E-pens Mobile Notes Digital Pen

Product Overview

Summary

Save notes to your PC, convert them to typed text or copy and then import into Microsoft Office applications like Word and Outlook. When connected, the pen also has mouse functionality for use with the ‘digital inking’ and ‘tablet PC’ features included with Microsoft Vista. In 'Pen Mode', capture your notes remotely away from your PC or notebook. The digital pen and e-pens base unit captures natural handwriting onto a PC or notebook in real time. Once you have captured and saved your notes in the note manager software included you can back them up and recycle your paper. Notes can then be edited and converted to editable typed text with the MyScript recognition software included and exported straight into applications such as MS Word or Outlook. Mouse mode turns the digital pen into a mouse with hovering and 2 button functionality. In mouse mode you can write directly into Windows Journal, and other Tablet PC applications such as Microsoft OneNote, MSN Messenger and Microsoft Outlook. Mouse mode speeds up the whole process of capturing notes by switching effortlessly between pen and mouse mode. With MS Vista there's the extra feature of the ‘digital ink handwriting software’ feature where you can handwrite directly onto office applications like Microsoft Word and Windows Journal. You can also write notes over slides whilst presenting with MS PowerPoint and save or delete them as required.

Product Features

  • Small and portable, simple to use
  • Captures handwritten notes, signatures, maps and sketches
  • MyScript software converts notes to text
  • Export or copy into Microsoft Word and other applications
  • Tablet PC and inking features with MS Vista
  • Use for drawing and photo editing
  • Email notes quickly
  • MSN Messenger compatible, handwrite messages and sketches
  • Sticky Notes feature, set reminder alarms to notes

Product Extra

Product Specifications

System Requirements
Languages Supported English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)
Minimum Memory Requirements 32 MB
Minimum Storage Requirements 50 MB
Minimum Display Requirements 16-bit Colour Display (800x600)
Operating System Requirements Microsoft Windows XP (SP2) • 2000 (SP4) • Vista
Miscellaneous MS Internet Explorer or above • 1 x USB Port
Physical
Form Factor Digital Pen
In The Box e-pens base unit • Digital pen • NoteManager + MyScript Full CD • Carry case • USB cable • Ink refill • Stylus • 2 x Pen batteries • Quick start guide
Dimensions (W) x (D) x (H) - Weight

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Product Reviews

E-pens - Mobile Notes review - Jun 3, 2009

www.itreviews.co.uk

E-pens Mobile Notes is a handwriting capture and recognition solution to help transcribe written notes quickly and easily into a digital format for use on a computer. Similar to Dane-Elec's Zpen, the package includes a stylus that uses real ink, a receiver unit and appropriate software.

Used in one of two modes, the receiver can either take notes remotely or attach to a computer for conversion and to allow the e-pens to double as a mouse.

In mobile mode the e-pens receiver is connected to the top or side of a piece of paper or a pad using one of three in-built clips to hold it in place. It's important to have a clean line of sight between the pen and the receiver, so you must keep objects clear and, if left-handed, place the receiver at the right of the page.

Turn the receiver on and it'll start recording pen strokes, with a pen symbol lighting up on the display to indicate that a signal is being received. As well as this, the readout shows the current number of pages (up to 50 A4 sides) stored in memory, with a new page added by pressing the control button. Notes can be transferred to your PC by connecting the receiver via the mini-USB cable supplied, opening the NoteTaker software and importing the new objects.

In addition to ‘mobile mode', the pen can also be used as a mouse by changing it to ‘mouse mode', in which case hovering the pen over the paper moves the cursor and tapping on a surface simulates a left-click. A separate plastic stylus is provided to prevent ink from being scribbled onto a desk or other surface.

We'd expect most users to want to convert notes to text with the e-pens, so accurate recognition is obviously an important factor. Conversion is done through the Mobile Notes software, which can convert to rich text or graphics and text, with various selectable languages and a choice of three handwriting styles to improve accuracy. Selected areas of the page can be highlighted for conversion and the page size itself changed, so there's a nice degree of control here.

In terms of how accurately it rendered our scrawl, we found the results to be pretty good. Tests involved writing a series of sentences in four different ways: capital letters, standard handwriting, ‘neat' handwriting and scrawl. The only one of these that was recognised with 100% accuracy was the neat handwriting effort, though strangely there was only one mistake in the scrawl, leaving it at 99% accuracy. Capital letters fared OK when reconverted using the appropriate setting and the standard handwriting came in at 97%.

It is possible to improve accuracy further using MyScript Notes' handwriting trainer, which takes a little while to work through but did shore up some of the mistakes in our previous tests.

Unfortunately images didn't fare as well, since if any portion of an image could be interpreted as a letter it is converted as such, thereby affecting recreation of the picture. Other than that the only qualm we had was a minor issue regarding the provided stylus, which feels a little cheap and plastic and, with no rubberised grip for your fingers, is prone to slipping.

As mentioned, the e-pens can also be used as a mouse, though initially this is a little tricky to get used to and you might find yourself fiddling with Windows' mouse-speed settings to get the desired degree of accuracy. It is quite responsive, though, and after a bit of practice is a fairly quick way to move around and might be good alternative to a graphics tablet for some designers

E-pens - Mobile Notes features - Verdict

In comparing the e-pens to Danelec's Zpen, we found it slightly more accurate and flexible, due to the fact that it can double as a mouse, but not quite as comfortable to use or as solidly built. Whichever you choose, both devices have their relative merits and are certainly capable of storing notes and converting them for use on a computer.

e-pens Mobile Notes review - Aug 1, 2009

Matt Egan, www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Mobile Notes is an electronic pen from e-pens, and one of the better examples of the breed.

The e-pens Mobile Notes kit comprises a USB receiver, character recognition software, and a digital pen that looks and feels like a better-than-average ballpoint.

Installation is simple - if you have Microsoft Internet Explorer as your default browser. This will be a problem for the 46 percent of PCA readers who don't: want to use this product so badly you'll dump Firefox?

If that's a deal you can make, you'll get a slick and stylish e-pen. It comes with both pen and stylus inputs, so you can write in ink when away from your PC, or use the stylus atop the table when the base unit is attached, enjoying preview on your PC screen.

There's no preview on the small, plasticky base unit, which attaches to your PC via a mini-USB cable. Carrying a cable around smarts when products such as the Dane-Elec Zpen have integral USB, but it means you can write with the base unit attached to paper and PC.

The base unit does have a display, but this is a time machine that nearly pre-dates LCD - the only information available is mode, number of notes saved, and a battery meter.

The pen is easy to use and responsive (although you can tell this only when you have PC preview). The NoteManager software allows you to capture, edit and save notes. It's easy to use and you can edit as you go.

MyScript is the intelligent character recognition (ICR) software. In the scheme of such things it works well. (Or, as MyScript tells it: 'it muds well'.) In fairness, your author's handwriting is like a spider in a bath and with training things got better. MyScript is one of the better such products we've used, but you'll be limited to concise, well-written note taking.

You can also use the e-pen as a general Windows input device.

Specifications

Digital pen with capture base unit; NoteManager and MyScript software; carry case; USB cable; ink refill; stylus; 2 x pen batteries; QSG; PC requirements: Microsoft Windows 2000 (SP4), XP (SP2) or Vista/ 50MB HD space/ min 32MB RAM/ min 16-bit colour/ 800x600 screen resolution/ USB port/ MS Internet Explorer 4 or above

e-pens Mobile Notes pen and USB sensor

Verdict

A superior example of the digital pen breed, the e-pens Mobile Notes is full of features and easy to use. The pen itself looks and feels good, and the software is slick. Down sides are the build quality of the base unit, the need to carry a mini-USB cable, and the intrinsic flaws of ICR software. And remember, you’ll need to use Internet Explorer as your default browser, for the installation process at least.

E-pens Mobile Notes - Jul 24, 2009

Webuser www.webuser.co.uk

Computers have taken over virtually all forms of documentation but its hard to beat pen and paper when it comes to taking notes or when you want to capture a few thoughts and ideas. That is, until you want to transfer your thoughts back onto a computer, at which point youll probably wish youd typed them in the first place.

This digital pen is a nifty solution to the problem. clip the liottle black box to the top of your sheet of paper and turn it on before you start writing with the supplied pen. You can now write on to the sheet as normal - the pen is equipped with a ballpoint nib, just like a standard biro, and the box stores up to 50 pages of handwritten notes at a time.

When youre done, plug the box into the software on your PC and youll find that your text has been digitised. the black box captures all the movement of the pen as it touches the paper, creating a perfect copy of your scibbles on the PC. It even comes with handwriting-recognition software that makes a suprisingly good stab at converting your scrawl into editable text and learns to accurately identify your writing as it becomes familiar with it.

As well as the ink version, the unit comes with a stylus-style nib. if you plug the box into your USB port, you can use this attachment to write directly to your PC, or even use it instead of a mouse.

Although attaching the box to your paper before you start adds an element of fiddlwe to the otherwise ultra-efficient process of note-taking with a pen, the final benefits are obvious. We were also very pleasantly surprised with how well it worked.

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