Destiny digital smart pen

Digital smart pen

The destiny pen is an innovative solution for the completion of processing forms. It captures handwritten notes and forms and sends them back to the office systems quickly and easily.

• Easy to use.
• Hardly any training.
• They are robust and few are lost, stolen or broken.
• You can still leave a paper service docket with the customer.
• If the technician forgets his Digital Pen he can still work and use a normal pen and then return the book copy to the office.
• Knowing what work has been completed means you can seem more professional to own customers. Rather than receiving a call from a client and then having to call the service tech to find out the status of the job you can now find the PDF of the service docket in a few clicks and then even email this to the client in seconds.

How the pen works

The Digital Paper technology is enabled through a proprietary pattern which is owned and licensed by Anoto AB. The Digital paper is created by printing a proprietary pattern of very small dots on ordinary paper that is perceived by the eye as a slightly off-white color.

The dots have a nominal spacing of 0.3 mm (0.01 inch).

A minute portion of the total pattern uniquely defines its position in the full pattern, 60,000,000 square kilometres, which is equivalent to an area exceeding that of Europe and Asia combined. Unique patterns within different check-boxes can be assigned different functions such as E-mail, Graphical SMS, Fax and SEND.

When using digital pen and paper enabling DP&P technology, a tiny camera in the pen registers the pen's movement across the grid surface on the paper and stores it as series of map coordinates. These coordinates correspond to the exact location of the page you’re writing on. When you make a mark in the SEND box with your digital pen, the pen is instructed to send the stored sequence of map coordinates, which are translated into an image that will result in an exact copy of your handwriting displayed on any computer anywhere in the world.

With a digital pen, Anoto patterned paper and Destiny Wireless, you can store and transmit basically anything you write or draw from anywhere in the world to anyone with a mobile phone or personal computer.

The digital pen looks and feels just like an ordinary ballpoint pen and you use it in the same way. There are no keys to press and no display. You activate the pen simply by removing the cap and deactivate it by replacing the cap.

The main parts of the digital pen are a digital camera, an advanced image-processing unit and a communication unit. It also contains an ink cartridge so that you can actually see what you have written or drawn.

As you or one of your field team staff write, a built-in digital camera in the pen continuously takes pictures of the patterned paper.

When the entry fields are completed and the message written, a mark in the SEND box will trigger the pen to establish contact with your mobile phone over, for instance, a Bluetooth radio link. Alternatively the Digital Pen can be “docked” and the data transferred to a Personal Computer via a USB port.

The battery and memory of the Digital Pen is sufficient to complete 40 full pages of handwriting.

The data captured by the Digital Pen is transmitted through a mobile phone using Bluetooth technology. With a mobile phone, the following checks can be incorporated in the data transmission:

• Notification if any required fields are not completed
• Confirmation when the data file has been sent
• Notification if the data file transmission failed
• Battery life of pen

In the event that the mobile is out of coverage the forms can still be sent to the mobile and they will remain on the mobile until the user moves back into coverage and the forms will be sent automatically.

Using the Destiny information infrastructure, the digital information transmitted by the Digital Pen can then be matched to the appropriate form application and manipulated in a number of ways:-

• A graphical image of the handwritten completed form can be sent to one or multiple personal computer, mobile phone or data base addresses;
• Using character and handwriting recognition applications and other translation processes, the information can be transcribed to typescript and a copy of the form in graphical and/or typescript can be sent to one or multiple computers/servers.
• The data fields in the form can be converted to ASCII and XML or other data formats and populated directly into a customer’s information systems.

The following diagram illustrates the DP&P process from paper application through to delivery of the information to the customer

Benefits

The ROI comes from the following.

• Cash flow. Billing the same day rather than 10 days after the job.
• Higher productivity. Service technicians no longer need to return to the office to bring in the forms. This saves money on fuel and servicing company vehicles and it increases productivity as the techs can stay out in the field working for two more hours per week.
• All filing is now electronic. No more mind numbing physical filing. Dockets can be located in few clicks. We can even deposit the PDF and data into a back end system such as TSM or Pronto.
• Quote details can be sent in from the field and answered in moments. Copies of service dockets can be sent direct to a client as soon as the docket is completed.
• Your customers may use the old trick of delaying payment by claiming some of the service dockets are missing. Now you can re send a missing service docket and confirm receipt in seconds.
• Finally the service manager now knows where everyone is and what work they have done. Some of our customers say this feature saves them so many calls to and from the office that the saving is larger than the monthly subscription.

Pen vs PDA

PDA's and Digital Pens both have strengths, the PDA is best suited to situations where a lot of data is being sent out and only limited data sent back. Courier companies for example send out job details like "pick up four parcels from this address, deliver two here and two there". Then, on delivery only a signature is captured.

The Digital Pen is more suited to situations where a limited amount of data is being sent to the field but a fair amount of data is being sent back. Service reports or sales contracts are suited the Digital Pen. As a Field Service Solution the Digital Pen is ideal in that on completion of the task the technician can complete a job sheet which would include the hours worked, parts used, OH&S check, a problem summary and a full description of the work performed.

Completing a larger form like this is straightforward with the Digital Pen but complicated and extremely time consuming using a PDA.

In summary:

• Larger forms like service reports or sales contracts or quote forms are perfect for Digital Pens as a mobile solution.
• The Digital Pen preserves the use of paper in the field so a hard copy form can still be left with the customer.
• The Digital Pen also provides for permanent back up. If your salesman or service technician leaves their Digital Pen at home they can continue working by using a normal pen. If they leave their PDA at home they have to go back home to pick it up.
• Asset registration and asset servicing is easily achieved using the Digital Pen by the use of miniature postage stamp size forms.
• Digital Pens can be used by anyone who can write. Pen training is only one hour max.

Also consider:

• Cost of hardware.
• Cost of backend software.
• Cost of GPRS transmission. Much higher on PDAs’.

Overall we tend to find a pen solution is less than 50% of the cost of a PDA solution. Finally go and visit several reference sites. We have many happy customers willing to endorse the Digital Pens.