Bill Buxton's Notes

This is a pretty amazing device that was released by Sony in 1996 (only in Japan). At first glance, it has a lot in common with later Tablet-PCs. In fact, it uses the same Wacom pen technology as the majority of tablet PCs today.

What made it very unusual was that there was a button on the side that pops out a slot along the base of the device, below the screen, where you can feed a sheet of paper. It is the paper feed for a built-in scanner. You run up to an 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper through, and bingo, it appears on the screen where you can read it, email it, or annotate it with the pen. This integration of capabilities, coupled with extraordinary industrial design for the time, represents a very strong effort to bridge between the physical and digital worlds.

Bill Buxton
April 2011

Device Details

Company: Sony | Year: 1996 | Original Price (USD): $1850