Redmill

Even though I’m faster with the keyboard then in writing with the hand I never abandoned my notebook and pencil. Somehow making handwritten notes stimulates my brains. Over the years I’ve used dozens of notebooks which I still keep archived in my office. One day I started scanning my notes but the speed off the scanner was so demotivating that I stopped digitizing my notes.Today there is the best of both world. 

US company Livescribe has set it’s goal to fundamentally change the way people capture, access and share information with pen and paper. The key executives that founded Livescribe in 2007 come from from LeapFrog, Palm, Apple and IBM.  Such a brain collective offers all the ingredients to come with exiting products en services and indeed they do. This year the LiveScribe Smart Pen has come available to the market. The Pulse smartpen is a Montblanc-size computer with advanced processing power and substantial memory for handwriting capture, audio recording, and additional applications. The Smart pen works in combination with special paper with a preprinted pattern of very tiny dots. While taking notes the smartpen’s high-speed infrared camera reads the dot-pattern, which enables a wide range of paper-based applications. The Dot Positioning System (DPS) technology enables interactive “live” documents. What does that mean?

Just imagine, you’re at a meeting and while you’re taking notes the pen not only digitizes every line or letter you draw on the fly but also records all the sounds i.e. spoken words. Both the notes and recorded sound are interactively connected so that when you upload the session to your computer you can read back the notes and listen to whatever was said at the moment you took the note.

To find out yourself how pen and paper have become digital go to the Livescribe website. Currently LiveScribe is only selling direct into the US market but they are setting up international sales as they started offices in Sweden and China. If you cannot wait you can order from Amazon but be prepared to pay almost as much shipping, handling and custom cost as the entire pen costs. Maybe if you really want one this is the time to plan a shopping weekend in New York.