Roaming Around the Mobile Computing Industry

UltraPen at an UltraPrice

Something must be going right for pen tablet manufacturer Wacom Technology because on January 4th they significantly reduced the price of their UP-201 UltraPen from $125 to $59.95. Wacom claims the UltraPen to be the world’s only cordless, pressure-sensitive pen that doesn’t require a battery in the device.

The UltraPen is compatible with the UD-Series graphics tablets from Wacom, ranging in size from its small, new ArtPad, to an industrial-sized 18″ x “25” (457 x 635 mm) tablet. Wacom says that the price reduction is possible because of new manufacturing economies created by increased volume. Clearly, Wacom is hoping that the new price will make replacement and backup pen purchases even more appealing.

The UltraPen is capable of detecting up to 256 levels of customizable pressure that, with Click Pressure settings, enables a person to set the pressure required to register a click. The UltraPen also features a Custom Pressure Curve window which can customize the pen to behave like a hard or soft pen to suit a user’s need.

The UltraPen includes a side switch that can be customized to function as a double click, click lock, shift or option key, keystroke or macro, and more. For more information, please contact Jeff Nichols of Wacom Technology Corp. at (809) 922-6613.

Study Profiles Hand-held User Needs

With the initial flurry of PDA and handheld introductions steadying somewhat, it’s fine time to sit down and reflect about what the industry has done right, done wrong, and not done at all. New York-based Link Resources Corp., a division of International Data Corporation, has just completed a survey of end-user needs worldwide for smart handheld devices and services.

So-called smart handheld devices include personal communicators such as the IBM/BellSouth Simon, PDAs including the Apple Newton, and high-end personal organizers like the Sharp Wizard OZ-9600. Link Resource conducted over 600 interviews with early adopters and suppliers in France, England, Germany, and Japan. Link then took this information and compared it with a similar study conducted earlier in the United States.

Among the findings, Link reports that interest remains high among mobile workers for both pen and keyboard-based handheld devices. However, the market has been characterized by vendors underestimating the technical difficulties in producing marketable devices.

Link predicts that worldwide device shipments of programmable organizers will increase modestly from a 1994 total of $894 million to just over $1 billion in 1998. Link expects the growth in PDAs and personal communicators to be more dramatic, rising from $205 million and $18 million to over $3.1 billion and $3.8 billion respectively. Total shipments for all three classes are expected increase from an estimated $1.1 billion in 1994 to a rather impressive $8 billion in 1998.

The study also determined that users are interested in the connectivity features of a device and less inclined to want another stand-alone piece of hardware. With this in mind, the study forecasts that revenues and profits from handheld devices will largely come from accessories and communication services, rather than the initial hardware sale.

For more information, please contact Michael French of Link Resources Corp. at (212) 627-1500, (212) 620-3099 (fax).

Silanis Manages Signatures

Much has been said about the paperless office, even well before pen computing became a hot topic. While few companies are willing to promise this any longer, the need for advanced electronic document management is becoming a reality as more and more business is being conducted either remotely or locally through electronic networks.

A large number of documents today trace their origin to some electronic form. However, secure document management often means having to verify a printed copy with a personal signature.

Montreal-based Silanis Technology offers an interesting approach to this problem through a system known as ERA, or Electronic Revision Approval. Working within Microsoft Word for Windows or AutoCAD Release 11 & 12 for DOS, ERA users can sign-off on documents electronically and gain the security of paper-based signatures.

Working within popular applications, ERA requires little extra learning on the part of the user. In addition, the signature is secured through DES-encryption making it impossible to copy, cut, or paste signatures from other approved documents. ERA maintains a protected audit file that can be used to track documents and produce audit trails.

For more information, please contact Joseph Silvester of Silanis Technology at (514) 369-4161, (514) 624-4793 (fax).

MicroTouch Advances Touch-Window Technology

It’s a simple fact that innovative companies will continue to find clever uses for the assortment of current pen and touch-based computing technologies. Leading the way is Methuen, Massachusetts-based MicroTouch Systems, a company that seems to have little difficulty in finding marketable applications for its technology.

Most recently, customers passing by the world famous Fifth Avenue children’s toy store FAO Schwarz had the opportunity to browse for products simply by touching the store’s window. Using a technology developed by MicroTouch called ThruGlass, the store’s window effectively became a 24-hour, interactive multimedia merchandising tool.

ThruGlass serves as an advanced input device that is capable of detecting a touch through glass as thick as two inches, whether the person is gloved or bare-handed. ThruGlass uses MicroTouch’s patented projected capacitive technology enabling proprietary sensors to project a low-voltage field through glass or other non-conductive materials.

Shoppers outside the store touch a picture on the store window to make a selection. The ThruGlass TouchPads are affixed to the back of the photos or graphics inside the store window. When the glass is touched, the system detects changes in the voltage field and, through the controller, reports the selection to a computer.

Targa Systems Corporation, a MicroTouch value-added reseller, incorporated a Toshiba multimedia computer and monitor to create the window-based merchandising system. The system, known as Targa WindowShopper, enables all system components to be stored inside the store window making the system ideal for a wide range of situations.

For more information, please contact Gary Hennesy of Targa Systems Corp. at (203) 828-2020, or Annette Petagna of MicroTouch Systems at (508) 659-9000, (508) 659-9100 (fax).

ARM Aims for Asynchronous Processors

People are looking everywhere for faster processors that consume less power. Advanced RISC Machines (ARM), the processor provider to Apple’s Newton PDA and other advanced devices, believes that the answer lies in a new generation of asynchronous processors.

Asynchronous processors, also known as “clockless,” may be one way of lowering the increasing power demands of faster processors. To this end, ARM recently announced that it has entered into a collaborative research initiative with the University of Manchester (U.K.), which will grant the rights to such research to ARM.

The effort is being lead by Professor Steve Furber whose team, in March 1994, successfully produced Amulet1. The processor, billed as the world’s first asynchronous implementation of a commercial processor, was based on the ARM60 core.

ARM claims that certain large chips with straightforward structures are already benefitting from being partially asynchronous. ARM predicts that the ARM810 processor, which is expected in 1995, will incorporate some features taken from the Amulet prototype.

Conventional computer chips require a clock signal to keep everything in step with each other. Having a clock also means that the processor is timed around the slowest operation. Asynchronous chips will require no clock, but instead incorporate additional logic to keep things in order.

For more information, please contact Tim O’Donnell of Advanced RISC Machines at (408) 399-8855, (408) 399-8854 (fax).