An Innovative Pen That Lets You "Borrow the Colors Around You"

By Andrew LaSane |

Familiar with the Photoshop tool called the eye dropper, which gives an artist the power to pull colors from any background? Mashable recently shared a product called the Scribble Pen that brings that color-matching ability to the real world, using a sensor and advanced internal ink-mixing technology.

As demonstrated in the promo video above, Scribble Pen users press a button while the top of the pen is pressed against an object. When the RGB sensor picks up on a color, the "smart micro pump" inside the pen combines lightfast, water-resistant inks to match what the sensor sees. Then, the ink flows from one of the pen's three available tips. The device is rechargeable and has an advertised battery life of around seven hours. Another model, the Scribble Pen Stylus for tablets, lasts up to 15 hours.

As Mashable and CNET point out, there was a bit of controversy surrounding the technology when it first surfaced back in 2014. After its initial launch on Kickstarter, disgruntled backers learned that they had supported a project that only existed as a concept. Kickstarter gave the team behind Scribble 24 hours to produce a video that showed a working prototype. They declined and moved the project to another crowdfunding site called Tilt. There, they were met with the same criticism and the campaign was canceled. Scribble managed to raise over $594,000 before the cancelations, according to Mashable, but the backers were refunded.

According to information on Scribble's website, the company now has working products to offer—but some are still cautious. "I'm going to remain skeptical until I try one out myself," Mashable product analyst Raymond Wong wrote. "The Scribble Pen sounds amazing, but I've been let down by too many cool ideas that are just that, a cool idea."

You can pre-order the Scribble Pen for $249 and the Scribble Pen Stylus for $119 on the company's site.

Banner image via Scribble on YouTube

[h/t Mashable]