Typing on a keyboard may be faster, easier and cleaner, but there are times when I prefer to grab a pen and take notes by hand the old fashion way. For instance, taking notes in class or a seminar or brainstorming ideas on a notepad. You might argue that there is the Tablet PC for such purposes, but I say, nothing beats the feel of the tip of a pen against the soft paper.
If you agree with my views, there is a gadget for us – Digiscribble. Digiscribble works like an ordinary pen and writes on an ordinary paper. But attached to this ordinary looking pen is a tiny transmitter that communicates with a base unit, a small sensor that clips onto the top of your notepad.
The pen records the movements of your hand as you write and then transmits that information to the base unit. This unit stores the information in its memory and is capable of retaining up to 50 pages of handwritten text or drawings. The base unit can be plugged into a USB port on your PC, and the contents transferred to the computer. This means that you can carry the Digiscribble to your class room or any where you like, write notes like a normal pen and later transfer all your notes to your PC. Watch the video demonstration.
But Digiscribble has one drawback – it merely records an image of what you’ve written on the page and not the actual text. Because of this there’s no easy way of organizing or editing the text of the notes, it merely provides a picture of each page. The pen however comes with a trial version of MyScript, a handwritten recognition software that is said to work pretty well. Windows Vista users can also use Vista’s built-in tablet PC software to convert the handwritten notes into text.
Digiscribble is priced at £70 and ink refills work out at £1 each.
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