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"A new invention by Booker Prize-winning Canadian author Margaret Atwood, a remote-controlled pen that allows writers to sign books for fans from thousands of miles away, is seen during a presentation at London's annual Book Fair, Sunday March 5, 2006." - Link.
Now that Skype, AIM, iChat, MSN and many of the messaging clients support video it might be time for someone to make (or make a kit) that plugs in to your USB that does tele-signing. Any second now I'm expected to see the LEGO version.
One thing to consider, a new type of forgery might be possible - you could get the data being sent to control the robotic arm and reproduce it provided you created a bot with the same specs. I suppose with video storage and a # added to each signature that could be eliminated and everyone would also have a way see what signed number their book is.
The idea is neat, but I'm curious about certain things, from a bibliophile standpoint. How do you tell a personally signed edition from a remotely signed edition? That will always remain important to some people, especially collectors years from now.
And can the machine sign upside-down for lefty authors like Tim Powers? And if they do, again, then how do you know he really didn't sign it. I'd realy like to see some comparisons.
Just some stray thoughts - it's a neat idea with a lot of little implications.
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In the comic strip Buck Rogers, there was a device much like this one. The cartoonist did not anticipate an invention like a fax machine to transmit text, but they had a type of pantograph that would reproduce handwritten notes over distance.
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