Source: boston.com

By: Jennifer Batog

It’s a James Bond tool for the mainstream world, a digital pen that acts like a portable, personal whiteboard.

Anoto Inc., a Westborough technology company, recently launched Anoto penPresenter, which records notes and displays them on a screen during presentations.

The pen, which is about the size of a fountain pen, combines a digital writer with PowerPoint, allowing notes to appear on screen in real time.

The idea is to make meetings and presentations more interactive, allowing participants to have instant copies of any material added during the session.

“It’s way-cool technology,” said Bryan Kearney, president of Rover Technology Fusions, based in Tampa, and one of Anoto’s partners. “It’s incredibly powerful.”

The pen works like this: Users print a presentation or blank PowerPoint slides using penPresenter software. During the session, a small camera inside the pen takes pictures of what’s written on special paper printed with dots. The pen’s camera captures the movement on the paper and transfers it through Bluetooth or a Blackberry to a screen, such as an LCD monitor.

Anoto, a pioneer in digital pen and paper technology, is based in Sweden and has its US headquarters in Westborough.

The use of digital technology in the audiovisual field is becoming more popular, according to statistics from Infocomm International, an audiovisual industry trade group based in Fairfax, Va. There are about 1,200 types of audiovisual tools available, and it’s become a $75 billion industry. Over the past two years, digital audiovisual technology has grown at a rate of about 10 percent annually, according to the trade group.

“People are looking for these flexible digital tools,” said Randal A. Lemke, Infocomm’s executive director. “It’s a fast-growing area.”

Products such as penPresenter allow businesses to use digital technology while retaining a communication method everyone knows how to use - handwriting, said Ginny Carpenter, Anoto’s North American marketing vice president.

“You can get the best of both worlds,” she said. “You can go digital and not lose the thing you’re most comfortable with.”

Carpenter said there are several areas where penPresenter could make a splash, including corporate presentations. For schools, she said, penPresenter is a suitable substitute for a digital whiteboard in every classroom, at a lower cost - it costs about $300, compared with up to several thousand dollars for a digital whiteboard.

Using a pen that can transfer meeting notes to presentation materials immediately can also save time and money since feedback is instantaneous and meeting attendees can receive updates to the presentation quickly, without having to wait for someone to transcribe and distribute notes, Rover’s Kearney said.

“As a businessman, every moment of your time costs money,” he said.