If you get your creativity kicks by putting a pen to paper, or a stylus to your electronic device, but want to do it in the accurate colors of your world, your wish may have just come true. The Scribble Pen uses “smart ink” technology to accurately mix the ink to the color you select with the RGB color sensor scanner at the back end of the pen.
Scribble offers the Scribble Pen for paper, the Scribble Smart Stylus for electronic devices and the Motley Pen for kids. All the Scribble pens have a color scanner at one end and a pen or stylus tip at the other. They come with a selection of drawing tips to control stroke weight. The refillable ink cartridges connect to a smart micro pump that creates the custom color you have scanned when you want it. Colors are coded as Pantone, CMYK and HEX as well as RGB and can be saved to a custom color library.
The Scribble kid’s version, the “Motley”, has the same color sensor and smart ink but with a kid-friendly grip and 4 bright color styles to choose from.
The Scribble Smart Stylus is compatible with iOS 7+ and Android 4.0+. It connects via Bluetooth or MicroUSB. Scribble Pen and Stylus batteries can be charged with the micro-USB cable and will last about 7 hours for the pen, 15 hours for the stylus and 10 hours for the kid’s Motley pen.
The pre-order price for the Scribble Smart Stylus is $119, and $249 for the Scribble Paper Pen. Both come in your choice of 5 colors. The kid’s Motley pen pre-order price is $99 and is available in 4 fun kid colors. You can order any of the Scribbles from their website; thescribblepen.com
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Eak I don’t want to know how much ink will be.
This was on Kickstarter a few years ago, but then they shut it down because people thought the whole thing wasn’t really workable… I wonder if they can really deliver this time…
http://www.cnet.com/news/any-color-on-earth-pen-first-pulled-from-kickstarter-now-tilt/
The ink cartridges are (or will be) $25. The pen holds 5 separate cartridges. Not sure how long the individual cartridges last, their web site said it could write for “30 miles”. Whether that’s 30 miles per color or 6 miles each for the 5 colors isn’t clear to me.
It does sound like techno-magic, but then a lot of things that exist could be considered magic by some standards.
You might want to start from http://hackaday.com/2014/09/04/scribble-and-the-failings-of-tech-journalism/ (and some of the links from the surprisingly civil comments) and see if you can dig up any evidence that they’ve actually even gotten a prototype together in the last year and a half (it includes links that point out just how… “processed” that video is.) I’d certainly *like* to find out they’ve gotten something working – the optical sampling is easy enough (after all, my *phone* can do it at the level they demonstrate) but the ink part is pretty clearly not-at-all-solved at this point.
I don’t see why it’s not possible, just can it be done for a cost people would buy. Sure you can make this for $15,000. buttttt. well most people arn’t going to pay that for a pen,
This Gadgeteer audience is a sharp group. I guess I so wanted this to be real that I didn’t do enough due diligence. Checking it out further, including the Hackaday link provided by _Mark_ (thank you _Mark_), brings up LOTS of questions. Also, the Scribble “Pre Order Now” button has had “1 day left” next to it since I first went there a few weeks ago. Yes, that was a red flag, but my hope was still strong. Suspiciously enough, the Scribble Pre Order form doesn’t include a ship-to address field, though they do say payments will be processed “immediately”. Even worse, the Terms of Service page (how many of us actually wade through all that legalese?) specifically and repeatedly, has variations on this: “We will use our best efforts to ensure that the Products and Services are DEVELOPED, manufactured and delivered to you” (emphasis is mine). IE; it would seem that development is still future, not past, tense.
Another good reason to wait for actual reviews by actual people who have actual products in hand before being the first on the block.
But, hey, it’s good to dream big. Not so good to pre-order a dream. As always, buyer beware.
Scribble pen is referring to your article as a nice article. Sounds like an endorsement. You might want to have Scribble pen take it down. I’m ok with Pre-order so long as you follow thru and don’t jerk people around. I pre-ordered in June of last year. Told Nov delivery. Then told I needed to update my delivery destination and delivery would be December. Then January, February, March 1st and today they tell me they plan on shipping in 2 weeks mid-April. Yeah right. Dispute the charges with your credit card company and get a refund.