Write in the air with PhonePoint Pen mobile phone

You can now write short notes in the air with your phone and have that message automatically sent to
mail address. This has been made pos sible by a new cell phone technology called PhonePoint Pen developed by engineering students at Duke University, Durham, USA. To create this application, the students took advantage of the accelerometers in emerging cell phones.
Accelerometers are the devices in phones that not only keep track of the phone’s movements but also make it possible for the display screens to rotate from landscape to portrait modes depending on how the phone is rotated. These devices are always ‘on,’ so there is no additional burden on the phone to use this new application.

The researchers developed an application that uses the built-in accelerometers in cell phones to recognise human writing. By holding the phone like a pen, you can write short messages or draw simple diagrams in the air. The accelerometer converts the gestures into images, which can be sent to any e-mail address for future reference.

The potential uses are practically limitless. Say, you’re in a class and there is an interesting slide on the screen. The researchers foresee being able to take a photo of the slide and write a quick note on it for future reference.
The PhonePoint Pen prototype is expected to be available for download within the next few months.

Tagged as: accelero-meters, Duke-University, Phone-point-Pen