Upstart

Cold War making come back in high-tech pen

technology company Digital Ink Inc is using technology that

gives cruise missiles deadly accuracy to develop a pen it says will be able to con vert handwriting into computer text by the year 2000.

Digital Ink, also known as DI2, is using Cold War technology to develop the wire less pen, which will not require a special computer “pad” like existing handwriting recognition tools, the company’s minority owner, Competitive Technologies, said in a statement.

Indeed, the pen would instantly convert

a person’s handwriting on any surface into digital form for further use in a computer or other electronic device.

“The co-founders of DI2 are world class inventors with remarkable technolo gy,” said Peter Holden, an executive at

Competitive Technologies, which helped

DI2 find investors to fund the research required to develop the pen.

“Together, we are adapting their highly specialised navigation and sensor exper tise - which was used to design guidance

systems for cruise missiles in the Cold War - toward the development of a new generation of data input devices for the digital age,” Holden said.

DI2, which began operations mid- August, expects to have a working proto type of the device by the end of the year,

according to Competitive Technologies.

The pen would store the text as it is written.

For example, Holden said a business executive in an airport terminal could jot down ideas on the back of a cigarette pack which would be stored in the pen for later transfer onto a computer, cellular phone or digital watch. REUTERS ■