IRISnotes Executive 1.0 digital pen
Knows your writes
Review Composed of standard looking battery-powered pen and rechargeable receiver module, the IRISNotes Executive aims to relieve some of the tedium of transcribing handwritten notes by converting your scribblings into useable text and drawings.
Pen pal: IRISnotes Executive 1.0
Designed to work independently of your PC or Mac, you attach the receiver unit to the top of your page - either centred or in a dog-ear position at either corner - hit the button on the unit to tell it you’re starting a new page, and then begin your epic novel.
The receiver unit tracks the head of the pen, which is fitted with a standard mini-refill, across the page; somehow it determines when ball-point is actually touching the page, storing your strokes as you go. The unit claims to be able to store around 100 A4 pages of written text, but to be honest fatigue meant my testing never went beyond 25 pages.
The one big advantage the IRISNotes has over alternative systems, such as LiveScribe's Smartpen is that it doesn’t require pre-printed pages – any old A4 pad will do. Once you’ve finished your writing session, you plug the receiver unit into your computer from a mini-USB cable (which also charges it).
MyScript downloads the content captured by the pen
The IRISNotes software auto-detects the device, and offers to capture the pages from the device for you – select which orientation you had the receiver place in (middle, left-, or right-corner) and hit the “Download Ink” button. Your copy is then downloaded (and deleted from the receiver if you so choose), saved to a pre-selected folder, and opened in the IRISNotes Executive application. At this point, your notes are still held in a hand-written image form.
Next page: Executive treatment
COMMENTS
Title
I don't understand. It seems to work fine. The only problems seem to be a button that you didn't like and the bamboo pattern in the UI. These seem to be very minor points.
What did this device mess up so badly that it deserves such a low score?
Sounds interesting
I could see a use for it, for capturing diagrams, but I have trouble reading my own handwriting, so I think the OCR side would be completely incapable of deciphering it.
I have no interest in this product whatsoever...
...but the product name is eyecatching when scanning the headlines on the front page. However, this is only because my brain keeps catching the word Snot in IRISnotes!
Java roots should not affect the GUI
Java's look and feel in Swing is skinnable and the default behaviour is to adopt the appearance of the platform its running on. Proper use of layouts also means the gui would cope with changes caused by user's default theme, font sizes and so on. A "normal" app really has no excuse for going off and doing its own thing.
IMO it's more likely the UI designer decided that the familiarity, predictable behaviour, and decades of experience that went into building the operating system's buttons and other controls weren't for this app. Instead they should all be tossed out for some stupid eye candy.
Paste into OneNote?
I'm trying to get hold of one that will paste vector handwriting into OneNote.. (Like this:http://pegatech.blogspot.com/2009/06/copying-notes-from-notetaker-into.html
But they won't tell me where to buy in the UK..) Because then I could search my handwriting in OneNote, and not bother with OCR.. And have a portable solution for notetaking...
