Livescribe Pulse Smartpen - Never Miss A Word
The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen
What Is The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen?
Simply put, the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen is a pen which allows you to easily transfer handwritten notes onto your PC for storage and retrieval in electronic format. It also allows you to associate audio with the notes.
The smartpen not only allows you to transfer notes to your PC (or Mac - it works with both) - but, once transferred, you can even search for words within the notes. You can also transform your notes and audio into an interactive presentation should you wish and upload your creations to the web for anyone to read, hear and play.
These presentations are especially good for explaining and developing ideas. The words appear on the screen accompanied by an audio explanation. It's a form of presentation that may not suit all subject areas - but on the other hand, it really is a very refreshing change from Microsoft Powerpoint. Anyone in your audience who has ever suffered "death by powerpoint" (and there's bound to be a few) will appreciate the presentation just because it's different.
Livescribe Pulse Smartpen Video Demo
How Does It Work?
The Livescribe smartpen uses a special paper with dots on it so that it can record the position of the pen whenever you're writing. You can buy the paper, of course, but don't worry about the cost of buying special paper or of running out - you can print the paper yourself on any computer printer that is capable of 600 dpi resolution. That's not a very high resolution these days and even fairly cheap and basic printers should be able to cope.
The smartpen has an infrared camera which records everything you write or draw on the special paper using Livescribe's Dot Positioning System (DPS).
Livescribe At Amazon
Audio Capture And Other Features
Another nice feature of the LiveScribe pen is the fact that it can be used to capture audio - a bit like a high tech dictaphone. It's one of the features that my son (the student) makes most use of. I'm pretty sure that he just records his lectures and then tunes out!
What's even better, is the fact that the audio and the writing capture are synced. You can play back both - which can be handy for emphasis, or if you just can't remember why you made a particular note.
It also has the facility to turn handwritten notes into typed text, which is something that any student would find handy.