Imagine ordering flowers over the Internet with nothing but a pen and a piece of paper. Write the word 'Buy' on the paper, and a few words about the type of arrangement, and a voice from a miniature speaker on the pen will provide information from an online store about what kind of flowers are available and any special offers.
The pen then guides you through the whole ordering process, step by step, asking you to write down information such as your address and delivery time.
Science fiction? Hardly. The pen may be available in stores as early as next year.
The technology is similar to the one behind an educational toy pen that was a huge commercial success over the Christmas holidays.
The Fly Pentop Computer, designed by Emeryville's LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. for children 8 to 13, premiered last October and proved to be even more popular than the company's other best-selling educational toys, the LeapPad and Leapster.
The Fly pen was created by LeapFrog and Anoto, a Swedish high-tech company that developed the underlying technology that makes pen and paper digital.
Here's how it works: The digital pen has a small, built-in camera that records what has been written or drawn on custom paper printed with almost-invisible dots arranged on a minute grid pattern.
The Fly pen recognizes its location on the grid as it moves across the paper, allowing LeapFrog to load a variety of functions or learning tools to different areas of a single piece of paper.
The Fly Pentop Computer, priced at about $100, comes with a set of papers preprinted for gaming and education. Children could learn the names and capitals of various states by pointing the pen anywhere on a map of North America

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