I'm new to this list ... in fact somewhat new to low level coding for
the Mac. Some time ago I received as a gift a Logitech Digital IO
Pen. It uses Anoto technology to capture writing inside the pen and
later download it to a computer to be stored, printed, OCR'ed into
text, etc. Unfortunately as is usually the case it is only
compatible with Windows. I have used this pen for some time under
VPC. But my general frustration with this process and my desire to
live as MS-free a lifestyle as possible has convinced me to explore
the option of writing my own device driver for this pen and download
the data directly.
This process is complicated by two distinct problems:
1) I am VERY new to this level of programming (having come from the
dot-com world of java enterprise class software). I have done a
little bit of device driver work under VXWorks ... but I'm completely
new to unix kernel level programming.
2) I cannot find ANY information with regards to the protocol that
this pen uses. I have been packet sniffing under VPC to get a feel
for what's going on. But so far it's a bit undecipherable (either
because of my lack of experience or the complexity of the tool in
VPC). I will be doing more research into this.
What I was wanting to ask is if anyone has tried working with this
device before. Or if anyone might have a lead on the protocols this
pen uses. I already have a lead on how to twiddle with the data and
turn a proprietary ".pen" file into a .pdf ... but it's the getting
the data out of the pen problem I need to tackle first. I am a
hobbiest programmer ... so if this effort turns out to be too much I
may decide to live with what I have. But there is an intellectual
challenge there I'd be will to explore some.
