I need a writing tablet

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   dougwest1posted 2 years ago

   I am looking to speed up my writing process and need a bit of technology to help. I currently write my articles on a piece of paper and then type my handwriting into MS Word on my computer. I am wanting to skip the typing part of the process. What I am looking for is a device that is about the size of a piece of paper that I can write on and it will convert my words to text so that I can transfer them to MS Word on my computer. I am hoping to spend less than $200. I have done some internet searches for this product and am just confused. Any suggestions on such a device would be very helpful.

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      samanthacubbisonposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      You can buy a small iPad and use speech-to-text in any application. I also have a keyboard case for my iPad that I use to correct any errors. (As there usually plenty when you use that feature.)

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   Tanmoy Acharya 100posted 2 years ago

   Hi,
   
   There is a product called Wacom Bamboo Slate. It's priced at about $130. You might find this product interesting.
   
   https://youtu.be/8NWEwUVEyZs

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3. 97

   dougwest1posted 2 years ago

   Tanmoy:
   Thanks for the input. I'll be looking into both of them.

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   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   Is there any reason why you write by hand Bob, rather than typing straight off? I just do two finger typing, but at this stage I can type as quick as I write.

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      dougwest1posted 2 years agoin reply to this

      eugbug:
      I write by hand because I need all of my reference books around me at my desk and they get in the way of where I put the computer. I have done some writing directly to the computer but it seems harder than using a pen and paper. Maybe I am just a dinosaur?

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         eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Sorry for calling you Bob, Doug, Freudian slip!

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   bhattucposted 2 years ago

   You can try some speech to text application.

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      eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, that's another option. The cloud based ones are more reliable at speech recognition than what comes as standard on a computer, presumably because of the superior AI computing power available. I had a quick look at SpeechTexter and tried it out and it only made two errors in 271 words, not distinguishing the plural "s" at the end of two words.

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      dougwest1posted 2 years agoin reply to this

      bhattuc, eugbug:
      I thought about a speech to text converter. One complication is that I am currently writing about ancient Greek philosophers, like, Anaximander of Miletus and Parmenides of Elea. I am assuming these types of names (many other names have even crazier spellings) would throw a wrench in the works of a speech-to-text converter. Maybe they could figure them out?

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         eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Maybe give them temporary nicknames, then do a global replacement with the real names later?

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         eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         SpeechTexter understood "Anaximander of Miletus". It had difficulty with "Parmenides of Elea", but maybe I was pronouncing it incorrectly, or it just mightn't be in the database.
         One suggestion Parmenides - "Harmony days"

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   NateB11posted 2 years ago

   Interesting thread because I didn't even know these options existed.

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   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   You can also write directly on a tablet with a stylus and use an OCR app to convert written text to ASCII.

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   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   I enjoy typing and am glad that I learned, but I do also wonder if there is a computer out there that could read my handwriting, I can't even read it myself sometimes!

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      eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      I gave up joined writing thirty years ago because people complained they couldn't understand it. Now I just do print and it's easier to read.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah, I rarely handwrite, which seems odd sometimes in the sense that I am in my mid-fifties so almost everything was handwriting for the first part of my life. Nowadays, apart from signatures, it's only things like shopping lists and notes to myself that are handwritten, and even then I often text or message shopping lists to myself rather than write them. Weeks can go by without me handwriting anything.... which maybe explains why it's got so crappy, I don't know!

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   Paddygsoundposted 2 years ago

   Google docs has a very powerful and efficient speech to text recognition system if that is helpful at all.
   Maybe something along the lines of an iPad or a Remarkable might be useful to you.

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    Glenis Rixposted 2 years ago

    Doug West - does your computer have voice recognition.If it has, you might be able to dictate a Word document.  I haven’t experimented with it but my fingers are becoming more arthritic by the day so might need to soon!

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       eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

       I'm not 100% sure, but I think the computer version of Word just uses the speech recognition that comes with Windows or ios which isn't as good as for example Google voice recognition on mobile devices. The latter uploads what you say and then they use super duper AI computing power to interpret it.

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          dougwest1posted 2 years agoin reply to this

          I did a short experiment with the Google AI speech-to-text converter. I generated an audio wav file from a draft paragraph out of a book I am writing on Milesian philosophers. Here is what I submitted to Google:
          
          "Theophrastus ca. 371 BC to 287 BC was an associate of Aristotle for more than two decades and succeeded him as the head of the Peripatetic school at the Lyceum. Theophrastus wrote extensively covering science, philosophy, history, law, literature, music, poetics, politics, and botany. He is most known for his work in botany; being credited with laying the groundwork for modern botany. He wrote a general history known as Physicorum opinions or “Opinions of the Physicists”, a compilation of Aristotle’s accounts of earlier theories, supplemental quotations, and biographical information."
          
          Here is what came back from the Google AI Speech-to-Text translator: "Theophrastus ca-371 BC to 287 BC was an associate of Aristotle for more than two decades and succeeded him as the head of peripatetic school at the lyceum theater prices wrote extensively coming science philosophy history law literature music Poetics politics and botany is most known for his work in botany being credited with laying the groundwork modern botany. He wrote a general history known as physically Orem opinions or opinions of the physicists a compilation of Aristotle's accounts of earlier theories supplement quotations and biographical information."
          
          I'll call this a partial success, not perfect, but promising.

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             eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

             I guess it could have tripped up a bit up a bit because of the length of the text fragment and maybe it has issues buffering. If you dictate, you have the luxury of pausing after each sentence to allow it to process the result. Also you can "speak" the punctuation. So "period", "new line","comma" etc are recognized commands for adding punctuation elements.

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       dougwest1posted 2 years agoin reply to this

       I need to play around with voice to text applications. From what others are saying, there are some good options out there. I am a little leery about buying a new tablet computer since I just bought a new laptop a few months ago. That might be a hard sell to my dear wife!

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