I was recently roaming the isles of a Target (something I do when I need to step away from work for awhile to clear my head though the store may vary) when I ran across a display for a fancy electronic pen called the LiveScribe Pulse [1]. I gave it a brief glance, wondering if it was a new model of the Logitech IO pen. I had been interested in the Logitech IO for some time, but there was just something missing that kept me from making that final leap and spending much more than I ever thought possible on a pen. I briefly perused the display then continued on my way.
A short while later I found myself back at the display examining it further. I discovered that this pen not only electronically stored what was written (on special paper, of course) but also could record audio at the same time; effectively linking the audio to what was written. “That’s it!” I said to myself (probably out loud). “That’s what the IO was missing.” I thought back to all the design meetings I’d attended in the past few weeks where someone scribbled an indiscernible diagram on a sheet of paper and sent me away to implement the scribble in code. This pen would give me the ability to synchronize the scribble to a slightly more intelligible conversation that occurred at the same time. I was hooked. I had to have one.
It has been several weeks and I must say I am impressed. The pen does an amazing job capturing my writing and the text recognition that allows me to search anything I’ve written handles my penmanship quite well (though I must admit I focus on writing legibly to make searching easier). The audio quality is surprisingly good, even when using the microphones built into the pen. The pen comes with headphones with microphones built into them that get much better quality, but it can be awkward to carry them around.
The pen also has a few silly software additions to it; like a mode that allows you to draw a piano then actually play it or a mode that translates basic words into another language. I say they’re silly, but what they do is demonstrate the amazing power of the pen that will be unleashed as third party applications (hopefully) start to pop up for it. As much as I would like to contribute, I doubt I’d ever have the energy to care to write an application for the pen.
I am somewhat jealous that I did not have such a pen back in college, and I can see a HUGE potential for such a pen in the classroom. Even when I had a laptop available (which even today can be a problem at some schools due to lack of available power options) this pen wins hands down. It is light, has more than enough power to last through a day of note taking, allows for natural, free flowing note taking, and synchronizes the audio to what is being written. The audio is invaluable in of itself, but that can easily be done with cheaper recorders. However, to have it synchronized with the notes just blows me away.
The only thing the pen is really missing right now is ability for the software on the computer to transform what has been written into actual text (or graphics in the event of a diagram). It already has the text recognition built in which allows the searching of notes, but the graphical text cannot be transformed into something that can be pasted into a document. It is possible to capture the entire page as an image, but I would prefer to select an area to either transform into text of copy as an image. I suspect it is only a matter of time before the feature is added.
So if you’re a student or someone who really relies on notes and could benefit from synchronized audio then this pen is for you. It’s not entirely cheap, but well worth the investment. A student may really benefit from the higher capacity 2GB version, but a business professional can probably get by with the 1GB version (thus saving $50 at current prices).
[1] http://www.livescribe.com/