A Pen That Works on Paper and Your Laptop?

Years ago, Microsoft proclaimed that the future of the notebook PC was the tablet PC. It was envisioned as a sleek slate designed exclusively for input with a digital stylus -- but customers demanded that they have keyboards like traditional notebooks.

The Siso Tablo from Hantech is a pen-like device that turns any laptop computer into a tablet PC.

(Courtesy Hantech Corporation)

So they changed it. The screen could swivel around and be folded back on top of the keyboard, resulting in a relatively fat tablet.

But tablet PCs were more expensive than their non-touch versions, and they were soon relegated to niche status, despite their usefulness.

Because tablet PCs need to have a touch-sensitive screen installed when they are produced, you haven't been able to add that function after you bought one.

Probably the product that came the closest thing to doing that was the IOGEAR Digital Scribe, which allowed you to control the cursor and "write" on the screen by moving a digital stylus around a piece of paper.

Tablo Can Be Used Directly on PC's Screen

Hantech, though, has now released the SiSo Tablo which, in addition to working on a piece of paper, can be used directly on the PC's screen like a stylus. To do this, Tablo includes a USB device that looks like a miniature desk lamp that attaches to the top or sides of a PC screen. It tracks the movement of its stylus using ultrasound; the stylus requires three tiny batteries, each the size of an aspirin.

Tablo ships with Microsoft software that makes Windows think the PC is a tablet PC and allows all the tricks that a tablet PC can do, including handwriting recognition.

Tablo can be handy for creating a quick diagram, sketch, or signature inside a document. It could also be useful for filling out a large number of check boxes on digital forms. And because it works with so wide a variety of notebooks, Tablo offers you more choice in terms of PC configuration.

For example, Tablo can be used with inexpensive netbooks with 10-inch screens, whereas most tablet PCs have larger screens -- and the extra weight that comes with them.

But the overall experience of the device needs work. First, rather than simply clipping to the top of a laptop like a webcam, the Tablo receiver requires a tiny magnetic ingot that must be stuck to the laptop's surface and must be removed when the laptop is closed.

Use Fingerprint scanner to ensure your computer security

what's a Fingerprint recognition ?

Fingerprint is on of the most used method to identify an individual and verify their identity , this biometric technique can be automated method to distinguish between two human fingerprints .

what's Fingerprint scanner ?

A fingerprint scanner system has two basic jobs -- it needs to get an image of your finger, and it needs to determine whether the pattern of ridges and valleys in this image matches the pattern of ridges and valleys in pre-scanned images.

There are a number of different ways to get an image of somebody's finger. The most common methods today are optical scanning and capacitance scanning. Both types come up with the same sort of image, but they go about it in completely different ways.

The heart of an optical scanner is a charge coupled device (CCD), the same light sensor system used in digital cameras and camcorders. A CCD is simply an array of light-sensitive diodes called photosites, which generate an electrical signal in response to light photons. Each photosite records a pixel, a tiny dot representing the light that hit that spot. Collectively, the light and dark pixels form an image of the scanned scene (a finger, for example). Typically, an analog-to-digital converter in the scanner system processes the analog electrical signal to generate a digital representation of this image. See How Digital Cameras Work for details on CCDs and digital conversion.

The scanning process starts when you place your finger on a glass plate, and a CCD camera takes a picture. The scanner has its own light source, typically an array of light-emitting diodes, to illuminate the ridges of the finger. The CCD system actually generates an inverted image of the finger, with darker areas representing more reflected light (the ridges of the finger) and lighter areas representing less reflected light (the valleys between the ridges).

Before comparing the print to stored data, the scanner processor makes sure the CCD has captured a clear image. It checks the average pixel darkness, or the overall values in a small sample, and rejects the scan if the overall image is too dark or too light. If the image is rejected, the scanner adjusts the exposure time to let in more or less light, and then tries the scan again.

If the darkness level is adequate, the scanner system goes on to check the image definition (how sharp the fingerprint scan is). The processor looks at several straight lines moving horizontally and vertically across the image. If the fingerprint image has good definition, a line running perpendicular to the ridges will be made up of alternating sections of very dark pixels and very light pixels.

If the processor finds that the image is crisp and properly exposed, it proceeds to comparing the captured fingerprint with fingerprints on file. We'll look at this process in a minute, but first we'll examine the other major scanning technology, the capacitive scanner.


Fingerprint scanner features:
_Physical attributes are much harder to fake than identity cards.
_You can't guess a fingerprint pattern like you can guess a password.
_You can't misplace your fingerprints, irises or voice like you can misplace an access card.
_You can't forget your fingerprints like you can forget a password.