If you are one of millions of digital victims out there, it might take you some time to recall when was the last time you picked up a pen and wrote on a paper. It’s hard to imagine how one of our best friends in schools has sunk into oblivion because of the convenience and power that laptops, netbooks, smartphones nowadays offer.
But it does not necessarily foreshadow the end of pen. Instead, it has forced designers and inventors around the world to bring out the best of their innovation, to make the archaic pen design either more powerful or more attractive. Below are 21 of the geekiest designs.
Color Picker Pen Concept
Many ideas have been introduced to bring art closer to nature, but none has made it as close as this innovative concept pen, designed by Korean designer Jinsu Park. This pen allows you to scan any color from your environment and instantly use it for drawing. The color is detected by the RGB Color Sensor inside the pen, then the red, green, and blue inks are mixed together to create the desired color. Unfortunately, like all other awesome stuffs, it is still just a concept.
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Nokia Digital Pen
If you often find yourself frustrated because you have lost the text you’ve scribbled down somewhere, you will love Nokia Digital Pen SU-27W . The pen is able to save whatever you write with the pen on a flat surface in its 1.3 MB of storage, which should amount to approximately 100 regular sized pages. You can then transfer the text to your computer either by USB or Bluetooth and edit all your saved text. Nokia Digital Pen SU-27W is available at $240.
Gigiway Music Pen
Rather than writing down your thoughts, this Gigiway Music Pen will read out loud, or more precisely, sing out loud what has been written. When given the music sheet, the pen uses a light sensor to scan the required music piece and then play it in three different modes to suit the learner. The pen can also be used as a digital metronome and even compare tones to make sure the instruments we are playing are in tune.
Audio Magnetic Ink Pens
The Rec & Play pens record not text, but sound. The system uses 2 pens : the red one records sound on paper, the black one plays it back. The system operates using a reworking of the old ferromagnetic tape technology used to power the cassette tapes of old, with the recording pen drawing a line of magnetic ink and encoding sound data into it through a built-in mic and tape recording head. Understand? Neither do I.
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Sharpie Liquid Pencil
It is hard to say if Sharpie Liquid Pencil is a actually a pen or pencil, as it incorporates both the erasability of a pencil and the permanence of a pen. Using liquid graphite as its ink, Sharpie Liquid Pencil stays erasable for three days before turning permanent
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Endless Ink Pen
Another invention to rub out the gap between pens and pencils, the endless ink pen writes in metal instead liquid. It never goes dull but can be sandpapered for an added point. Like a pen it does not erase and as a plus it not only does not smudge but also writes on glossy surfaces. You can get the pen at $27.95 each.
Multi Functional Multimedia Pen
The name “Multi Functional Multimedia Pen” might sound a little bit fancy, but the Hungarian designer Peter Vardai has created a magnificent gadget that absolutely deserves it. The killer feature of this pen is that its nib is changeable so that you can use it as a ballpoint-pen for sometime, then change it into a fountain-pen or mechanical pencil or even a digital pen.
The Leatherman-Like Messograf Multi-pen
Here comes the pen that any engineering student would kill to have: the Leatherman-Like Messograf Multi-pen that embodies a four-inch Vernier caliper, a metric screw-thread scale and a tire-tread depth-gauge. Plus, its slimy and flashy design will put any multi-tools to shame.
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The Concept Pen Phone
There are few inventions that actually bring human race backward, and Haier’s pen phone is one of them. The concept aims to minimize the size of the phone by stripping off most of its basic functions including texting. With features such as a USB slot, a microSD card slot, and Bluetooth, the pen phone will very likely make you look like James Bond. However, if I have to choose between being James Bond and being smart, I’ll go for the second. That’s probably why the design is still a concept.
Video Camera Pen
With a built-in concealed tiny camera on the pocket clip and a microphone just under it on the barrel, the Sleek Video Camera Pen is a guarantee that any creepy person can now record all embarrassing moments of his/her victims. All you need to do is to slip it into the pocket or put it anywhere innocuously in a private room. It comes at $129.95 each.
MP3 Pen
Feeling bored in class? Just tune your pen to your favorite song and all the boring lecture will be left behind. Dubbed as “3 in 1” pen, this gadget triples as a pen, an MP3 player, and a USB. It uses LED to indicate the mode and battery status. It can be charged through USB or any adapter of US 110-120 V AC outlets. The package comes with earphones, USB male to female cable and a wall outlet adapter at $39.95.
DIGIX USB Ballpoint Pen
If you are looking for something that is cool and geeky at the same time, try this USB ballpoint pen from the Korean company DIGIX. The pen measures 6.1×0.5×0.5 inches and has 1GB of USB storage capacity. It is available in colors of black, pearl blue, red, and silver.
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SDHC Card Reader Pen
Another USB pen but Thanko’s USB pen is 4 times more superior as it houses up to 4 SD card slots. If this fact alone doesn’t impress you that much, how about a 4-in-1 card reader that costs only $14.87?
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Quartz LCD Pen Watch
Quartz pen watch justifies the myth that once upon a time something from 70s can still make a cool gadget for geeks nowadays. Dating from 1979, this watch pen has an LCD at the top that displays time.
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Circuit Board Pen
Believe it or not, this elegant pen is made of a real circuit board, which is fixed on the surface of the pen using an extremely lean coating of custom-lathed acrylic. At a price tag of $80, this circuit board pen lets you admire a touchable circuit board on your writing instrument without threats of cutting your fingers.
Recycled Motherboard Pen
Emerged from the same concept as the circuit board pen above but cheaper and yet uglier, this geeky pen is made out of recycled motherboards from used electronics. Sold at $4.99, this recycled motherboard pen is for illustration purpose only, unless you want to torture your fingers with its horrifyingly sharp edges.
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Gundam’s Fire Arms Pen
In an effort to please Gundam’s fans and humiliate practical science, the Gundam Firearm Pen was created with the shape that looks exactly like those weapons in the anime. Even though the pen does look cool and is fully functional, it is doubtful that this weird-looking gadget is for human use.
Star Wars Lego Pen
A combination of both Star Wars and Lego in a single pen is very likely to make kids scream in joy and make adults want to go back to school. Each of these Star Wars Lego pens is a completely personalized writing instrument, then LEGO pieces are included to build a favorite Star Wars character, then users can add their choice of colors and shapes.
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Swiss Watch Pen
If a fancy pen can really bring out beautiful words, Caran d’Ache’s 1010 is very likely to turn Forrest Gump into Shakespeare. Beyond elegance, 1010 is a tribute to the Swiss watch making industry and this is apparent to the beautiful designs of the watch machinery sketched onto this pen. Under the wing of the Swiss watch brand, 1010 obviously doesn’t come cheap; pricing is from $19,000 and beyond depending on silver or gold coating.
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Doctor Nurse Pen
It is confirmed that doctors have a weird taste. Look at those doctor nurse pens, the red one looks just like a blood filled syringe.
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Butterfly Pen
If you believe that daily tools’ designs often follow the image of human body parts, you will not want to know which part of your body inspires the design of this pen. Even though it is called butterfly pen, the two circles (aka balls) at one end of the pen can make your imagination go wild. Strongly recommend not to use this pen on your first date.
