2. How The Fly Works

The Fly Pentop Computer depends on a number of technologies to do its thing. Most of these are inside the computer itself. The Fly uses technology from the Anoto Group AB in Sweden, a spin-off from telecommunications giant Ericsson. Anoto doesn't manufacture hardware, rather owns and licenses the specs for pen-based computer pattern recognition hardware. It also licenses the software required for pen-based computer pattern recognition. Anoto licensees who plan to produce products must see to it that required pattern recognition hardware is produced and integrated with Anoto's software. Licensees must also create or purchase hardware and software to support specific functions to be included in their pen-based computers.

The figure below is a slightly modified diagram from Anoto that shows how the technology works. Note that the Fly PenTop doesn't come with a cap as the diagram shows. Rather, the top of the device has a receptacle for plug-in application cartridges (see below). Aside from the top of the pen, the diagram is a pretty good representation of the Anoto technology as implemented by LeapFrog. Follow along on the diagram as I explain what's up inside and outside of a Fly computer.

Anoto's pen computer technology

For the Fly, LeapFrog produced an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) that includes Anoto's optical sensing pattern recognition technology. The ASIC also includes LeapFrog's own audio and compression capabilities. The latter can be found in various forms in the company's speech-oriented products. This technology supports more than 70,000 phoneme-to-speech words that are spoken in a natural way.

The ASIC also provides CPU functionality for the device. In addition, code for all of the Fly's basic applications is stored on-board the pen computer in non-volatile memory. Plug-in cartridges support additional applications. Application cartridges also use ASIC technology and non-volatile memory. Because all basic applications are built into the pen, when you buy the pen you get a dummy cartridge.

User generated data is also stored in non-volatile memory. This data includes information about specific user drawn and implemented applications such as a calculator or keyboard.