Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

Martlesham, eastern England. It

INTRODUCTION is claimed to be the biggest
revolution in handwriting since

Lyndsay Williams of the invention of the pen.The

Microsoft Research's sleek and stylish prototype pen

Cambridge UK lab is the is different from other

inventor of the Smartquill, a electronic pens on the market

pen that can remember the today in that users don't have to

words that it is used to write, write on a special pad in order

and then transform them into to record what they write. User

computer text . The idea that "it could use any surface for

would be neat to put all of a writing such as paper, tablet,

handheld-PDA type computer screen or even air. The

in a pen," came to the inventor SmartQuill isn't all space-age,

in her sleep. “It’s the pen for though -- it contains an ink

the new millennium,” she says. cartridge so that users can see

Encouraged by Nigel Ballard, a what they write down on paper.

leading consultant to the mobile SmartQuill contains sensors

computer industry, Williams that record movement by using

took her prototype to the the earth's gravity system,

British Telecommunications irrespective of the platform

Research Lab, where she was used. The pen records the

promptly hired and given information inserted by the

money and institutional support user. Your words of wisdom

for her project. The prototype, can also be uploaded to your

called SmartQuill, has been PC through the “digital

developed by world-leading inkwell”, while the files that

research laboratories run by BT you might want to view on the

(formerly British Telecom) at

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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

pen are downloaded to

SmartQuill as well. WORKING OF

It is an interesting idea, and it SMARTQUILL

even comes with one attribute
that makes entire history of SmartQuill is slightly

pens pale by comparison—if larger than an ordinary fountain

someone else picks your pen. Users can enter

SmartQuill and tries to write information into these

with it- it won’t. Because user applications by pushing a

can train the pen to recognize a button on the pen and writing
particular handwriting. Hence down what they would like to

SmartQuill recognizes only the enter .The SmartQuill does not

owner’s handwriting. need a screen to work. The

SmartQuill is a computer really clever bit of the

housed within a pen which technology is its ability to read

allows you to do what a normal handwriting not only on paper

personal organizer does .It’s but on any flat surface –

really mobile because of it’s horizontal or vertical. There is

smaller size and one handed also a small three-line screen to

use. People could use the pen in read the information stored in

the office to replace a the pen; users can scroll down

keyboard, but the main the screen by tilting the pen

attraction will be for users who slightly. The user trains the pen

usually take notes by hand on to recognize a particular

the road and type them up when handwriting style - no matter

returning to the office. how messy it is, as long as it is

SmartQuill will let them skip consistent, the pen can

the step of typing up their recognize it. The handwritten

notes. notes are stored on hard disk of

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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

the pen. The pen is then

plugged into an electronic
"inkwell", text data is
transmitted to a desktop
computer, printer, or modem or
to a mobile telephone to send
files electronically. Up to 10
pages of notes can be stored
locally on the pen. A tiny light
at the tip allows writing in the TECHNICAL
dark. When the pen is kept idle SPECIFICATION
for some time, power gets
FEATURES
automatically off.

 Display technology used in

SMARTQUILL
SmartQuill

 Handwriting recognition
and signature verification

 Display scrolls using tilt

sensors

 Communication with other

devices

 Memory and power

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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY  Write on paper, flat

surface, vertical wall or in
Technology used in air
SmartQuill for display is Kopin  Single character
Corp’s Cyber Display recognition on pen
technology. Cyber Display is a  Record cursive letters and
¼ inch diagonal LCD that download to PC for
uses circuitry built on a silicon decoding
wafer, then removed and  Password by signature
mounted to glass. The displays recognition
are integrated to miniature
monitors using its own SmartQuill works by
backlighting, measuring the pen's movements
optics, ICS and packaging. and matching them to the
movements that produce letters
HANDWRITING and words programmed into its
RECOGNITION AND memory. It's similar to the way
SIGNATURE a microphone detects sound.

VERIFICATION Consistency of handwriting,

rather than neatness, is the only
condition for accuracy.
There are 2 techniques used for
 Accelerometers measure
this purpose :-
hand movement in 2 or 3
planes
1. Accelerometer technology
 On board DSP converts to
ASCII characters for pen
2. Handwriting recognition
applications
software

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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

ACCELEROMETER write on paper or in the air.

TECHNOLOGY Hence it is independent of
surface used. Movements are
This technology uses a stored within the SmartQuill.
device called Accelerometer This information is transmitted
which is used for measuring on to a small microprocessor
motion. A tiny accelerometer in that would make sense of it as a
a pen could be used to detect text displayed on the sleek built
the stops and starts, arcs and in screen.
loops of handwriting, and
transmit this information to a There are 2 types of
small microprocessor that accelerometer :-
would make sense of it as text.
There's also the possibility of 1. Two Axes Accelerometer :-
viewing a full page of text This accelerometer
through a special monocular measures acceleration in
magnified "virtual" screen that two axes. An example for
could be built into the end of Two Axes Accelerometer is
the pen. Invisible writing in air ADXL202
is achieved through this unique Accelerometer.
technology called
accelerometer that monitors 2. Three Axes Accelerator :-
hand movements and can also This accelerometer
be used as a ‘virtual hinge’ to measures acceleration in
scroll around the small screen three axes. An example for
on the pen and detect left or Three Axes Accelerometer
right-handed use. It records is Tronics +/- 2g
movement by using the earth's accelerometer.
gravity system, whether you

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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

An early hardware
prototype picture shows, left to
Prototype of SmartQuill right, tilt sensor , PIC 8 bit
microcontroller, batteries, and
433Mhz 1200 Baud radio
transmitter. Currently a radio
receiver on the RS232 port of a
pc records the pen movement
for analysis via pc. The pen will
power down after a period of
no movement so doesn't need
an on/off switch. The battery
life is approximately 22 hours.

HANDWRITING
RECOGNITION SOFTWARE

This software
embedded in the
This SmartQuill microprocessor of the pen is
prototype records writing on used to recognize handwriting
paper for radio transmission to of the user. Pen works in
a pocket pc, desktop, cell phone conjunction with a regular PC
or tablet computer. The on to which users install special
accelerometer tracks the handwriting recognition
angular movement of the top of software. The handwriting
the pen at an angle in the air recognition software translates
and these angles plotted as x/y movements in to text on screen.
position on pc screen.

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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

Handwriting recognition Secondly, we have to

software constitutes two major succeed in the double
phases: integration, which is to solve all
1. Handwriting transcription the derivation problems due to
2. Handwriting recognition this method.
Handwriting transcription
The algorithm used for
In this phase, the recorded handwriting transcription is the
acceleration signals are then following:
transcripted to it’s original
form. Here this aspect is solved
using ‘simple’ double
integration method in order to
retrace the pen tip movement
on paper.

Method

In order for this

principle to work properly, we
have to solve two main
problems:

Firstly, we have to
know pen’s spatial orientation
in order to withdraw the earth
gravity component to the
measured accelerations.

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We can see two pictures:

Fig (1) represents the
acceleration signals recorded
while one is writing a small
capital B.
FIG (2)

Fig (2) is the transcription Handwriting recognition

result obtained with algorithm

presented. The second huge aspect
is the characters and signatures
recognition. The hardware
(accelerometers plus contact
detector) embedded in the pen
has proved a really efficient
combination for this
application.

Method

The same method is

FIG (1) used to recognize the characters

written by a single user and to
find whose signature is the one
that has just been done.

We use a simple
Euclidian distance as the
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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

comparison process, and of

course the decision process is Protocol
the smaller distance found. The results shown in
The first step -1- this part are for signature
consists in creating the recognition but they are similar
reference database for the as the one obtained for
characters as for the signatures. character recognition .
For this a mean signal is
computed for each recorded The corpus used for
symbol. signatures was made by 10
The second step is the different signatures from 10
recognition process different people. They made 10
1. For the creation of attempts for the database, and 5
database, each symbol others for the test base.
was reproduced several
times and a mean In Fig 1, we can see the
normalized symbol was accelerometers signals recorded
computed. during Yani’s signing process.
2. For recognition process, Fig 2 shows the distances
the unknown symbol is computed between the
first normalized, the unknown signature and the
distance between this one’s in the database. Yani’s
symbol and the entire signature was the last one
database symbol is learnt(number 10)and we
computed. Then the clearly see in Fig 9 that his
unknown symbol is signature was well recognized.
recognized as the one
with the lowest distance.

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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

unknown new symbol to the

one’s from the database.

DISPLAY SCROLLS BY
TILTING SCREEN

By tilting the pen, user

can choose applications and
FIG (1) scroll through with out using
scroll buttons. Below is an
image of SmartQuill tilting
Screen designed by Lyndsay
Williams for BT Labs in 1997.
The pen would align text if it
was held in left or right hand so
the text was the correct way up
for left or right handed people.
This was done by using Micro
Electromechanical Systems
(MEMS) tilt sensors to measure
FIG (2) tilt angle to earth. The
SmartQuill microcontroller
read the angle and then mapped
In Fig 2, the X-axis the large screen display onto
represents the different symbols the small 4 line display.
of the database, and the Y-axis SmartQuill could also scroll
is the distance from the through pages of display by
tilting it in the hand and power
off if no hand movement was
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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

detected or pen was flat on a COMMUNICATION

desk. The demonstration unit WITH OTHER DEVICES
below shows display inverting
as SmartQuill was inverted in Earlier SmartQuill

the hand. The choice of words models developed by BT

was limited to what characters laboratories communicated

the LCD display driver could with the PC via a radio

show while upside down (left transmitter, but the current

hand picture) – only 14 of the prototype hooks up to a PC via

26 letters of the alphabet were a cable and electronic docking

usable. These 14 characters station called an "inkwell."

were then processed by .The data stored in the memory

anagram software to produce is uploaded to the personal

900 words that used these computer when it is placed in to

characters. The shopping list a docking station. An electronic

below was produced from this docking station is a small

limited dictionary to cabinet to which a laptop or

demonstrate the text inversion . notebook computer can be

attached for use as a desktop
computer, usually have a
connector for externally
connected devices, such as hard
drives or scanners and ports
that can be linked to
components such as keyboard,
monitor and printer. It can also
be connected to printer, modem
or mobile phones to send data
electronically.

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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

The output memory. It's similar to the way

accelerometer signals from the a microphone detects sound.
pen are digitized with a
National Instrument capture
card with a frequency Fe of
1000Hz and a low pass filter at POWER
Fc=1/3*Fe .
SmartQuill is powered by
Future models could
AAA battery. It will run for
receive e-mails and pager
about 25hrs on a single AAA
messages via a wireless
battery. The pen exhibits
messaging system .This enables
automatic power on/off system.
two-way wireless
The pen will power down after
communication with other
a period of no movement. So it
computing devices .
supports automatic on/off
system.
MEMORY

APPLICATIONS
SmartQuill has 4MB
EEPROM memory. At a time,
up to 10 pages of notes can be
1. SmartQuill isn’t all
stored locally on the pen. The
space-age. It contains an ink
data is stored in the memory on
cartridge so that users can
the pen until it is uploaded to
see what they write on
the personal computer.
paper .Hence a simple
SmartQuill works by measuring
application of SmartQuill is
the pen's movements and
that it write notes on paper.
matching them to the
This information recorded in
movements that produce letters
and words programmed into its
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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

the pen is then downloaded speech recognition. Voice

to PC. record is made possible
2. The information stored in through ADPCM speech
the pen can be input to other compression .
devices such as mobile
phones, printers, modems, 7. SmartQuill also allows
desktop computers etc for third party to add on
different applications. applications.
ASSETS
3. It also provides handheld
1. One of the major asset is
computer applications such
that SmartQuill does not
as digital diary, contacts,
need a screen to work. This
calculators etc.
is possible through
revolutionary "Spatial
4. It is used for receiving
Sensing" system which
pager and e-mail messages.
uses semiconductor
This is possible through
accelerometers.
recent technology involved
Accelerometers senses
in SmartQuill, the wireless
pen/hand movement
messaging system which
instead of shapes.
allows two way
communication between
2. SmartQuill provides
devices .
intuitive user interface.

5. SmartQuill synchronizes
3. Security – Security is
files, e-mails and messages
another important feature.
to PC.
It is made possible through
two facilities:
6. SmartQuill can be used
for voice record and supports
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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

a. It enables automatically detects left

handwriting or right handed use.
recognition .User
can train the pen to 5. Power saving
recognize a Small screen size requires less
particular battery power .
handwriting style. No movement of the pen causes
The symbols auto power down
regularly used by
user gets stored in 6. SmartQuill is all mobile,
the memory, by smaller in size and enables
frequent use of the one-handed use.
pen. Hence the pen
accepts only the CONCLUSION
owner’s handwriting
and rejects intruders SmartQuill will be
handwriting. brought to the market by the
b. It enables signature end of 2004.The estimated cost
verification. Hence of this futuristic pen is around
Passwords could be $200.SmartQuill supports two
entered in the factors : small size and
form of signatures . convenient use. The future of
SmartQuill ensures all
4. The SmartQuill is also a computation power the user
3D-mouse, when twisted in needs right inside the pen.
air in a certain way it Reducing the size of handheld
enables scrolling of the computers can only be taken so
screen. It also far before they become
unusable. Keyboards become

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Seminar Report ’ SmartQuill

so tiny you require needle-like  B.Milner, “Handwriting

fingers to operate them and Recognition using
screens that need constant acceleration based motion
cursor controls to read simple detection”,IEE
text. The introduction of ref.1999/041,1999
SmartQuill is the best solution
for this problem.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 RNRT Stylocom project,
notification n 0250016
 E.Millien, C.Roux, “Users
input to design of a
“communicating
pen”,Smart Objects
Conference,2003
 R.Baron, R. Plamondon,
“Acceleration
measurement with an
instrumented for sign
verification and
analysis”,IEEE Trans.Vol
IM-38
 Anoto Website:
www.anoto.com
 BT Website
:www.smartquill.com

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