I read about this a while ago, but I think my brain must have filed it under 'April Fool' or something, because I forgot all about it until now.
Yes, hugely successful and acclaimed Canadian author, Margaret Atwood has invented something called the LongPen - a remote-controlled pen that allows people to sign autographs from anywhere in the world. The pen is being trialled in a record store and several bookstores in Canada, the US and the UK and could expand elsewhere if successful.
The device comprises a video screen and digital writing pad at one location and a video screen and automated pen at another. Norman Mailer and Alice Munro both used it to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in Scotland, while staying in the US.
If you want to see the LongPen in action, you can find it at World's Biggest Bookstore and HMV in Toronto, Barnes & Noble in New York and Waterstone's in London (or online here). And if you do see it, don't forget to let us know what you think.
[via the London Free Press]
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