Anoto

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Anoto AB
Type Public (OMX: ANOT)
Predecessor(s) C Technologies
Headquarters Lund, Sweden
Revenue 459 MSEK [1]
Operating income 8.9 MSEK
Employees 110
Website http://www.anoto.com/

Anoto Group AB (former C Technologies) is a Swedish technology company which has invented, developed and licensed a product line of digital pens and a product suite to manage information capturing utilizing these (marketed as Anoto). The Anoto Group has around 110 employees. It is headquartered in Lund, Sweden, and also has offices in Boston, Basingstoke and Tokyo.

Products

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 on, 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 color 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 the user to include human-readable black marks with the dot pattern without interference.

While some of Anoto's licensees have targeted the consumer sector, with for example learning toys, most licensees sell their products to solution providers who put together customized vertical market systems. Anoto sells a software development kit (SDK), numerous software applications, the Anoto Forms Solution (AFS) and digital pens. Anoto also sells an ASIC design for the image processing component of the pen; most pen licencees use the same basic design of optical assembly and pen internals. Anoto has approximately 350 partners, primarily in Europe, the United States and Japan. Examples of the business sectors within which they operate are healthcare, bank & finance, transportation & logistics and education.

Optical scan voting systems are based on Anoto technology.

Models include:

  • Ericsson Chatpen CHA-30 (discontinued)
  • Nokia SU-1B Digital Pen (discontinued)
  • Nokia SU-27W (successor to SU-1B, rebranded Logitech io2 )
  • Logitech io2 Digital Pen
  • Logitech io Digital Pen (earlier version, discontinued)
  • Maxell 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)
  • Tag (LeapFrog)
  • Livescribe Pulse Smartpen
  • Livescribe Echo Smartpen
  • Livescribe Sky WiFi Smartpen
  • Anoto Digital Pen DP-201
  • Anoto Digital Pen io2 Bluetooth
  • Anoto Digital Pen DP-301
  • Polyvision Digital Stylus (DP-301)

Anoto also has a few other products:

The Anoto Forms Solution includes all components required to set up and use digital pen and paper in order to capture, transfer and incorporate handwritten information from paper forms into any back-end system. Anoto penDocuments Pro is a product that allows the user to create electronic copies of handwritten documents. Anoto penPresenter is a personal digital whiteboard. By projecting a blank PowerPoint slide, a digital whiteboard is created.

C-Pen

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

Patents

Anoto holds more than 300 international patents on their technology and some 300 additional patent applications.

In 2004, Anoto prevailed in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Oral Sekendur [2] [3] regarding the Anoto dot pattern technology. The Sekendur patent [4] was held to be invalid.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Anoto Group Year End Report 2009" (pdf). Lund, Sweden: Anoto Group. 2010. p. 11. Retrieved 2010-04-05. 
  2. ↑ "Patent containing mere germ of an idea invalid for lack of enablement.". Colorado Bar Association, Intellectual Property Newsletter. 2004-11-19. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
  3. ↑ Schmetterer, The Honorable Jack (2005-12-15). "In re Oral F. Sekendur". United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois. Archived from the original on 16 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
  4. ↑ Skendur, Oral F. (1995-12-19). "Optical position determination". United States Patent 5,477,012. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 

External links

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