Have you ever walked out of a classroom, meeting room, conference or the likes, and realize that you have high potential to be a doctor because your handwriting is so illegible, many would call it a “doctor’s handwriting”? Or have you ever read back on your notes that you’ve taken so briefly, you’ve forgotten what it’s all about already or you left it there for too long and can’t recall what you what on earth you wrote? Well, you’re not alone. Most of the time my notes are wasted, I would throw them away because I can’t decipher my own writing and all the writings just look like a bunch of worthless gibberish. What we have here today is a digital pen and paper from livescribe.
What is a digital pen and paper? Well, normal pen and paper except, they’re equipped with some rather fascinating (fascinating to me) technology inside. Don’t look down on the pen, it may be fat, bulky and heavy but inside this very normal looking writing tool are speakers, a mic, a tiny display, a 3.5mm headphone jack and most important of all, a camera. The paper on the other hand is not stained or made to look slightly greenish or grayish; it’s covered in thousands of tiny dots so that when used with the digital pen, it can recognize the exact location of everything you wrote.
Read on to find out more about the digital pen and paper, and find out why I think it’s one of the best things ever invented.
When I first heard about a digital pen and paper I thought, “Digital pen and paper? Haven’t you heard of smartphones and computers???”. Well, it’s different, totally and completely different. First of all, a digital pen and paper won’t add any extra weight to your bag (because you should already carry a pen and a notebook when going for a conference), in fact if it’s going to make any difference, it’s going to make your bag lighter because it’ll eliminate the need of a recording device – yes, the digital pen can record as well. Next of all, you won’t need to learn how to write, anyone can do it and with the digital pen and paper, you can do more than taking down notes for future reference.
If there’s a match made in heaven, the digital pen and paper are definitely the most eligible couple because you won’t be able to operate one without the other. Sure, you can use the pen to scribble on any paper or use any pen to write on the book, but why would you waste such money? Ink and paper is very precious when it comes to the digital pen and paper from livescribe. The paper is specially designed with tiny dots that will be used by the camera on the pen to track what is written on where. This means that whatever you’ve ever written before, as long as the data is still stored in the pen, all you have to do is point the pen back at that specific location and it will be able to recall, be it a voice recording or activating one of the many built-in features.
It’s not just a digital pen and paper that records down things as you write and lets you recall easily, the livescribeDigital Pen and Paper also comes with several other functions for your entertainment purposes. Turn on the piano mode for instance, draw several lines and voila! You have an instrument that will play out the respective tone when pressed. But don’t be too happy yet, you won’t get a full fledge piano, it only supports one octave and you can play it with or without the sharp/flat keys.
Out of the box, the smartpen is installed with a translation application. While having a translation app may not be something new since most smartphones already have some sort of applications that does the same, the Digital Pen and Paper makes it literally as easy as writing with its preinstalled demo version. It comes with several language options such as Spanish, Mandarin, and several more and will be able to translate words as you write them but since this is only a demonstration version, it only support words such as Hello, Goodbye, One – Ten,etc.
In addition to all these features, the smartpen can also be used as a calculator. On every cover of a digital paper, there’ll be a page with a calculator drawn onto it. Using it? As easy as using a physical calculator. furthermore, there’ll also be a portion dedicated to setting up the pen like date and time, volume, language, etc.
Pros
Lets you easily refer back on your notes
Built-in speakers so you won’t need an earphone to operate it
Ergonomically designed that won’t make your hand too tired after writing with such a fat and heavy pen
Easy to use; idiot proof
Translation app very useful especially if you travel a lot and do not wish to carry around a computer
Cons
You can only use their special paper
Ink is very precious because only that specific smart pen will work with the paper
No buttons on pen except for power button – you can’t control the pen at all without the paper designed with the controls on every page.
Who would’ve thought that traditional writing media could be so advanced? Frankly speaking when I first saw it, it was almost like love at first sight. As someone who travels to press conference every now and then, it actually comes in very handy. At any point I’m unsure of what I wrote at a certain area, all I have to do is point back at that location and the smartpen will playback whatever that was recorded at that time. Would I get one? Definitely yes, and I wish such technology was available back when I was in college – not that I’ll use it for work much, just that it’ll look really cool and will come in very handy during last minute studies for finals.
