For autograph seekers, the future is here

So now there's an invention that could allow celebrities to stay home for the rest of their lives: Margaret Atwood's LongPen, a remote autographing device that made its debut in London yesterday.

"I think of this as a democratizing device," said Atwood, whose appearances draw hundreds of fans willing to stand in long lines for a word and an autograph.

"You cannot be in five countries at the same time. But you can be in five countries at the same time with the LongPen."

The idea for the LongPen came to Atwood when she was thinking about the electronic signature pads delivery services use to let people sign for packages. She initially thought when you signed one of those pads, your signature was transmitted to some remote location — turns out that's not the case, but Atwood used that idea as the basis for her device. To use the LongPen, the author — or movie star or sports figure or president — signs an electronic pad, and somewhere else a robotic arm writes the message on the book, photo, basketball, autograph pad or whatever. Atwood first tested the LongPen by remote-signing a book in another part of the London Book Fair, then used it to sign copies of The Tent for readers in New York and Ontario.

There are lots of potential applications for the long-distance pen: Authors could conduct book signings in several locations (even several countries) at once, celebrities wouldn't have to risk being mobbed by crazed autograph seekers — maybe we'll even see an "autograph on demand" service someday. We can't help but wonder, though, whether this will somehow devalue our Hilary Duff autograph.