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Earlier this year we heard about Lernstift, a concept for a pen that helps kids spell and write correctly by vibrating to point out mistakes. The folks behind this promising invention have now launched a fundraiser on Kickstarter. The questions I had when I first saw it remain unanswered though.
Inventor Falk Wolsky’s idea for the pen remains the same. Its basic functions are still to oversee the user’s spelling and the legibility of his handwriting. When it detects a mistake, it vibrates to alert the user. But with the launch of their fundraiser, Wolsky and his colleagues have revealed more about the hardware inside the pen. Lernstift has a motion sensor, a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a magnetometer. The pen’s processor will use these devices to create a 2D image of the user’s handwriting, which it will then analyze using a handwriting recognition software.
While the team is confident in the pen’s hardware, they’re still working on the best way to process the data that its sensors gather to ensure a quick and accurate response. They’ve also revealed that they’re not working on their own handwriting recognition engine and will instead license one from an established company. That should make it easier for Lernstift to be released and updated to support more languages; the pen will only be able to recognize English and German when it launches, but they supposedly have access to a database of over 40 languages.
Pledge at least £89 (~$135 USD) on Kickstarter to get a Lernstift as a reward. I have to say though, it’s not clear at the moment just how polished or far along they are with the pen. Notice how they didn’t demonstrate even the pen’s basic functions in their pitch video.
As I said in my previous post about the pen, I’m still not sold on its usefulness. It’s still not clear how it will help you find out the right spelling, form or grammar. Yes, it could buzz the moment you make a mistake, but what then? How do you find out what you’re supposed to do? I’m hopeful that Wolsky and his team will answer these questions soon. Also, do kids still use pens?
Inventor Falk Wolsky and his better half Mandy, a child care worker, were inspired to make the Lernstift (“Learning pen” in German) after seeing their son struggle with writing. They came up with a prototype that detects “writing movements” and alerts the user if he makes a mistake.
Currently, the prototype has two modes. Calligraphy Mode detects errors in form and legibility, while Orthography Mode checks the spelling and grammar. The Lernstift’s motion sensor also has one other advantage: the user can practice even without paper or any writing surface. It will supposedly be able to detect “words, gestures and symbols, even if you only draw them in the air.”
The Wolskys also hope to include a pressure sensor to teach kids not to grip the pen too tightly. The idea is that if the pen detects that the user is pressing too hard on it, it will vibrate in an intensity proportional to the user’s grip. They also want to equip the pen with a wireless module, so your teacher can send your embarrassing mistakes to your parents, other teachers and classmates in a snap. As if having your pen vibrate all the time wasn’t shameful enough.
The Wolskys – via their new company Lernstift UG – will seek crowdfunding for the Lernstift later this month, so keep your eyes out for that if you want to pre-order the pen. But if you’re willing to invest in the company, you can reach out to them right now via their website.
The pen sounds like a good idea, but I wonder how effective it will really be as a learning tool, especially in the use case that inspired it. I say that because the pen can only say when and where you are wrong, but not what you’re doing wrong and ultimately how to do it correctly. Should it also have a voice assistant, like an English teacher version of Siri? Or perhaps a small laser that traces out the correct answer? Or maybe it could provide advice by vibrating in Morse code?
[via Lernstift & Wired UK via Likecool]
Evernote acquired the Penultimate app for iPad last year with the conspicuous goal of making handwritten notes as easy to synchronize as to-do lists and snippets from the web. After several months of silence, the newly reworked Penultimate 4 is the result. The drawing tool now treats Evernote not just as a sharing option, but an integral part of its being. While it's possible to skip the sign-in, those who link their account get both cross-platform access to their work as well as cloud-based searches of their more legible writing. There's likewise a simpler interface with more realistic pen input. Truth be told, however, we suspect that many of Penultimate 4's would-be adopters will just care that the app is now free -- as of today, the biggest cost is that of an optional Evernote Premium account. As long as they're using an iPad running iOS 6, note takers yearning for the flexibility of a pad and paper in an era of cloud syncing and tablets can give Penultimate a try at the source link.
Filed under: Tablets
Source: App Store
When Google's Handwrite feature launched this past summer, we welcomed the ability to compose our queries instead of pecking keys. Problem is, Handwrite had a bad habit of confusing our 1's and l's -- and despite the growing size of smartphone screens, it's still difficult to fit written words on them. Well, Big G has solved those problems with the latest Handwrite upgrades. The system now provides alternative interpretations of ambiguous characters so you can choose what's propper, and it lets you write letters on top of one another instead of spelling them out across the width of the screen. Not only that, folks who search using Chinese characters are no longer limited to single-character input. Want to know if it can interpret your chicken scratch? Head on over to Google.com and enable Handwrite under settings on the iOS or Android device of your choosing.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Google
Panasonic is pushing further into touchscreen technology at CES, and it's not content with finger control alone. Thankfully, Anoto is more than willing to help with a deal to drive the pen input behind multiple Panasonic mobile devices. Its technique, which tracks a stylus' position across a near-invisible grid of uniquely positioned dots, lets would-be artists draw on Panasonic's 4K tablet and other hardware with higher accuracy and fewer worries about the touch surface's size or composition. Anoto hasn't said how long the partnership will last, but the initial scale suggests that it's more than just a short-term union.
Continue reading Panasonic mobile devices to use Anoto's pattern-based pen input technology
Filed under: Tablets
Source: Anoto
For a relatively niche company that has only been around for five years, Livescribe has grown quickly. Its smartpens -- which cleverly digitize handwritten notes and audio -- have already attracted a million users. However, just because these customers prefer to write their notes the old-fashioned way, that doesn't mean they aren't also obsessive about technological progress. In fact, many of them have been waiting on one new feature in particular: a totally wireless workflow, which would allow them to write a note with their smartpens and then -- without any docking or syncing -- see their scribbles appear in the cloud and on their mobile devices.
Well, as you've probably guessed by now, that is precisely the gap that the new Sky pen is looking to fill. The first half of its operation is identical to that of its predecessors, the Pulse and Echo: it contains a camera and microphone, which enable the capture of handwritten notes and time-linked audio files. (You can choose between 2GB, 4GB and 8GB of built-in storage.) But what happens next is totally different. You use "buttons" printed inside Livescribe's proprietary stationery, in conjunction with the pen's OLED display, to select a local WiFi network, enter the password and sync your files directly to Evernote. The popular online note-taking platform then handles everything else, automatically filing the text and audio in the cloud using a time stamp, making it available on whatever devices run Evernote's apps or web interface. What's more, it makes the note searchable through optical character recognition (OCR) of your handwriting.
If there's a downside to users getting what they've been asking for, it's that they are the ones expected to pay for it. The Sky's base model matches the Echo's $170 launch price, but that older pen came with twice as much internal storage, and can also now be had at a discount. Moreover, the 4GB and 8GB Sky pens rise to $200 and $250, respectively, which means this is only likely to be sensible if you really, really dislike writing or typing on a screen. Even assuming that you're totally stuck in your pen-and-ink ways, could a $170 pen ever be worth it? Read on to find out.
Continue reading Livescribe Sky WiFi Smartpen review
Filed under: Peripherals
Livescribe Sky WiFi Smartpen review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Nov 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Not eager to hunt and peck on a keyboard? Google Handwrite is here: the search engine's mobile pages will now let you draw letters on the page to conduct searches with the writing method you learned before this whole computer fad took hold. There's no special plugin required -- it's just the flick of a settings switch. As long as you've got an Android 2.3 or later phone, an Android 4.0 tablet or an iOS 5 device of any sort, you can immediately remind yourself of just how much you've forgotten about handwriting since elementary school while you're searching for the local sushi restaurant.
Continue reading Google Handwrite lets us scribble our way through mobile searches (video)
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Internet
Google Handwrite lets us scribble our way through mobile searches (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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