The invention relates to an active sensing device configured to capture and decode infrared (IR) position tags from a page. The sensing device includes a force sensor photodiode configured to sense when a portion of the device is in contact with the page, and an image sensor configured to image a part of the page proximate the portion when the portion is in contact therewith. Also included is a controller arranged in signal communication with the photodiode and image sensor, said controller configured to control the photodiode and image sensor to capture, decode and encrypt the tags into digital ink data. The device further includes a radio frequency (RF) integrated circuit and antenna configured to securely transmit the digital ink data to a computing system by utilizing a pre-registered session key.