The CrossPad, developed by IBM , is another technology simply awaiting its alpha- consumers. It uses a digital pen that writes with normal ink on paper but simultaneously creates a record of the handwriting. After the strokes are uploaded to a PC, handwriting-recognition software translates the scrawl into alphanumerics. It's totally unambiguous. But the pen stroke, he argues, enables a complexity that the keyboard does not allow.
Much sophisticated information is contained in a quick squiggle in the margins.
Sometimes I want ambiguity. Maybe not in writing, but for art or design it's really important. This technology captures a handwritten style that people have spent their doodling hours perfecting. New interfaces can help the digital slip stealthily into social settings where a keyboard seems clunky and imposing. Landay prefers his digital notepad's versatility.