Touch screens are hot commodities these days due in no small part to the popularity of smart phones, and other hand held devices. But will that popularity translate into pen functionality on larger displays like laptops or even desktop monitors? KCI Communications, a Lake Zurich, IL based company specializing in mobile surveillance solutions thinks so and is launching its "Duo" touch conversion system and pen.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

Here’s the recipe: combine new "infrared and sonic wave technology", add a slick new USB interface to a PC monitor or laptop, then mix with the pen tablet software suite that comes loaded on MS Vista or Windows 7. The result? - a stand-alone tablet PC or monitor that replaces the mouse with a pen input.

So what is the value proposition? Here’s the marketing speak on the KCI technology straight from the company press release:

"The "DUO" is revolutionizing the industry by allowing PC users to write and capture notes on the fly. Business meetings, lectures and onsite customer visits are done effortlessly with the use of DUO to capture notes, customer specs and other important information gathered during those meetings. Duo integrates directly with Windows Vista and Windows 7 tablet software which enables you to either capture characters in your own handwriting or automatically turn them to ASCII characters for clear, easy reading. DUO also integrates with Microsoft Office ink annotator to allow writing, such as signatures, directly on the document. The easy USB "plug ‘n play" set up allows even the most novice user to install the system in minutes."

Well we’ve been "revolutionized" by the pen before and many of us still have Windows for Pen Computing T-shirts, jerseys and even a pair of tennis shoes (yes tennis shoes) left over from the mid-90’s WinHEC conferences (…anyone else remember this?) when Bill Gates was going to change the world with the pen interface.

For the most part, the technology never caught on as a mainstream input device for applications beyond graphic arts and some niche applications like medical and other field data capture apps. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big believer in the benefits of pen computing, and do have a Wacom 4×5 tablet on the desktop, as a mouse substitute. Turns out this little bugger saves me from wrist and neck pain because the hand rests and controls the pen in a natural position on the tablet. Double tap is the same as a double click, and resolution is so high, a single swipe of the wrist can cover the real estate of two 17-inch monitors with ease. But input directly on a vertical monitor or laptop can be an ergonomic nightmare. As for tablet PCs the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, IDCs numbers as 1.4% of the global portable PC market (section B2) in a story about Steve Jobs back at work on the new "iTablet."

Also going for the new device is the pen infrastructure, including handwriting recognition, available in Windows operating systems—now quite robust… (and yes folks have different tolerance levels for this.) Taking the MS tablet PC software on Vista for a spin recently (using my pen tablet not "Duo") yielded remarkable accuracy even for my scrawl—it was impressive. But the idea of writing as a more efficient way to input text data on a desktop or laptop device for mainstream users is simply not true.

So, will the simple to install and easy to use Duo pen input technology revolutionize the way we use a computer? Probably not, but the technology could go a long way to getting folks familiar with pen gestures, annotation directly on documents and bring to light all the thousands of person hours dedicated by Microsoft and others in the development of this outstanding software technology, now going dormant on 98.6% of global portable PCs. Perhaps a targeted campaign focused on meeting annotation and virtual whiteboard apps would gain some traction, it’s cool for gaming and generally, making UI software fun again. But don’t look for a desktop or laptop "revolution" from this technology any time soon.