A pen that may point to the future

(Credit: Big Marketing for Small Business)

We fully admit to having precious little information about this item, but the photo alone is simply too good to resist. According to a blog called Big Marketing for Small Business, "A revolutionary new miniature computer is being worked on in Japan that comes in the shape of a pen that you can slip in to your pocket." It's especially interesting given that the whole concept of "pen computing" became something of a laughingstock years ago, at least until the PDA stylus came along.

This pen-sized device supposedly projects a virtual keyboard and screen, recogizing your typing and commands via Bluetooth. As Plastic Bamboo notes, it's probably just a concept (and not a hoax, we hope). Even so, we can dream, can't we?

[gafisher]

Less than real, more than hoax.

As mentioned, Snopes has tracked down the source as a concept presentation. Nevertheless, there's nothing about this that *couldn't* be done if the market made it worthwhile -- all of the necessary technology exists and in fact is already available separately in one form or another.