FT.com Financial Times
8 August 2008
Get it down on paper first
with pens that remember what you write Microsoft Vista users with a tablet style machine have the option of using a pen to input data, but recently there has been a resurgence of other pen computing devices including the Zpen (below), which I tested recently. It is available from Israel-based Epos ( www.epos-ps.com ) and dane-Elec ( www.danedigital.com ). Most digital pens so far have suffered from various deficiencies: some have been unreliable, fiddly or uncomfortable to hold for long. Others, like Logitech's Io Pen, need special paper. The Zpen - comprising a pen-based scanner and separate receiver that clips on to any normal notebook or pad, where it acts as a reference point for the pen scanner - is comfortable and needs no cord. It works with most PC operating systems, including Windows, Mac Os X and Linux. Operating the battery-powered Zpen is straightforward. As you write or draw, it captures an image of the text that is transferred wirelessly to the receiver. The pen itself can store up to about 1,000 pages of handwriting on its built-in flash memory. When you have finished writing or drawing, you plug the receiver into a PC's USB port, the scanned image is transferred to the PC and some clever software supplied with the pen kicks in. The software retrieves the handwritten images, organising them by date and time and enabling you to send a page as a jpeg or PDF graphic. Perhaps more usefully, you can click a convert button that turns the handwriting into typed text that you can edit in a standard wordprocessor. My handwriting is fairly poor so I am not sure it was even a fair test, but the Zpen did a reasonable job converting my handwriting provided I took a little more care than usual while scribbling. However, I think the Zpen will appeal most to students and others taking notes for personal use who do not require a totally accurate transcript. The Zpen, which costs $99, has one other advantage over most of the competition. It doubles as a 1 gigabyte flash drive, so you can use it for carrying or transferring any kind of file between computers. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0e0145e0-64e1-11dd-af61-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1
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