NexConcepts Mobile Note Taker

[Bob Russell]

Ever wish you could write on a pad of regular paper during a meeting without a laptop around, and then magically send the results to your computer?

Check out the NexConcepts Mobile Note Taker web site to see a flash animation and specs of a device that claims to do just that. It runs for about 100hrs of continuous note taking before the pen's battery needs to be replaced. And it has an LCD screen that shows you what you're writing as you write it, so you know it's being recorded.

Previous solutions have required a special tablet to write on, or a computer to attach a base unit to. Now you can do the same thing on the run with just a unit that clips to your pad of paper and a special pen.

One of these days, maybe tablet computers will be cheap and as easy to write on as paper. In the meantime, it's good to see alternatives.

Source: PC Magazine October 19, 2004

[Brian]

That's a nice, inexpensive, flexible alternative to a tablet PC. If they offered both models with built-in Bluetooth, I'd be very interested. I'd get the model without the display if I could use my PDA (Zodiac 2) as a wireless display device.

It would also be nice if you could send captured pages to your PDA over BT for storage. I just picked up a cheap Seiko SmartPad 2 on eBay the other day to explore this whole note taking, ink capturing concept.

To me, the ultimate solution would be to integrate the sensors into a PDA: Instead of clipping the Mobile Note Taker on the top of a pad of paper, simply place your PDA there in landscape mode and use the digital pen. Convergence means fewer devices to carry around. IMO this would be a very appealing feature for mobile professionals and PalmOne would be very wise to pursue such a concept to offer in high-end Tungsten business models.

Just think of the flexibility this setup would offer. Then add a wireless keyboard. Forget laptop replacement, think Tablet PC replacement in a very small, portable package.

Brian

[Francesco]

I can't believe it works. How accurate is it?

[Bob Russell]

Originally Posted by Francesco

I can't believe it works. How accurate is it?

I wonder the same thing. The specs claim "Resolution: 100 DPI". Not sure what that would mean in terms of small handwriting or detailed drawings. All the sample pictures are large and sweeping.

I also didn't see any retailers close to me. They have Office Depot, but only in Canada. That's the sort of thing I'd prefer to buy locally for easy return if it didn't work. I'm not sure I'd really use one if I had it. I think it would be just a bit too geeky for me to take that into a meeting. Instead, if I ever get a PDA with a camera, couldn't I just take a picture of the paper and accomplish the same thing?

I agree it would be pretty awesome if that functionality could be built into a PDA.

Tablet PCs seem to be the future for me. But do they make screen protectors for them? On my pda or laptop, if I touch the screen it starts to get grimy. With a PDA screen protector, I can use my fingers on the screen and it doesn't seem to pick up grime. That would make a tablet pc much more appealing to me because I wouldn't have to worry about getting the bottom of my hand all over the screen when I write (which is what I do on paper.)

Then I could start thinking about a scanner and going paperless. I've got lots of files of paper at the office that are mostly just for reference. Lots of handwritten pages and copies of tech articles as well as many MS Office and Lotus notes documents generated by others I work with. If the scans were halfway decent (to allow me to mark up and pass on to a coworker without embarrassement), I'd love to go paperless.

But the other problem (above and beyond the time to scan them all) is that keeping documents electronically probably requires a lot of disk and backup systems for large amounts of data don't seem to be cheap and convenient. Hmm.. wonder if writable DVDs would be adequate for document accumulations in electronic form?

Anyone else have any thoughts about what it would take to go paperless without regrets?

The questions I keep wondering about are things like... Is it ever going to be practical? Does it require "perfect" electronic paper with touch sensitive displays? Does something like that need to be built into our desk surfaces? What about scanning technology and storage issues?

[Brian]

Originally Posted by BobR

Tablet PCs seem to be the future for me. But do they make screen protectors for them? On my pda or laptop, if I touch the screen it starts to get grimy. With a PDA screen protector, I can use my fingers on the screen and it doesn't seem to pick up grime. That would make a tablet pc much more appealing to me because I wouldn't have to worry about getting the bottom of my hand all over the screen when I write (which is what I do on paper.)

Bob,

Check out NuShield. They make screen protectors for at least one Tablet PC, the HP-Compaq TC1000. If they don't have a screen protector you're looking for, you can contact them at support[at]nushield.com with the exposed screen size you need, they might have an existing die sheet size or could produce it if there is adequate demand. The Nushield protectors work very well, I have them for my Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and my wife's Alphasmart Dana Wireless.

Then I could start thinking about a scanner and going paperless. I've got lots of files of paper at the office that are mostly just for reference. Lots of handwritten pages and copies of tech articles as well as many MS Office and Lotus notes documents generated by others I work with. If the scans were halfway decent (to allow me to mark up and pass on to a coworker without embarrassement), I'd love to go paperless.

One device that didn't catch on at the time, and was ahead of its time IMO, was the HP Capshare 910 & 920 handheld e-copier. They're going for a mint these days (considering they went for around $300 when they were readily available about 4 years ago) with a lot of demand by people using them for legal document research in law libraries and for doing real estate work such as looking up deeds. It's perfect for capturing handwritten notes, magazine articles, clippings, etc as you describe and that's exactly how I use my 920.

But the other problem (above and beyond the time to scan them all) is that keeping documents electronically probably requires a lot of disk and backup systems for large amounts of data don't seem to be cheap and convenient. Hmm.. wonder if writable DVDs would be adequate for document accumulations in electronic form?

Anyone else have any thoughts about what it would take to go paperless without regrets?

Here's my current plan (subject to modification) for my migration from paper to digital:

1. Use my PDA more and get my wife a PDA to share to-do lists, appointments, shopping/grocery lists (Handyshopper rules!), etc.
2. A good handheld capturing device like the CapShare, Mobile Note Taker, Seiko SmartPad2, Crosspad, etc.
3. Lots of hard drive space and a DVD-R/RW.
4. A good flatbed scanner with OCR software. When documents are captured (see #5) and text converted using OCR, they will be indexed using a program like Copernic Desktop Search for universal searching.
5. Plenty of time to convert/archive all existing paper documents into digital format (this will be the worst part ). I'll probably convert everything to PDF for portability between platforms and easy conversion to Repligo format.
6. Like you said, a Tablet PC would be an option if you want to cut down on steps 2, 4&5.

I'm currently between steps 3&4.

Brian

[Bob Russell]

Originally Posted by ballistic

Check out NuShield.

Thks. Didn't know they made these. I may have to look for a Tablet PC when it is time to replace my desktop PC.

Here's my current plan (subject to modification) for my migration from paper to digital:

1. Use my PDA more and get my wife a PDA to share to-do lists, appointments, shopping/grocery lists (Handyshopper rules!), etc.
2. A good handheld capturing device like the CapShare, Mobile Note Taker, Seiko SmartPad2, Crosspad, etc.
3. Lots of hard drive space and a DVD-R/RW.
4. A good flatbed scanner with OCR software. When documents are captured (see #5) and text converted using OCR, they will be indexed using a program like Copernic Desktop Search for universal searching.
5. Plenty of time to convert/archive all existing paper documents into digital format (this will be the worst part ).
6. Like you said, a Tablet PC would be an option if you want to cut down on steps 2, 4&5.

When paperless becomes more generally accepted in the corporate world, I suspect we will see really nice scanning options. For example, why shouldn't the copy machines be networked and allow production of scans instead of paper? You would think this would be a preferred option as it would save a lot of toner and paper cost. (Assuming congress doesn't mess it all up by strengthening copyright laws, of course.)

I was wondering if good handheld scanners are likely to keep coming in the form of future products. Results are promising... Here is a sample of some other handheld scanners based on a quick Google, even though some may need to be tethered to the PC...
* Antec Attache Hand-Held Scanner
* C Pen 10 Handheld Scanner (C-Technologies)
* IRISPen II Executive Hand-Held Scanner
* IRIS Pen Express Handheld Scanner
* WizCom QuickLink Pen Handheld Scanner
* PLANON SYSTEMS DPEN-BW DocuPen Handheld Pen Size Scanner
* TravelScan Pro & PaperPort
* Syscan (multiple products)

Our company has a department that does mass scanning of papers into electronic documents... hmm, wonder if they have machines that are idle. I might be able to convert a portion of my work files in a weekend as a test run if I had "pro" equipment. Would be a simple way to see if it's practical solution, and it would at least open some more storage space for me. But... competing against all the other things I wish I had time to do makes it unlikely I'll pursue it. For now I guess I'll just settle with masses of paper.

[Francesco]

Originally Posted by ballistic

Here's my current plan (subject to modification) for my migration from paper to digital:

1. Use my PDA more and get my wife a PDA to share to-do lists, appointments, shopping/grocery lists (Handyshopper rules!), etc.
2. A good handheld capturing device like the CapShare, Mobile Note Taker, Seiko SmartPad2, Crosspad, etc.
3. Lots of hard drive space and a DVD-R/RW.
4. A good flatbed scanner with OCR software. When documents are captured (see #5) and text converted using OCR, they will be indexed using a program like Copernic Desktop Search for universal searching.
5. Plenty of time to convert/archive all existing paper documents into digital format (this will be the worst part ). I'll probably convert everything to PDF for portability between platforms and easy conversion to Repligo format.
6. Like you said, a Tablet PC would be an option if you want to cut down on steps 2, 4&5.

I'm currently between steps 3&4.

Brian

This list skips one step: get rid of all the junk.
I don't know about you, guys, but most, and I mean MOST, of the papers I've kept for years have information that is useless, outdated, or very very important, but, since I don't ever check what's in those heaps of papers, it becomes useless, as well.

[Bob Russell]

Originally Posted by Francesco

This list skips one step: get rid of all the junk.
I don't know about you, guys, but most, and I mean MOST, of the papers I've kept for years have information that is useless, outdated, or very very important, but, since I don't ever check what's in those heaps of papers, it becomes useless, as well.

That's a good point. Funny thing is that it's worse for me in electronic form, so I have to just depend on decent organization of directories. I guess with paper files I end up throwing out the junk about once a year (usually when space gets tight!)

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if we might be at the point that early adopters might start to go all digital in the next 5 yrs. I'm not too far from giving it a go myself.

The new relational WinFS coming eventually might even help to manage all that content. There's gotta be some better way to manage information and keep "metadata" while staying with "core" technology so it's permanently useful. For example, are comments that Windows supports for files a reasonable way to put info about the file that will be supported by apps and usable in 20 years from now? Things like filenames will still be around (or easily converted). But programs that catalog your files (like mp3 collections) probably don't store that info in a way that's lasting.

And once storage is more abundant, won't we be storing music in a different format anyway? Compression won't be so important at some point.

Sorry, there I go thinking out loud again in some sort of free flow exercise....

[Francesco]

Originally Posted by BobR

That's a good point. Funny thing is that it's worse for me in electronic form, so I have to just depend on decent organization of directories. I guess with paper files I end up throwing out the junk about once a year (usually when space gets tight!)

That's right. It is worse, in a certain way. It's not that bad since bits don't take that much space. I still have floppy disks, zip disks, CD-Ws, CD-RWs with MBs and MBs of information that I won't check ever again.

Originally Posted by BobR

The more I think about it, the more I wonder if we might be at the point that early adopters might start to go all digital in the next 5 yrs. I'm not too far from giving it a go myself.

I would say we all are going in that direction little by little. Early adopters cannot go all digital by themselves, since they have to interact with "the rest of us".