Top Collegiate Football Programs Adopt CIC’s Pen Computing Technology for Upcoming Fall Season

September 21, 1993 — For the first time this fall season, college football coaches and their assistants will be drawing x’s and o’s, inputting game data and breaking down game film footage to analyze play statistics with the latest in computer technology-pen computing software which allows them to hand write information directly into lightweight, portable computers with pens. No keyboard is necessary.

The University of Pittsburgh, University of Michigan, Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin are already using “Athlepad” for the daily operations of their football programs. Since Athlepad is a pen application, coaches no longer have to know how to type or use a keyboard. Its portability allows coaches to easily carry Athlepad into the press box, to strategy sessions and into various other situations and environments.

Athlepad — the first pen computing application used in the daily operations of college football athletics — was developed by PENtech Inc., a software development company, based in Lansing, Mich. PENtech developed Athlepad using the PenDOS pen operating system and award-winning Handwriter Recognition System software of Communication Intelligence Corp. (CIC), in Redwood Shores.

PenDOS makes DOS applications into pen-aware applications, providing access to handwriting recognition, gesture and inking capabilities, as well as to the full capabilities of the computer formerly available only through the keyboard and mouse.

PenDOS supplements DOS, allowing developers to use the same tools to create pen applications as to create DOS key-board-based applications. This aspect of PenDOS significantly reduced the development cycle PENtech needed to create the Athlepad application.

PENtech also integrated the video editing system of Clearwater, Florida’s Athletech Computer Systems into Athlepad. The coaching staffs are currently using the Athlepad software on a variety of pen computing hardware.

“We expect our staff to save a lot of time,” said Phil Bromley, Video Coordinator at the University of Michigan. “The pen is really effective in enabling us to pull down file libraries or go right to any one of 25 or 26 categories of game breakdown information.

“The interaction is a lot faster. We are using the game breakdown applications on a portable computer and even have direct access to the other software applications we use on a daily basis. That’s new. We’re now able to move around different offices and areas with one machine. It’s all just a lot easier than it used to be.”

In addition to game data entry, PENtech Inc. has also incorporated CIC’s Handwriter Recognition System software and PenDOS pen operating environment in the development of a practice card drawing program.

Currently coaches spend 10-20 hours a week drawing playing cards for practice sessions. Often these time-consuming efforts must be duplicated the following week with small or even no changes.

Athlepad’s practice card drawing program eliminates this duplication completely. The formations, backfields, fronts, coverage and plays are designed once using a method of pointing the pen to the proper area on the screen. The play lines are then drawn and stored for future use. And the plays can be printed on card stock with a laser printer for use during the practice sessions.

Other football programs developed by PENtech Inc. are scouting programs and medical training forms which also use CIC’s Handwriter Recognition System and PenDOS.
CIC will be demonstrating its pen technology and products during Mobile World EXPO, at the San Jose Convention Center, Sept. 21 – 23, in booth 516.

Founded in 1990, PENtech Inc. develops and markets customized software solutions for pen computers. With customers in athletics, medicine, retail, government and banking, PENtech has grown with and become a leader in the pen computer market using a variety of development tools and operating systems. PENtech Inc. is a privately held company based in Lansing.

Communication Intelligence Corp. (CIC) develops, markets and licenses natural input computer technology — products that use pen and image for input. Founded in 1981, CIC today is a leading supplier of pen computing products throughout the world, particularly its multilingual Handwriter Recognition System and Handwriter Dynamic Signature Verification software, and PenDOS and PenMac pen operating environments.
CIC’s products allow existing and new pen applications to operate on all major hardware and operating system plat-forms, including: Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing, GO’s PenPoint and CIC’s own PenDOS and PenMac.

CIC’s PenDOS and Handwriter Recognition System for PenDOS are distributed and exclusively sublicensed by IBM to pen computer manufacturers worldwide. CIC’s MacHandwriter, a desktop pen extension to the Macintosh computer, is distributed by Apple Japan Inc. and others.

CIC is headquartered in Redwood Shores, and has a subsidiary in Tokyo. The company is publicly traded and is listed on the NASDAQ National Market as CICI.

Note To Editors: Company and product names used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT:
Communication Intelligence Corp., Redwood Shores
Germaine Gioia, 415/802-7754
Anne Butler, 415/802-7888
or
PENtech Inc., Lansing
Gregg Robinson, 313/230-1878
or
Alexander Communications
Stacey Wueste, 415/923-1660