it.
iii. Due to the thermal variations in the spring errors are introduced in the system.

The future of smart quill ensures all the computation power that the user needs right inside the pen. People could use the pen in the office to replace a keyboard. It skip the typing & save our time...