What the heck is a Smartpen?

I’ve seen this technology mentioned a few times in recent months, but didn’t really know what it’s about. I did a little clicking around the Web to learn more about it.

This is pretty cool technology and it’s going to be really interesting to see how it’s leveraged in the coming years, and how it evolves.
Livescribe is the only maker of this type of product that I came across. Livescribe Smartpens use a little camera and special paper to record what you write, and also have a built in microphone for recording audio. The recorded audio is synchronized to the writing – the system knows what you were writing as you recorded the audio and can play them back together. Audio can be played back using the pen and paper, and the recorded drawing and audio can be played back on a computer, online, or on an iPhone or iPad.