"I hate printers―they turn digital things into analog," he jokes, wading through a sea of cubicles at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing, China. Fortyish and lanky, the computer scientist specializes in inventing new computer interfaces to bridge the gap between analog and digital. His own interface, though, is a wide smile, which complements his denim shirt and easygoing manner. Stopping at a desk, Wang picks up a rectangular, silvery pen about the size of a magic marker and scribbles some corrections on a paper document. But this is no ordinary pen. A few seconds later, his comments appear on a nearby computer screen?++ superimposed on the electronic version of the document in the exact spot where he wrote on the hard copy. Wang's pen captures handwriting and lets users make changes to digital files梠n paper. This "universal pen," as Wang calls it, could transform the way people interact with computers. Unlike gizmos that write on computer displays or special pads of paper, Wang's invention uses regular ink, works with regular paper, and lets users combine handwritten text and diagrams with digital content from reports, magazines, and Web pages. An executive on a plane trip, for instance, could mark up a paper copy of a report and later transfer the changes to the file on his or her computer automatically.
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