Digital paper
Digital paper is ordinary paper that is printed with a grid of small dots in order to optically embed a digital code. This allows handwritten notes and movements of a digital pen , which optically perceives the additional small dots, to be recorded in digital form and related. Handwritten recordings on digital paper can in this way be stored in the digital pen, given a time reference and automatically related to other data such as acoustic recordings. It is also possible to transfer the handwritten notes from the digital pen to a computer. Another application of digital paper are interactive games such as the educational game Tiptoi .
construction
The grid system on which most commercial products are based was developed by the Swedish company Anoto . The digital paper is printed with a grid of 0.1 mm dots with a distance of 0.3 mm. The position of the individual points varies slightly and thus represents an optically detectable, digital code that allows the digital pen to determine the current position on the digital paper. An infrared camera in the digital pen orients itself to this point grid in the background of the page.
In the Anoto system, an arrangement of 6 by 6 points represents a clear coordinate in this system, this corresponds to a resolution of 1.8 mm or an area of 3 mm 2 for a determined position. The number of possible combinations is approx. 670 · 10 18 . This corresponds to a total area that is larger than Europe and Asia combined and can be represented by this digital paper from Anoto.
A digital dot matrix can be printed on any standard paper. It is important that the printing process is carried out with at least 600 dpi and with carbon-based toner. A printout with an inkjet printer is not possible, as the dots run along the fibers, which can make recognition by the pen impossible. The color used in the digital pen, on the other hand, should be carbon-free in order not to impair the optical recording in the digital pen.
Further developments
The Hewlett-Packard company developed a "Forms Automation System" (FAS) based on the digital paper. September 2005 the development was taken over by the FAS Group. The FAS enables companies to digitally design form processes and digitally process the handwritten information. The system also enables digital forms to be designed with the help of Acrobat Professional . The user is able to design his own forms completely freely. For this purpose, a new toolbar has been integrated in Acrobat, which enables the user to design a PDF document in this way. When this file is printed out, the user receives a digital paper that he can write on with the pen.
Completed forms are processed by the FAS. It is possible to integrate checkboxes / radio buttons and text fields in order to enable further digital processing. Digital paper can be used in almost any environment. Only the paper process has to be designed.
literature
- Signer, Beat: Fundamental Concepts for Interactive Paper and Cross-Media Information Spaces , May 2008, Hardcover with colored illustrations, 276 pages, ISBN 3-8370-2713-9 (10), ISBN 978-3-8370-2713-6 (13)
- Make 6/2015 ( Heise Verlag )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Patent WO2008013761 : Associating a region on a surface with a sound or with another region. Filed July 23, 2007 , published March 13, 2008 , Applicant: Leapfrog Entpr Inc., et al., Inventors: Yih-Shiuan Liang, Judah Menter, Sulivan Parker, Mari Sunderland.