If users won’t move from to paper to digital technology, why not digitize the paper itself? That approach, taken by Talario LLC’s Xpaper signature-capture system, creates a digital copy of the physical document without requring it to be scanned.
Xpaper includes a digital pen and paper that carries a unique identifier and a grid pattern that orients the pen on the page. “You print on our special paper, and when you write with our pen and dock it, you get a digital copy,” says Tim Aughenbaugh, president of Brookings, S.D.-based Talario. The user creates a form in any Windows application and converts it to PDF format. When the signature is captured, it is embedded into that document.
Xpaper isn’t a substitute for a signed document but supplements it, says Aughenbaugh. Xpaper creates a digital image in one step, eliminating the need to scan a document. And unlike a scan, the PDF file containing the signature is searchable. The technology is innovative, but at 15 cents per sheet, “I wonder if it isn’t a solution in search of a problem,” says Merilyn Dunn, an analyst at InfoTrends/CAP Ventures.
But the technology is ideal for some transactions, says Aughenbaugh: “We can retain the paper and gain the efficiencies of reporting faster or being able to bill faster.”
