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Artists have a new tool that will undoubtedly open new windows of creative power and ability. The new Scribble pen gives them the capacity to portray real world colors, like for example an old Wooden door, a rare flower, a classy lipstick, you name it. The pen has a special RGB sensor at one end that can be placed in front of any object, then store that object’s color in the pen. Artists are not the only beneficiaries of this invention, interior designers could use the pen to scan and save exact color samples to present to their customers.

Very soon there will be two different Scribble pens: the first comes with an ink cartridge that is perfect for drawing the captured color on paper, and it does so by putting the right mix of colors into the tiny mixing chamber inside the pen before it is put on paper. The colors are mixed inside the pen from the existing color cartridges it has: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, and White. The second pen is used on mobile devices with the help of the Scribble+ app.

Both have Bluetooth and Micro-USB cables to communicate with external devices (computers, phones, tablets, …). The Scribble pen uses 16-bit color sensors to scan and sample the world, can collect up to 100,000 different colors in the 1GB onboard memory in the pen itself, and can reproduce the equivalent of 16 million colors.

The two individuals that invented the device, Mark Barker and Robert Hoffman, are soon launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Scribble pen. If you’re interested, you can get a 20% discount on the website off the planned price of $150 for the ink version, and $80 for the stylus.

If the Scribble Pen works as well as its creators claim, it will open up new possibilities and can take a big chunk out of the pen industry. Yet without current evidence, it’s an impressive looking device with huge potential. A similar but definitely bigger comparison would be what iPads, Kindle Fires and other tablets did to the book industry...

The smart pen industry is quite competitive, even though it lacks the excitement and anticipation of the smart-watch business. Adobe recently entered the space with its “Mighty” stylus:

Another interesting smart pen is called Livescribe, which offers pens that essentially scan your words as you write, and it works with Livescribe dot paper to capture everything you write and draw. So you can record everything you write and hear by tapping anywhere on your notes to replay the audio from that moment in time. Recorded notes and audio are wirelessly and automatically sent and securely saved in your Evernote account. The exclusive Livescribe plan for Evernote includes 500MB of additional upload capacity for smartpen notes and audio.

Even Apple is always looking into smart pen technology.

So, how about you? What would you use this power pen for? Let us know in the comments below.