Times-Leader: LiveScribe brings high-tech to pen-and-paper domain

Let’s take LiveScribe, for example.

On the surface, the LiveScribe system consists of a seemingly normal pen and notebook.

When you look a little more closely, however, you notice that this pen is no ordinary writing implement. There’s a tiny digital display packed into the side of the pen, along with a few small controls for the audio recorder. And the notebook has control icons on every page, and a small printed control area on the inside cover. Keep in mind, this is all done on paper – specially printed paper that has an almost imperceptible pattern of dots on every page – but ordinary paper nonetheless.

The point of all of this wizardry is simple: to convert everything you write into text that can be displayed on your computer.

When I was in school, I used to take notes on a laptop or PDA. While that was just a few years ago, it raised some eyebrows, and some teachers were uncomfortable with it. Now it’s quite a bit more common, but it’s still not as convenient, and in some cases, not as fast as the written word.

The Livescribe pen is capable of recording everything that gets written in the Livescribe book – no computer needs to be present for that to happen.

Later, you can sync the pen with software on the computer, and it will transform your written text into type on the computer and transfer the recordings, thereby bridging the gap between the paper and digital world.

This can be particularly useful in situations where cell-phones might not be allowed, or a laptop or tablet would be disallowed or inconvenient.

There are several other alternatives to LiveScribe, and all are easily available at many electronics stores.

Click here to read Nick DeLorenzo’s original post.