Digital paper, also known as interactive paper, is patterned paper used in conjunction with a digital pen to create handwritten digital documents. The printed dot pattern uniquely identifies the position coordinates on the paper. The digital pen uses this pattern to store the handwriting and upload it to a computer.
Digital paper should not be confused with electronic paper.
The paper
The dot pattern is a kind of two dimensional barcode; the most common is the proprietary Anoto pattern. In the Anoto pattern, each dot is spaced about 0.3mm apart; the full pattern consists of 669,845,157,115,773,458,169 dots, and encompasses an area exceeding 4.6 million km² (this corresponds to 73 trillion sheets of letter-size paper).
The complete pattern space is divided into various domains. These domains can be used to define paper types, or to indicate the paper’s purpose (for example, memo formatting, personal planners, notebook paper, Post-it notes, et cetera).
The Anoto pattern can be printed onto almost any paper, using a standard printing process of at least 600 dpi resolution (some claim a required resolution of 1000 dpi), and carbon-based black ink. The paper can be any shape or size greater than 2 mm to a side. The ink absorbs infra red light transmitted from the digital pen; the pen contains a receiver which interprets the pattern of light reflected from the paper. Other colors of ink, including non-carbon-based black, can be used to print information which will be visible to the user, and invisible to the pen.
Available pen brands
One thing to note is that the core technology and, in most cases, optical assemblies and ASICs, are either supplied by Anoto, or built to their specifications. The Leapfrog FLY is the only pen which appears to significantly differ; it contains both a speaker and a slot for program cartridges to be added. Also, since most of these products are sold for vertical markets rather than consumer markets, “available” can often mean only large orders, not individual consumer purchases.
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