Anoto

Anoto Group AB (former C Technologies) (OMX|SSE5110|ANOT) is a Swedish technology company developing and licensing a product line of "digital pens" and a product suite to manage information procurement utilizing these (marketed as Anoto). Anoto Group is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.

Product

Anoto's main product is the Anoto Digital Pen, a combination of ordinary ink pen and a digital camera (as well as supporting hardware) designed to digitally record everything written with the pen. The pen works by recognizing a special non-repeating dot pattern that is printed on the paper. The non-repeating nature of the pattern means that the pen is able to determine which page is being written upon, and where on the page the pen is.

The dot pattern can be printed on a professional offset printing press, or on a laser printer. Dots are printed in black; other colors of ink are invisible to the pen's IR sensor. On a laser printer, CMY can be mixed to produce near-black for text or other marks that are human-readable. For offset printing, Anoto has developed a color of ink, "Anoto substitute black." Anoto substitute black is a non-carbon based black ink that is invisible in the IR region, allowing you to include human-readable black marks with the dot pattern without interference.

While some of Anoto's licensees have targeted the consumer sector, most licensees sell their products to solution providers who put together customized vertical market systems. Anoto does not sell anything but the software development kit themselves. The pens and paper are all licensed to partners who sell them under their own brand. Anoto also sells an ASIC design for the image processing component of the pen; most pen vendors use the same basic design of optical assembly and pen internals.

These pens are used in optical scan voting systems in Germany. [ [http://fee.iavoss.org/2006/papers/fee-2006-iavoss-New-Generation-of-Voting-Machines-in-Germany.pdf New Generation of Voting Machines in Germany] ]

Models include:
* Ericsson [http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=global&lc=en&ver=4001&template=pp4_1_1&zone=pp&lm=pp4_1&pid=9753 Chatpen CHA-30] (discontinued)
* Nokia [http://www.nokiausa.com/nokia_accessories/item_details/1,2305,product:SU-1B,00.html SU-1B Digital Pen] (discontinued)
* Nokia [http://www.nokia-asia.com/nokia/0,,94998,00.html SU-27W] (successor to SU-1B, rebranded Logitech io2 [http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/discussions/board/message?board.id=accessories&message.id=1362] )
* Logitech [http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?PAGE=products/features/digitalwriting io2 Digital Pen]
* Logitech io Digital Pen (earlier version, discontinued)
* Maxell [http://www.maxell.co.jp/e/products/industrial/digitalpen/index.html Digital Pen] (an earlier version might have been discontinued)
* Hewlett-Packard Digital Pen 200 (discontinued) (rebranded Logitech)
* Hewlett-Packard Digital Pen 250
*Fly (pentop computer)
* Livescribe Pulse Smartpen

C-Pen

Anoto also develops and sells the product C-Pen, a one-line text scanner.

Patents

Anoto holds several international patents on their technology.

In 2004, Anoto prevailed in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Oral Sekendur [cite news
title =Patent containing mere germ of an idea invalid for lack of enablement.
publisher =Colorado Bar Association, Intellectual Property Newsletter
date =2004-11-19
url = http://www.cobar.org/docs/nov2004newsIP.pdf?ID=1515
accessdate = 2008-08-23 ] [cite news
last =Schmetterer
first = The Honorable Jack
title =In re Oral F. Sekendur
publisher =United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois
date =2005-12-15
url = http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/opinions/JudgeSchmetterer/Sekendur_Reconsideration.pdf
accessdate = 2008-08-23 ] regarding the Anoto pattern technology.

References

External links

*cite news |title= Electronic voting 'world first' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/5385086.stm |publisher= BBC News |date= 2006-09-27 |accessdate= 2006-11-21
*cite news |title= DigiPens Search for Write Market
url=http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,56951,00.html|publisher=Wired News | first= Michael |last= Stroud |date= 2002-12-22 |accessdate= 2006-11-21