Sick of Typing? Sick of Transcribing? Try a Cyborg Pen!

February 03, 2009

Okay -- I'll admit it. I have a relationship with writing. But it's a love/hate one. You see, I fill up an analog book full of notes every single week. That's roughly 80 pages of content a week in written form. In addition to that, I create about 5-10 text documents per day that have thoughts and ideas in them.

Cool...So?

There's just one little problem. Some of my best thoughts happen on paper. They don't happen on the screen. And unlike the screen, paper doesn't have to be plugged in or loaded or saved. And it doesn't run out of batteries. Sure -- it can give you the occasional paper- cut or two, but on the whole paper is pretty nice. Plus, you can draw sweet diagrams all over it.

A Transcription Nightmare

So what's the problem with paper? Well -- I don't digitize it. I write it, think about it, store it, and let it sit. I can't get it into a usable format because it is non-electronic. You can't embed a link in a paper document. You can't click on a source and get taken back to the original page it was on.

Enter the Cyborg Pen

My friend Mario met Livescribe employee Greg Wong at a trade show in California last month and called me up excitedly. "This is totally something you'd be into!" he shouted, "it's a pen that records your writing! And audio at the same time! Sweet!". I told him that ever since I first began using notebooks and carting them around with me everywhere, people had advised me to use some sort of recording pen device.

But I'm stubborn. I like my tools. I've optimized them for, well, optimial use. Who am I to try a newfangled piece of junk? But my anthropological side won out. I had to try the pen. I E-mailed Greg and received a message back two days ago.

Happy Trials?

Now I'm waiting for a 30-trial product thing, which will be sent to me in the mail...soon. Apparently, the pen can record audio and written data at the same time, and also play back the audio that was recorded at the time of the words -- when you move the pen over previously written words. That, I think, is pretty fascinating and useful too.

So much of one's ability to remember an event is lost just hours after it happened. To record two data streams at once (writing and speaking) might aid in memory. So now I'm waiting for this futuristic pen to arrive on my doorstep. Then I'll test it out like mad and report every bitty detail back here. It's going to be an interesting 30 days. Maybe I can trick them into letting me bring it to SXSW Interactive this March.

Who is behind Livescribe and when was it founded?

In case your brain is wondering, Livescribe was founded in January 2007 by Jim Marggraff, an entrepreneur and the inventor of paper-based computing, including the LeapPad and Fly Pentop Computer. Sweet? Sweet.

What Do You Think?

Do you have one of these pens? If you had one, would you use it? Do you think it sounds useful? If so, let me know. Else, how am I supposed to know what I'm getting into? Seriously. I'm totally curious. If you don't like comment boxes, try me on Twitter @caseorganic

Comments

[MercuryPDX]

I just heard about these this morning. I'm very interested in learning how well it handles drawing/doodling.

[Sirklick]

First ran into this concept a few months ago, but was put off by the requirement that you use their paper. The proposed usefulness is somewhat exciting; I look forward to hearing what you think about it.

[Brennan Novak]

Sounds pretty wicked sweet cool. Keep me posted. If it works I'll be all over it like bees to honey....

[Kenji Kurita]

I love the pen. It has saved my life in school because now even the whale I draw with the cartoon face of my professor contains useful information and speaks to me in his voice.