Anoto's digital pen draws some interest

LAS VEGAS--The big draw at this year's Silicon Northwest, one of the Fall Comdex trade show's enduring highlights, turned out to be a retro technology with a thoroughly high-tech twist.

Anoto, a Swedish company, showed off a digital pen capable of transmitting cursive handwriting and hand drawings to a computer screen by way of Bluetooth, a technology that connects devices wirelessly.

Demonstrations of the device came amid some usual attractions of Silicon Northwest, started in 1983 by promoter Ginger Brewer. Run today by Portlander John Davis--and held this year at the Rio hotel--it always features some of the best food (nowhere else in this desert citadel can you find fresh oysters), most intriguing new technologies and celebrity draws.

John Dvorak, a PC magazine columnist and "Silicon Spin" TV host, was there, along with CNET's Steve Fox, Forbes columnist and "Digital Duo" TV host Stephen Manes and Fortune columnist Peter Lewis.

Anoto's $100 digital pen, a bit bulkier than the usual kind, is used with a special dot-embedded paper. The company is working with pen maker Parker, paper-products giant Mead, the At-A-Glance datebook makers and 3M's Post-It Notes division to produce Anoto-ready versions of their popular formats.

In demonstrations, the technology worked smoothly. Potential applications include handwritten e-mail (sent wirelessly from your car stuck on a floating bridge, for example), digital whiteboards, meeting notes and reminders. Old Economy types can even hang onto the paper version for filing or archiving.

As for Microsoft's Tablet PC, which offers a similar approach, only without the paper component, an Anoto rep sniffed: "We do everything they do, only we think people still want to use paper. And they don't have to buy another computer to do it."

Everett-based Intermec was showing its $39 personal bar-code scanner, which doubles as a key ring. The little teardrop-shaped gadget can scan in prices and IDs of various products while you're shopping. When you get back to your PC, a docking station that plugs into the keyboard port (the keyboard plugs into the dock) then displays the data for comparison.

A real-time reader with screen readout is coming, Intermec said. "We want to get people used to the whole concept of bar codes first," said Dan Bodnar, product-marketing director.

DocuTouch, the downtown Seattle outfit that stores PC users' files, data and other digital content on a password-protected Web site, had a magician at the show doing an array of baffling card tricks.

"You want to see real technology?" the trickster asked. A good example of an application service provider (ASP, in current lingo), DocuTouch has gained kudos from PC magazine's tech labs for bulletproof security and recently was named one of the top 50 companies to watch by LocalBusiness.com, said Torrey Russell, marketing director and a longtime Seattle tech figure.

Silicon Northwest's goofiest technology was supplied by DigiScents, promulgators of iSmell (its term) technology, which uses a Personal Scent synthesizer to create thousands of scents "on demand." Hook it up to your PC, surf the Web, and experience a variety of olfactory delights from participating sites.

The idea is to enhance your surfing with an added sensory dimension, but no word on what flame mail might smell like.

Outside of Silicon Northwest, the most far-out gadget at this year's Comdex may have been a "concept" prototype from Toshiba consisting of a digital camera mounted on a sleek, silvery piece of headgear. You aim the camera simply by moving your head and monitor the image on a color, wristwatchlike screen. The whole operation is wireless.

Technologies currently limiting battery life, motion-video display and head-mounted radiation (to name just a few categories) will have to be surmounted for the system to work. And the idea of holding your wrist up to your face as you re-aim the camera lens is somewhat problematic. But anything goes at tech trade shows.