Nick Projects

As a college student,  taking notes is a big deal for me.  I decided that having information digital rather than on paper ( exclusively) had many advantages.  Additionally, I give a lot of thought to information and attempting to capture all of it efficiently.  In a perfect world all of my classes would be professionally recorded with one camera on the professor and one camera on the board/LCD screen that the professor was using.  I would be able to switch between each like using the angle feature on a DVD player.  And lastly there would be a detailed summary in paper to compliment the package so that I wouldn’t have to watch an entire class just to find one point.

Video data is fairly difficult to manage,  its easy to take video of a person talking with a web cam on a laptop.  But, that would be pretty useless.  To capture pictures presented via an LCD projector the most efficient way to go would be use camtasia or some other screen recorder from the source, which isn’t really an option for me.  Not to mention even if it was most professors still write on a board which would require a super high resolution camera to record,  or constant focusing.  Basically, I’m going to go without video.

For notes and sound however,  there are two good options.  The first is One Note from Microsoft.  Most

Digital Pen

people don’t realize that if you record sound on your PC while using one note,  it will synchronize it with what your doing on the screen.  I used this option for one semester and it worked fairly well.  The issue was that it requires a laptop which requires batteries and weighs way more than a notebook.  Also, I had to supplement my laptop with a digital pen so that I could actually write rather than type.  My classes use a lot of math equations and symbols so being a fast typist isn’t enough because the symbols kill me.

Pulse Livescribe

The second and best option is the Pulse Livescribe digital pen.  The smart pen utilizes Anoto dot paper which can be purchased or printed from a laser printer.  Anything written on the paper while the pen is on gets digitally recorded and archived onto a PC when the pen is synchronized with the computer.  This technology has been around for years but the livescribe is unique because they have incorporated a high quality microphone into the pen.  This means that while you are jotting down notes,  the pen is recording audio.  The pen allows you to play back the audio either while you view the notes on your PC or by tapping on the place in your notes with the pen where you want the recording to begin.  This is a truly revolutionary feature.

The Livescribe does not stop there,  the pen has a significant processing power and comes with a variety of applications including a sample translation program that translates words you’ve written and a full scientific calculator.  This is really convenient when you need to do a quick addition problem and don’t want to dig through your bag.  Hopefully, the applications won’t stop there either.  Livescribe is going to release a full API so that developers can create their own applications.

So far after numerous uses my only complaints are that the pen isn’t the most comfortable I’ve ever held,  but it isn’t the least comfortable either.  Also the standby life seems limited.  I feel as thought the pen is never off which means that if I leave it in a bag for 48 hours it may not be on the next time I need it.  This last issue is somewhat concerning as I think that business travelors everywhere should have this gadget,  but it still beats the batery live I had with a laptop.  Good Job Livescribe!!!

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