While the written word has taken great leaps in recent years with the advent of computer-based publishing and the global dissemination of text across the web, the humble pen is more or less the same device it has ever been. Now the consumer electronics company Philips says it has a breakthrough that could change the way we use pens forever.What the standard pen does not do so easily, Philips notes, is record the mood of the writer at the moment of writing. So it has developed a pen with sensors in its shaft that detect physiological factors, such as heart beat, blood pressure, skin temperature, and finger pressure.
