Electronic blackboards already exists, one "only" has to miniaturize...

http://www.freepaten...ine.com/4755882.html

Doing some OCR on it may not be trivial if there is no way to coerce the user into using an adequate way to handwrite, but is already done in an acceptable way by some PDAs

Detecting fields, then, is trivial (pattern matching)

Solved:

http://www.thetechlo...Monday+January+28th/

Well, I'm not suggesting that I'm planning on inventing a new technology - digital pens and digital paper already exist!

It is the implementation of the technology that is the idea.....

Well I'm not sure about regulations: are you allowed to use a digital version that you can easily alter ?

Been done.

Hello Englander,

welcome to the ch community !
i like that idea,you know i never would have imagined that the tecnology to do this was out there already to capture clear handrwirting and interpret that back into digital text.
or am i missing somthing here ?
i have often wished i could get books read to me just by scaning the page somehow as i am a very slow reader.
if handriting can be captured as text... then text can be captured and interpeted to speach couldnt it ?
now i realy would like one of those .
maybe you guys know if thats out there and where i can get one .
all the best jason.

Interesting idea but just a few things.

Archivists hate digital records for a reason; if they choose to store the media containing digital information they must also store the device to read the media. If you are talking about log books that must be kept over the span of years you must be able to ensure that the information is always accessible. That's a tall order. Try running an MS-Dos 3.1 program on a Vista machine.

What is the advantage of your system over a photocopier or scanner?

I agree with Williamanon. I like the idea of a scanner.

done done done....
that being said still you can thrive if you know their weakness and capitalized on it!

so it has been done, ya ya ya.. but where i could get one for 160-400 bucks delivered to my house next week?

uh yeah, steve jobs.. they already have laptops.

* puts foot in mouth *

This could be done differently however, like combine a quasi wacom like pad or tablet, or touch screen (that is LIGHT in weight) that won't have a risk of breaking... you could have your paper copy, and a copy on the touch screen that you can see right there and maybe email it as a jpeg or png.

Hi everybody, thanks for all your comments.

Just to respond to some of the questions, the beauty of the digital pen and paper is its simplicity - you are using the same tools as you were before ( just a little more expensive!) and therefore no training is required.

Also, the end product and digital copy will be in a pdf format or something similar, so there will be no need to rely on and keep any special hardware as the format is something you use every day anyway.

The interpretation of the handwriting is acheived using handwriting recognition software ( currently commercially available ) and the benefits of this system is that the pilot has to write his log book as normal, then simply dock the digital pen. Their records and entries are now instantly available and interpreted and so they spend less time and effort doing this task. This is effectively bridging the gap between existing paper log books and the elog softwares that you see out there today.

Thanks again for all your comments!

My experience of light aircraft flying has been as a passenger only, but I seem to remember that the logbook entries required have a reasonably standard form. This is likely to be the case anywhere an 'official' copy must be kept.

If properly thought-through, this should greatly reduce the complexity of the situation. It's much easier for the computer to work out which of ten different numerical digits you've just written in that box than to OCR a whole page of scribblings and try to decipher them!

If you checked out my link, you'd see that the technology already exists. Wait until March 2008 when it will be released, and then use it to fill out your logbooks, transfer them to PDFs and you'll be done. Problem solved.

My company introduced this idea to the National Health Service as a way for community nurses to record notes from home visits without the need to bring a laptop into a dangerous neighborhood and to have the ability to leave behind a paper version a form whilst sending the digital version to HQ from the digital pen.

Cool idea! What about tying this to governments' increasing focus on increasing transportation safety? I know that they are really cracking down on log book violations in Canada.

It seems to be common practice to fudge log book numbers -- what if your digital service required users to make an entry every 4-6 hours while driving and then automatically uploaded that info to either their employer or a regulatory body? If something like this was mandated or encouraged (maybe drivers/carriers with digital log books could get rewarded somehow) then there could be massive demand for it.