Data capture – why is the digital pen such a popular solution?

When discussing data capture solutions, the most common practices used to be manual data entry using a keyboard, scanning and optical character recognition or the use of barcodes.

Today, however, there is another strong contender in the marketplace which is becoming increasingly popular, namely, the digital pen. The digital pen is a device which enables the user to store and transmit handwritten information and drawings to anywhere in the world. The pen looks like an ordinary ballpoint pen and is used in exactly the same way. The paper, however, is overprinted with a series of tiny dots and the penstrokes on the paper are captured with a tiny camera which is positioned in the nib of the pen. Each pen can hold up to 200 A4 sheets of data and the data can be uploaded to an IT system either by docking it with a PC or via a mobile phone.

The major advantage of this handheld data capture solution is that it can be used remotely and is ideal for field workers who are carrying out inspections or surveys. The speed of delivery of the data from time of collection means that processing can begin almost immediately and the field workers do not have to input the information they have collected at the end of the day. Not only does this minimise the number of typing errors but also allows the workers to carry out more visits and earn more revenue for the business than was previously possible.

The digital pen is now being widely used by the health sector, Police Forces, insurance companies, logistics operators and the potential is endless.

For further information on how the digital pen is used as a data capture solution please call The IPC Group on 08081 45 46 47.