The New Pen and Paper
January 29, 2010
Digital pens give contractors the familiarity of a pen and paper but help improve efficiencies by transferring information from the field to software in the office. Trimble, www.trimble.com, Sunnyvale, Calif., recently announced new data transfer capabilities for its line of Trimble Digital Pen Solutions, which are specifically created for construction companies.
The new mobile data transfer application is designed to work with the BlackBerry smartphone from RIM (Research In Motion), www.rim.com, Waterloo, Ont. The information written with the digital pen solutions can be transferred to a BlackBerry smartphone via a Bluetooth connection and then emailed to the office.
A unique feature is the ability for workers to use the pens to write on printed Microsoft Excel forms and PDF files, allowing the information to be integrated into the original Excel and PDF files in the office using Trimble DPS software.
This type of technology marries the traditional way of recording information in the field—using a pen and a piece of paper—with the advanced capabilities of software, allowing information to transfer from the field to the office without the need for users to rekey data.
Adapx, www.adapx.com, Seattle, Wash., released Capturx Mobile, which allows field workers to share data collected on paper using Capturx digital pens with Bluetooh-enabled BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. This will allows construction companies to collect data in that more traditional format—with paper forms, notebooks, or maps and a digital pen—and then send that information automatically to Microsoft Office, SharePoint, or other backend platforms.