Just had a delivery. I was given the two sheet delivery note to sign (my copy, their copy) and a slightly chunky pen. As I signed the pen vibrated. I asked what was special about the pen. Apparently it tells the office where it is and because of the special paper (dotted) the office can read in real time my signature. Never seen this before, is it true or was the delivery guy winding me up?
mark
There are pens that can read the dots on special paper and record the handwriting. Whether they transmit it in real time is another matter.
Ages ago, "Tomorrows World" demonstrated a pen with built in accelerometers which tracked a users signature. The science behind it was that the *way* you sign your name is much more unique than the actual signature itself.
To be honest are signatures used as proof in court cases anymore ? If they ever were ?
My signature on the courier's pen-based touch screens *never* looks anything like my proper signature.
it is, and it is how these things work, minus the GPS tracking bit I would hope!
I have seen the business based ones that the pen has bluetooth, and connects to a phone or PDA, and uses that for the uplink.
If you had a number of boxes to writ in, then it knws what was written where, and with handwriting OCR type software, can then populate a spreadsheet/table etc. automagically ;-)
Oh, mine does. Assuming I'd had a stroke and 9 pints of strong lager.
I don't know what the technology is, but some couriers can certainly transmit your 'signature' back to base in more less real time. If, shortly after delivery, you check the status on the courier company's website, it says something like "delivered to {postcode} at {time}" and includes an image of the squiggle that you made on the little screen.
This is it:-
First minute can be skipped
And I thought it was just me :-)
tim
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