Using state-of-the-art hardware, experts at Cam Systems have developed an affordable electronic ballpoint ink pen, which allows a workforce to capture information on paper at one location and transmit it via a Bluetooth enabled device, to another.
The so-called Cam-ePen system is expected to be particularly popular with tyre dealers providing on-site service and roadside breakdown assistance. It will also play an important role in capturing workshop records and job cards or timesheets, in fact practically anything that is currently being documented on paper can be adapted. It means paperwork based reports and signature authorizations can be completed instantly with real time data exchange linked to a central data management system.
The ePen uses a tiny built-in digital camera to register the pen’s movement across the surface of the paper, storing the user’s handwriting as series of map coordinates. When completed, the user ticks a special boxed area on the form with the ePen, which instructs the pen to send the stored data to Cam Systems’ secure web based application network via GPRS, for processing. The digitally captured information from the ePen is then mapped onto an electronic image of the paper form which results in an exact of copy of the handwriting.
Each form has a unique identification number which is transmitted along with the data; the Cam application network identifies this number and automatically knows which form to select from the template list.
Once processing is completed, the form is delivered via internet connection to the customer’s central database for final processing. For the mobile worker, it’s an automated process that starts with filling out a familiar job sheet and ends when the completed form arrives at the back office. A message is then received on the user’s mobile phone confirming that the information has been sent successfully.
Simon Gilchrist, Cam Systems product development coordinator, explains: “Many sectors of the tyre industry are still heavily reliant on a paper record system, which makes the introduction of the digital ePen a real breakthrough. It means that real-time job tracking, billing and other paperwork based processes can be transformed electronically, saving huge amounts of administrative time and greatly improving efficiency.”
It is hoped that the Cam-ePen is the start of an exciting development project which will achieve complete electronic communication between a company’s head office and its remote staff. The next phase will be to move forward utilising the ePen and paper technology in combination with Smartphone and PDA technologies.
“The current process we’ve introduced with ePen is a one-way system where the mobile worker sends completed paperwork back to the head office for processing,” says Simon Gilchrist.
“By attempting to integrate Smartphone technologies with the ePen we could eventually provide two-way digital form technology, allowing the mobile worker to complete paperwork on-site, send it back to the office electronically and then be automatically instructed to the next job by text message. All job information, customer details and even job location information such as postcode or GPS location, will be transmitted to the Smartphone/PDA from the office,” he adds.
