Livescribe™ Smartpen User Guide
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Livescribe™ Dot Paper
The smartpen provides both audio and visual feedback, powerful processing capabilities, and
substantial built-in storage. The smartpen integrates several components and technologies. It also
uses firmware and application software to support the interaction of all of its components and to enable
built-in handwriting recognition, and applications such as Paper Replay™, among many others.
When you power on your Livescribe smartpen and begin writing on Livescribe™ dot paper, the
smartpen captures and stores the notes you write. To capture your writing, the smartpen uses its built-
in infrared camera to take digital snapshots of a special dot pattern on the paper as the tip moves over
the paper while you write. See
Livescribe™ Dot Paper on page 2
for information about the dot pattern.
When recording audio in a Paper Replay™ session, the smartpen links the recorded audio to your
notes based on the dot pattern on the page. With this information, the smartpen can play back the
audio that was recorded at the exact time you were writing your notes. Specifically, when you tap on
your notes with the smartpen, it locates the position where you are tapping and starts to play back the
audio at the position linked to that paper location.
Livescribe™ Dot Paper
To perform its many operations, your Livescribe smartpen requires Livescribe™ dot paper. This paper
is standard paper with printed microdots on its surface. These dots are nearly invisible to the human
eye. However, the smartpen can easily see these dots and uses them to know which page you are
writing on and the exact location on that page. The smartpen can even see these dots through the ink
you write on your pages.
The microdot pattern on each page is based on technology from Anoto AB. This dot pattern consists of
small dots (100 micrometers in diameter) arranged with a spacing of approximately 0.3 mm. The dot
pattern overlays an imaginary square grid. The dots are slightly displaced from the grid, with each dot
in one of four possible positions, forming the proprietary Anoto dot pattern.
The dot pattern identifies the specific page and locations on the page of the notes you write. Your
Livescribe smartpen uses the dot pattern in a way similar to a geographical positioning system (GPS).
But, instead of identifying locations on land, it finds locations on paper and stores your writing as digital
