Hands-on with the 01: the ‘dimensioning instrument’ that can measure any object

Billed as “the world’s first dimensioning tool”, the InstruMMent 01 looks like a pen, writes like a pen and doubles up as a handheld measuring device. Late last year, its creators raised $464,000 (£374,000) on crowdfunding site IndieGoGo, and last week InstruMMent 01 went on sale at Selfridges in London, advertised on the shop’s website as “the future of design”. It has been described by tech magazine Wired as a gadget “on a mission to finally kill the tape measure”, much to the annoyance of the man behind it.

“We hear this over and over,” says Mladen Barbaric, CEO of Instrumments, at the product launch. “But we’ve never said that we’re trying to replace the measuring tape.” The firm’s repeated reference to “dimensioning” emphasises the distinction from mere measuring – but is it even a real word? “It is. You can look it up,” says Barbaric. “The real scientific definition is ‘quantifying in space’.”

The 01 boasts 0.1mm accuracy, the ability to measure around curves and corners, easy storage and one-click sharing of measurements. It is targeted at designers, architects and engineers who want to capture the measurements of irregularly shaped objects in 3D. It evidently has more widespread appeal: Barbaric reveals that the company’s logs show people using it for, say, tracking the increasing size of a pregnant woman’s tummy, or measuring the excessive head on a pint of beer.

The device measures distances using a miniature trundle wheel embedded in the non-nib end. Roll it across a surface, and the measurement is recorded on a dedicated smartphone app. It is a sleek, attractive gadget; I was keen to test it out by ‘dimensioning’ my kitchen table. Unfortunately, my inability to roll the wheel in a perfectly straight line meant that I got a different width measurement each time. Agh. Do I really have to check the accuracy of the world’s first dimensioning tool by using a tape measure? Doesn’t that defeat its purpose?

Barbaric reassures me that this particular problem will be ironed out in an imminent software update that compensates for human error by straightening out wavering lines. “It does take a little bit of getting used to,” he agrees, “but here’s one thing. If you line up 20 rulers, none of them is the same. They’re all off.”

Its hard to believe I should trust the entrepreneurial Barbaric rather than my old Helix Shatterproof ruler. “You’ve learned to trust the ruler,” he says, persuasively. “But when do you ever measure a ruler?” It sounds as if he does want to kill the tape measure, after all.