Well, not just a pen—a computer that looks like a pen. The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen does have ink and it makes lines on paper, but it also records a digital file of whatever you write—both text and sketches—by using an infrared camera to read a code of tiny, nearly invisible gray dots on the paper. (It can also read bar codes.) To make it work, you need to either buy a recycled paper notepad from Livescribe, or roll your own by downloading a graphics file that prints on most laser printers.
It also records the sound around you and links it to what you were writing at the time. Tap the pen to that text again, it reads the little dots, and you get an audio playback from that time. As a journalist with lousy handwriting and no shorthand skills, I could use that. Just write an outline of what someone is saying in an interview, and tap on the notes to hear again what the person said. Livescribe Pulse goes on sale in mid-March, starting at $150.
