Patent ID: 8570307

Claim:
An electronic writing instrument comprising: a writing unit that writes down on a medium where a code indicating identity information and location information of the medium is formed; an emitting unit that emits light to the medium; a photoelectric conversion unit that includes a photoelectric conversion element receiving a reflected light from the medium by the light emitted by the emitting unit and outputting an electronic signal after converting the reflected light by photoelectric conversion; a receiving unit that receives a user operation; and a condition changing unit that changes, in response to the receiving unit receiving the user operation, at least one of: an emitting condition of the emitting unit from a first emitting condition in which light is emitted to the medium to a second emitting condition in which light is emitted to the medium; and an output condition of the photoelectric conversion unit when receiving the reflected light from the medium, wherein the condition changing unit changes the at least one of the emitting condition and the output condition to thereby change from a writing mode to a reference information acquiring mode in which the electronic writing instrument acquires identity information and location information of the medium with lower error recognition ratio per image than when in the writing mode, and wherein the electronic writing instrument further comprises: an acquiring unit that acquires a code image formed on the medium, wherein the acquiring unit, according to the operation received by the receiving unit, switches between a first acquiring mode and a second acquiring mode, the first acquiring mode acquiring the predetermined number of code images per unit time with a predetermined image size, the second acquiring, mode acquiring the number of code images per unit time smaller than the number of the code images per unit time in the first acquiring mode, with an image size per acquired code image larger than the image size per acquired code image in the first acquiring mode.