Canson’s Papershow is a digital writing system designed to make digitized note-taking and collaboration easier and more expensive. A “quick start” kit costs $200 and includes the following:
•1 Papershow Bluetooth digital pen, plus AAA battery, 3 ink refills, 4 silicon rings
• Papershow Bluetooth USB stick with PAPERSHOW software + 4 silicon rings
• Papershow A4 notepad for digital flipchart work
•30 sheets of Papershow printer paper for interactive presentations
•1 ring binder for Papershow printer paper storage
•1 pencil case for Papershow pen, USB stick and accessories
It runs on XP and Vista, and can convert everything you do automagically into a PowerPoint presentation to be edited and rerun later. Notepads are $13 and up.
Canson PAPERSHOW [Official site]
those silicon rings will come in handy after the presentation.
I am unaware of what the silicone rings are for but I presume they are to identify individual pens?
This should be released in a fountain pen version.
They’re sending one in for review. ALL THE DETAILS SOON ENOUGH!
I think it’s a great show of generosity and goodwill on the part of the company, to send BB a copy to review, and they obviously worked hard on something like this.
But 13$ proprietary notepad? Proprietary printer paper? These types of pen input have been done many times before, and they all need expensive special papers. They will never make any headway if they keep trying this “expensive razor, uses expensive special cartidges that may become unavailable if we go under at some point” model. A big metatheme of BB is anti-DRM, and this is physical DRM.
There is one company out there that got this, and tried to make something better. A company called IOGEAR makes a “mobile digital scribe”. They don’t need special paper, and they remember everything you write for later upload too. Plus, they’re wireless, and work on any surface. You can hook them up to a computer too, and use it like a mouse too. It’s a bit too sensitive though, picking up every nerve pulse in your hand.
I had a chance to try one a few days ago- they even have handwriting recognition for multiple languages. Windows only.
Oh yeah and why is linux never supported? Or Mac? It’s always windows.
Disclaimer: I’m not a shill for them, I just wish more companies would TRY to make something like that that works without special paper, and anywhere without wires.
A colleague has a similar device, presumably based on the same technology: LiveScribe – It is way better than this thing, IMHO. With his device, you can print out your own paper using regular paper and a printer, although they do push their own pre-printed notebooks too. What I liked about his was that it recorded voice along with the notes. When you wanted to review what was said at a point in the meeting, you tap on your notes on the paper, and the audio recording for that time starts playing. It’s like total recall – worth the price of admission alone. Aside from that key feature, it did similar stuff to this product, though. The only thing that has held me back from purchasing one – The barrel of the pen still seems a bit too large – I feel like a kid holding a giant pencil – large and unwieldy, not light, graceful, and “flowy” like my cherished Stabilo bal liquigel disposables. I still can’t trade comfort for convenience…
I have used Papershow in my presentations and in the graduate classes that I teach and have found it to be a valuable tool. Yes- you do have to purchase special paper- but I feel that the ability to write and share the contents with my students is great. When working with a computer and a data projector it is a great tool to convey ideas and information. I have some posts on my blog about Papershow with some examples. I have used the Pulse Smartpen for the work I do and have also found it to be an idela tool for syncing notes and audio but it does not have the same capabilities as Papershow.
Brian
http://assistivetek.blogspot.com