More than ink — Realization of a data-embedding pen

In this paper we present a novel digital pen device, called data-embedding pen, for enhancing the value of handwriting on physical paper. This pen produces an additional ink-dot sequence along a written stroke during writing. This ink-dot sequence represents arbitrary information, such as writer’s name and writing date. Since the information is placed on the paper as an ink-dot sequence, it can be retrieved just by scanning or photographing the paper. In addition to the hardware of the data-embedding pen, this paper also proposes a coding scheme for reliable data-embedding and retrieval. In fact, the physical data-embedding on a paper will undergo various severe errors and therefore a robust coding scheme is necessary. Through experiments on data written by two writers, we show that we can embed 32 bits on short and simple or even on more complex patterns and finally retrieve them with a high reliability.

► A pen device for embedding meta-information in offline handwriting.
► Reliable Stroke Recovery using SotA-methods and additional ink.
► Error-tolerant data-decoding by using Reed-Solomon codes.
► 32 bits embedding is possible allowing for various applications.