InstruMMents 01: a pen-shaped wheel that set out to retire the tape measure

A designer who works daily with analog rulers, calipers and tape measures wanted a one-handed pocket tool that measures flat and curved surfaces and does more than a tape.

The pen-like gadget pairs a choice of pen, pencil or stylus at one end with a black rubberized roller wheel at the other. Rolling it captures the dimensions of any object, straight or curved, and sends them wirelessly to a phone as a card with photo and description; the app converts imperial to metric, translates scaled drawings into real-world units, and can blink the laser at predetermined increments for even spacing. It launched as an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.

No sales or funding totals are given; at launch the device was raising funds on Indiegogo, and early users were finding uses beyond design — from bicep competitions to a parent measuring a child.

Mladen Barbaric, founder of design studio Pearl and the industrial designer behind the Misfit Shine fitness tracker and the seizure-detecting Empatica Embrace, was sick of tape measures — unruly, awkward, and hopeless at wrapping around curved surfaces. 'Tape measures haven't changed since 1869,' he told WIRED; outside the computer and phone, the tools of design were 'just archaic'.

His answer is the InstruMMents 01, a multipurpose gadget that looks like a pen and works like a handheld surveyor's wheel. Sensors record the distance the wheel travels in 0.1 mm increments while a laser at the roller's tip visually marks where a measurement begins and ends.

The device does more than measure: it sends dimensions wirelessly to a phone, where they appear as a card with a photo and description; the app converts units and translates scaled quantities on maps or drawings into real-world values for blueprint work. Barbaric says the rolling form factor took a while to find but solved every constraint: small enough for a laptop bag, one-handed, and more adaptable and accurate than a tape. At launch it was raising funds on Indiegogo.

The rolling wheel measures curved surfaces that defeat a rigid tape, which is where tapes are most painful.

Attaching a pen, pencil or stylus makes the tool earn its place in a designer's hand twice over.

Laser endpoints plus 0.1 mm sensors promise accuracy a sagging tape cannot offer.

Sending each measurement to the phone as a photo card turns measuring into a record, not a remembered number.

To replace a 150-year-old tool, don't digitise it — rethink the gesture: a wheel that rolls a surface solves curved measuring, one-handed use and pocketability at once.

WIRED profiled the device on 1 November 2016 while its Indiegogo campaign was live. The article reports no funding totals, shipment figures or retail plans, and hints at unannounced features to come.