Special Issue - 2017 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
ICADEMS - 2017 Conference Proceedings

Smart Quill
1 2
Ragini, Dr. Neetu Sharma
1 2
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Head of Department
GITAM, Kablana, Computer Science & Engineering,
Jhajjar, Haryana GITAM, Kablana, Jhajjar, Haryana

Handheld computers are being popular now a days and the The pen records the information inserted by the user. The real
present trend has started preferring small computers to do magic is that your words of wisdom can also be uploaded to
computation with the offering of very convenient and handy your PC through the “digital inkwell”, while the files that you
computation and other computing services. It made computer might want to view on the pen are downloaded to Smart-Quill
manufacturers and developers to go for almost gadget like
as well. It is an interesting idea, and it even comes with one
computers. Reducing the size of handheld computers can only be
taken so far before they become almost unusable means attribute that makes entire history of pens pale by
keyboards become so tiny you require needle-like fingers to comparison—if someone else picks yourSmartQuill and tries
operate them and screens that need constant cursor controls to to write with it- it won’t. Because user can train the pen to
read simple text. The introduction of Smart-Quill has solved recognize a particular handwriting. Hence SmartQuill
some of these problems. Lyndsay Williams of Microsoft, UK is recognizes only the owner’s handwriting. SmartQuill is a
the inventor of Smart-Quill,a pen that can remember the words computer housed within a pen which allows you to do what a
that is used to write, and then transform them into computer text. normal personal organizer does .It’s really mobile because of
This pen is slightly larger than ordinary fountain pen, with a it’s smaller size and one handed use. People can use this pen
screen on the barrel. User can enter information through it into
in the office to replace a keyboard, but the main attraction will
these applications by merely pushing a button thus Information
can be entered using his/her own handwriting. User can use any be for users who usually take notes by hand on the road and
platform for writing like paper, screenand tablet or even in air. then type them up when returning to the office. Smart-Quill
There is also a small three-line screen to read the information will let them skip the step of typing up their notes.
stored in the pen. Users can also scroll down the screen by tilting
the pen. The pen is then plugged in to an electronic docking II. DESCRIPTION
station and text data is transmitted to a desktop computer, 2.1 Working of Smartquill
printer, modem or to a mobile telephones to send files It is slightly larger than any other ordinary fountain pen. Users
electronically. can simply enter their information into these applications by
pushing a button on the pen and writing down on paper, tablet,
Index Terms – ADXL20, AAA, EEPROM and screen or even on air,what they would like to enter.The
Smart-Quill does not even depend on a screen to work. The
I. INTRODUCTION really clever bit of the technology is its ability to read
Lyndsay Williams of Microsoft Research's Cambridge UK lab handwriting not only on paper but also on any flat surface –
is the inventor of the Smart-quill technology, a pen that can horizontal or vertical. There is also a small three-line screen to
remember the words that it is used to write, and then transform read the information stored in the pen; users can scroll down
them into computer understandable text . The idea behind is the screen by titling the pen slightly. The user trains the pen to
that "it would be neat to put all of a handheld-PDA type recognize a particular handwriting style – no matterhow messy
computer in a pen," came to the inventor in her sleep. “It’s the it is, as long as it is consistent, the pen can recognize it. The
pen for the new millennium,” she says. Encouraged by Nigel handwritten notes are stored on memory of this pen. The pen
Ballard, a leading consultant to the mobile computer industry, is then plugged into an electronic "inkwell", and text data is
Williams took her prototype device to the British than transmitted to a desktop computer, printer, or modem or
Telecommunications Research Lab, where she was promptly to a mobile telephone to send files electronically. Up to 10
hired and given money and institutional support for her pages of notes can be stored locally on this pen. A tiny light at
project. The prototype, called Smart-Quill, has been developed the tip allows writing even in the dark. The beauty is when the
by world-leading research laboratories run by BT (formerly pen is kept idle for some time, power gets automatically off.
British Telecom) at Martlesham, eastern England. It is claimed
to be the biggest revolution in handwriting since the invention 2.2 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
of the pen because of its usability. This sleek and stylish A. FEATURES
prototype pen is very much different from other electronic
 Display technology used in Smart-Quill handwriting
pens on the market today in that users don't have to write on a
recognition and signature verification, display scrolls using tilt
special pad in order to record and remember what they write.
sensors, communication with other devices memory and
He can use any surface for writing such as paper, tablet, screen
power.
or even air. The Smart-Quill isn't all space-age, although -- it
uses an ink cartridge to let users see what they write down on
B. DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
paper. Itcontain sensors that can record movement by using
The technology used in Smart-Quill for display is Kopin
the earth's gravity system, irrespective of the platform used.
Corp’s Cyber Display technology. Cyber Display is a ¼ inch

Volume 5, Issue 03 Published by, www.ijert.org 1

Special Issue - 2017 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
ICADEMS - 2017 Conference Proceedings

diagonal LCD that uses circuitry which is built on a silicon 2.3 PROTOTYPE OF SMARTQUILL
wafer, then removed and mounted to glass. The displays are
integrated to miniature monitors using its own backlighting,
optics, ICS and packaging.

C. HANDWRITING RECOGNITION AND SIGNATURE

VERIFICATION
 Accelerometer measures hand movement in 2 or 3
planes,on board DSP converts to ASCII characters for pen
applications towrite on paper, flat surface, vertical wall or
in airSingle character recognition on pen to record cursive
letters and download to a PC for decodingthe passwords
by signature recognition. Smart-Quill works by measuring
the pen's movements and matching them to the
movements that produce letters and words programmed
into its memory. It's similar to the way a microphone
detects sound. Consistency of handwriting, rather than
neatness, is the only condition for accuracy.

There are 2 techniques used for this purpose :-

1. Accelerometer technology
2. Handwriting recognition software This Smart-Quill prototype records writing on paper for radio
transmission to a pocket pc, desktop, cell phone or tablet
ACCELEROMETER TECHNOLOGY computer. The accelerometer tracks the angular movement of
This technology uses a device which is called Accelerometer the top of the pen at an angle in the air and these angles plotted
which is used for measuring motion. A tiny accelerometer in a as x/y position on pc screen.An early hardware prototype
pen could be used to detect the stops and starts, arcs and loops picture shows, left to right, tilt sensor , PIC 8 bit
of handwriting, and then it transmits this information to a microcontroller, batteries, and 433Mhz 1200 Baud radio
small microprocessor that would make sense of it as a text. transmitter. Currently a radio receiver on the RS232 port of a
There's also the possibility of viewing a full page of text pc records the pen movement for analysis via pc. The pen will
through a special monocular magnified "virtual" screen that power down after a period of no movement so doesn't need an
could be built into the end of the pen. Invisible writing in air is on/off switch. The battery life is approximately 22 hours.
achieved through this unique technology called accelerometer
that monitors hand movements and can also be used as a III. HANDWRITING RECOGNITION SOFTWARE
‘virtual hinge’ to scroll around the small screen on the pen and This software embedded in the microprocessor of the pen is
detect left or right-handed use. It records movement by using used to recognize handwriting of the user who is going to use
the earth's gravity system, whether you write on paper or in the it for some time. Pen works in conjunction with a regular PC
air. Hence it is independent of whatever the surface is used. on to which a user installs special handwriting recognition
Movements are stored within the Smart-Quill. This software. The handwriting recognition software translates
information is then transmitted on to a small microprocessor movements in to the text on screen.
that would make sense of it as a text displayed on the sleek Handwriting recognition software constitutes two major
built in screen. phases:
1. Handwriting transcription
There are 2 types of accelerometer :- 2. Handwriting recognition
1.Two Axes Accelerometer :- This accelerometer measures
acceleration in two axes. An example for Two Axes Handwriting transcription
Accelerometer is ADXL20 Accelerometer. The recorded acceleration signals are then transcript to its
original form. Here this aspect is solved using ‘simple’ double
2.Three Axes Accelerator :- This accelerometer measures integration method in order to retrace the pen’s tip movement
acceleration in three axes. An example for Three Axes on a paper.
Accelerometer is Tronics +/- 2G accelerometer.

Volume 5, Issue 03 Published by, www.ijert.org 2

Special Issue - 2017 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
ICADEMS - 2017 Conference Proceedings

Method
In order for this principle to work properly, we have to solve
two main problems:

First, we have to know pen’s spatial orientation in order to

withdraw the earth gravity component to the measured
accelerations.
Second, we have to succeed in the double integration, which is
to solve all the derivation problems due to this method. The
algorithm which is used for handwriting transcription is the
following:

Figure: 1

Figure:2

HANDWRITING RECOGNITION
The second huge aspect is the characters and signatures
recognition. The hardware (accelerometers plus contact
detector) embedded in the pen has proved a really efficient
combination for this application.

METHOD
The same method is used to recognize the characters written
We can see two pictures: by a single user and to find whose signature is the one that has
just been done. We use a simple Euclidian distance as the
Fig (1) represents the acceleration signals recorded while one comparison process, and of course the decision process is the
is writing a small capital B smaller distance found. The first step -1- consists in creating
the reference database for the characters as for the signatures.
Fig (2) is the transcription result obtained with algorithm For this a mean signal is computed for each recorded symbol.
presented. The second step is the recognition process

1. For the creation of database, each symbol was reproduced

several times and a mean normalized symbol was computed.

2. For recognition process, the unknown symbol is first

normalized, the distance between this symbol and the entire
database symbol is computed. Then the unknown symbol is
recognized as the one with the lowest distance.

PROTOCOL
The results shown in this part are for signature recognition but
they are very similar as the one obtained for the character

Volume 5, Issue 03 Published by, www.ijert.org 3

Special Issue - 2017 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
ICADEMS - 2017 Conference Proceedings

recognition .The corpus used for signatures was made by 10 the small 4 line display. Smart-Quill could also scroll through
different signatures from 10 different people. They made 10 pages of display by tilting it in the hand and power off if no
attempts for the database, and 5 others for the test base. In Fig hand movement was detected or pen was flat on a desk. The
1, we can see the accelerometers signals having been recorded demonstration unit given below shows display inverting as
during Yani’s signing process. Fig 2 shows the distances that Smart-Quill was inverted in the hand. The choice of words
are computed between the unknown signature and the one’s in was limited to what characters the LCD display driver could
the database. Yani’s signature was the last one learnt(number beshown while upside down (left hand picture) – only 14 of
10)and we clearly see in Fig 9 that his signature was very well the 26 letters of the alphabet were usable. These 14 characters
recognized. were then processed by anagram software to produce 900
words that used these characters. The shopping list below was
produced from this limited dictionary to demonstrate the text
inversion

V. COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER DEVICES

In early age Smart-Quill models developed by BT laboratories
Fig (1)
communicated with the PC via a radio transmitter, but now the
In Figure 3, the X-axis represents the different symbols of the current prototype hooks up to a PC via a cable and electronic
database, and the Y-axis is the distance from the unknown docking station called an "inkwell." .The data stored in the
new symbol to the one’s from the database. memory part is uploaded to the personal computer when it is
placed in to a docking station. An electronic docking station is
a small cabinet to which a laptop or notebook computer can be
attached for use as a desktop computer; usually have a
connector for externally connected devices, such as hard
drives or scanners and ports that can be linked to components
such as keyboard, monitor and printer. It can also be
connected to printer, modem or mobile phones to send data
electronically. The signals given by the output accelerometer
from the pen are digitized with a National Instrument capture
card with a frequency Fe of 1000Hz and a low pass filter at
Fc=1/3*Fe .
Future models could receive e-mails and pager messages via a
wireless messaging system .This enables two-way wireless
communication with other computing devices.

VI. MEMORY
Initially Smart-Quill has 4MB EEPROM memory. At a time,
up to 10 pages of notes can be stored locally on this pen. The
data is stored in the memory on the pen until it is uploaded to
the personal computer. Smart-Quill works by measuring the
pen's movements and matching them to the movements that
Figure: 3
produce letters and words programmed into its memory. It's
similar to the way a microphone detects sound input given to it.
IV. DISPLAY SCROLLS BY TILTING SCREEN
By tilting the pen, user can choose applications and scroll
through them without using the scroll buttons. Below is an VII. POWER
image of Smart-Quill tilting Screen designed by Lyndsay Smart-Quill is powered by AAA battery. It will run for about
Williams for BT Labs in 1997. The pen would align text if it 25hrs on a single AAA battery. The pen exhibits automatic
was held in left or right hand so the text was the correct way power on/off system. The pen will power down after a period
up for left or right handed people. This was done by using of no movement. So it supports automatic on/off system.
Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) tilt sensors to
measure tilt angle to earth. The Smart-Quill microcontroller
gets the angle and then mapped the large screen display onto

Volume 5, Issue 03 Published by, www.ijert.org 4

Special Issue - 2017 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
ICADEMS - 2017 Conference Proceedings

VIII. APPLICATIONS REFRENCES

1. Smart-Quill isn’t all space-age. It contains an ink cartridge [1] RNRT Stylocom project, notification n 0250016
so that users can see what they write on paper .Hence a simple [2] E.Millien, C.Roux, “Users input to design of a “communicating
application of Smart-Quill is that it writes notes on paper. This pen”,SmartObjects Conference,2003
information recorded in the pen is then downloaded to PC. [3] R.Baron, R. Plamondon, “Acceleration measurement with an
instrumentedfor sign verification and analysis”,IEEETrans.Vol
2. The information stored in this pen can be input to other IM-38oto Website: www.anoto.com
devices such as mobile phones, printers, modems, desktop [4] BT Website :www.smartquill.com
computers etc for different applications. [5] B.Milner, “Handwriting Recognition using acceleration based
3. It also provides handheld computer applications such as motion
digital diary, contacts, calculators etc. [6] detection”,IEE ref.1999/041,1999
4. It is used for receiving pager and e-mail messages. This is
possible through recent technology involved in Smart-Quill,
the wireless messaging system which allows two way
communications between devices.
5. Smart-Quill synchronizes files, e-mails and messages to PC.
6. Smart-Quill can be used for voice record and supports
speech recognition. Voice record is made possible through
ADPCM speech compression.
7. Smart-Quill also allows third party to add on applications.

IX. ASSETS
1. One of the major assets is that Smart-Quill does not need a
screen to work. This is possible through revolutionary "Spatial
Sensing" system which uses semiconductor accelerometers.
Accelerometers senses pen/hand movement instead of shapes.
2. Smart-Quill provides intuitive user interface.
3. Security – Security is another important feature. It is made
possible through two facilities:
a. It enables handwriting recognition .User can train the pen to
recognize a particular handwriting style. The symbols
regularly used by user get stored in the memory, by frequent
use of the pen. Hence the pen accepts only the owner’s
handwriting and rejects intruder’s handwriting.
b. It enables signature verification. Hence Passwords could be
entered in the form of signatures.
4. The Smart-Quill is also a 3D-mouse, when twisted in air in
a certain way it enables scrolling of the screen. It also
automatically detects left or right handed use.
5. Power saving
a. Small screen size requires less battery power.
b. No movement of the pen causes auto power down
6. Smart-Quill is all mobile, smaller in size and enables one-
handed use.

X. CONCLUSION
Smart-Quill will be brought to the market by the end of
2004.The estimated cost of this futuristic pen is around
$200.SmartQuill supports two factors: small size an
convenient use. The future of Smart-Quill ensures all
computation power the user needs right inside the pen.
Reducing the size of handheld computers can only be taken so
far before they become unusable. Keyboards become so tiny
you require needle-like fingers to operate them and screen that
need constant cursor controls to read simple text. The
introduction of Smart-Quill is the best solution for this
problem.

Volume 5, Issue 03 Published by, www.ijert.org 5