Last month Apple made noise with its announcement of a “pencil” to draw on an iPad Pro; a sort of back to the future moment of sorts, given the iPad’s distant ancestor the Apple Newton MessagePad with its stylus. Similarly, ISKN recently took a step forward by creating a device that retrofits an old school pen or pencil and turns them into input devices for virtually any iPad.

In the above video, Lydie Roure, ISKN Marketing and Communications Manager, explains that a simple, but special magnet, called the Ring, attaches to a pen or pencil which communicates to a drawing surface that sits underneath standard paper or notebook (no special paper is required).

The drawing surface, called the Slate, identifies the location and identity of the pencil or pen (via the ring magnet), records what is drawn on the paper and transmits it to an iPad. If your iPad isn’t around? No problem, the Slate will record your masterpiece, until such a time that the two devices can synchronize.

Using the Imagink app, sketches can be exported into graphic formats (PNG, SVG) and even a video format (MP4) (so one can see the drawing process in action). This could be a great tool for educators, graphic designers and anyone who prefers the use of a real pen or pencil (with zero latency) for transferring thoughts into images and words.