I’ve been paying a lot of attention to chordic keyboards. These are typically one handed and portable, these devices let you press button combinatins to express which character you are typing. Most of the attention chordic keyboards get is based on their utility for wearable/portable computers and their ergonomic advantages.

So far, I haven’t seen any chordic keyboards with PDA drivers and that is a shame because I’d love to try one in that setting.

One to keep an eye on is my favorite, John McKown’s Chordite – http://www.chordite.com and check out the movies at http://www.chordite.com/moviepage.html. John retains the rights to sell these devices commercially, but all of his specs and construction tips are available on line for you to build your own. PS2 and USB(using an adapter).

A mechanical engineer just started looking at John’s prototypes and build descriptions/tips. His impressions are here.

A year ago, I built one of these(as did Gordon and Craig), but we never mounted the switches on anything close to ergonomic. I’m hoping that the solution to the fully adjustable, lightweight chordite unit will be made possible by some soon-to-be-discovered kids building toy(legos, technic, erector, k’nex, etc).

My first week with the pen is almost over. I’ll try to summarize here what I’ve learned about the pen and how much I like it. If you haven’t read the other posts, you’ll find them here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4.

Basics

You write with the pen on special paper that is fairly expensive. You drop the pen in its cradle. The io Software on your Windows computer presents you with digital copies of every page of special paper you’ve written on. You can organize and search your pages. Optionally, you can try to convert your scribble-scrabble into text using the included 30 day trial of handwriting recognition software.

Remaining Questions for Logitech (I also posted these questions to the Logitech io Forums)

• When is the next version of the logitech io pen hardware being released? How soon is my pen going to be obsolete?
• Since using the pen AT ALL requires writing on the included notebook, how do retailers feel about returns?
• What is the manufacturer’s warranty policy on internal damage resulting from a fall?

Digital Paper

• Pros
  • Available in a lot of different formats.
  • The tiny spacing of the dots enables the pen to very precisely record strokes.
• Cons
  • The paper is expensive ($25 for 3 notebooks – 160 pages each(80 sheets)).
  • It sounds like the pocket notebook paper format is not available for the Logitech Digital Pen.
  • Despite reports that photocopies of the paper are functional, I haven’t been able to get that to work.
  • Digital Paper is apparently not available in local office supply stores.
  • Aside from special printers from HP, there is no way to print your own digital paper.

io Pen and Desktop Application

• Pros
  • After informal meetings, sending out gif versions of notes is easy and appreciated.
  • Unlike with Graffiti and keyboards, at meetings, I feel comfortable taking notes with the pen.
  • Unlike with Graffiti and keyboards, at meetings, I can record diagrams and quickly jump around the page.
  • Everything I write is automatically backed up to my computer.
  • It’s easy to categorize(in an arbitrarily deep hierarchy) and search notebook pages.
  • The pen is light and durable.
  • Pen syncs are fast.
  • Pages can be exported to gif, jpg and emf(vector graphics). The PalmOS Vector Graphics editor, Leonardo will, apparently, soon be able to import emf files. Pennovate Notes can already work with the gif exports after you convert them to 1bpp Windows bmp files with mspaint.
  • Owning the pen encourages me to write in a tablet instead of on random scraps of paper.
  • Given that the software was just recently updated, it seems that Logitech is committed to the platform.
• Cons
  • The pen cost $158 at Amazon. A little pricey.
  • 3 or 4 times thicker than a normal pen.
  • The io software is slow to load.
  • The pen cap does not fit tightly on the back of the pen.
  • The ink refills are very small, and probably run out quickly.
  • Though you can export to Microsoft OneNote, OneNote will not recognize your strokes as text input, only as drawings.
  • There is no easy solution for synching pen documents to your Palm PDA.
  • There is no easy solution for using two PCs with the io pen.
  • The computer will not show you every piece of text you wrote for a specific time period(such as a meeting you had last week).

myNotes Handwriting Recognition Software

• Pros
  • The pen comes with a 30 day trial of this software.
  • Luckily, I find that I only want to use handwriting recognition for about 1 out of 10 pages.
  • Adding words to the myNotes dictionary not only helps it process the current page, but assists future pages.
  • If I need to send out typed notes quickly after a meeting, syncing the pen and correcting the relatively few mistakes made by myNotes is A LOT faster than typing from scratch.
  • Sometimes myNotes has as much as a 90% hit rate on my chicken-scratch printed writing.
• Cons
  • The software costs $40 if you want to use it more than 30 days. I think it should be free with the pen.
  • myNotes does not recognize indentation well. Your best bet is to select all and paste into another app for adding formatting.
  • myNotes does not recognize bullets. It does dashes a little better.
  • It does not understand words written in capital letters very well.

Caveats

• I haven’t tried to train the OCR with the included training sheets, but I think my printed writing is too unpredictable to accurately train it.
• I’ve used the pen for less than a week, so far.
• Everyone’s handwriting is different… your experiences with the pen and software could be very different.

Resources

• Logitech io Forums – These semi-active forums were a great help in determining whether or not I should even TRY the pen!
• Logitech io Official Site
• Logitech io at Amazon
• iPen Memory (Q2 2004) – upcoming competitor?
• Excellent comparison of available Digital Pens
• Logitech io System Requirements and data sheet

Conclusion

I’m keeping it. Hopefully, I’ll find ways to do the things I currently can’t do with it, but the things I can already do are changing the way I work a lot already. This pen is a fantastic asset for the workplace.

Crossposted to PalmAddicts

This is the fourth installment of my investigation of the Logitech io Personal Digital Pen. The previous 3 parts are here.

HAPHAZARD PALM INTEGRATION – I’ll keep trying!!

Today, I converted a gif exported from the Logitech io software (a pixel-based picture of a “Digital Paper” notebook page I wrote on) into a 1 bit per pixel bitmap using mspaint. I then stored that bmp file on my SD card and used Pennovate Notes to view and edit the page. Notes is a very impressive piece of software and I look forward to finding a way to automatically store the pages on my SD card (of course, I’ll have to register Notes first). Naturally, changes I make on the Palm will not be synced back to the io software, but I think that’s ok for now.

I wrote a note to the company that offers Leonardo, a vector graphics program for PalmOS. If I can convert the pen strokes from the pen to a vector format viewable on the Palm, then zooming will be much cleaner. I also have a request out to the Logitech io support team – I’d like to get documentation of the .pen file format(it’s mostly xml, but a huge chunk of it is compressed and possibly encrypted).

In short, I’m happy with the Pennovate solution, but I’ll look around more and see if there is a better solution.

POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS

Calendar Integration – I mentioned yesterday how I wish each pen stroke was time-stamped so I could see all the text I wrote during a particular meeting, no matter which pages the text was written on. You can already create appointments and todo items by filling out the bottom of each sheet.

Portable Viewer – A viewer (with search capabilities) for the .pen format could probably be written quickly(if the format docs were available) for the J2ME platform. Then the viewer(or maybe even an editor) could be used on PDAs and alternative OS’s.

Document Markup – If you could print documents onto Digital Paper, you could make your notes and the io software could store your notes directly on the document in question. For instance, I could print out a proposal from a vendor or a resume from a potential employee on the special paper and all of my notes could be stored alongside the doc when I sync the pen.

Printable Digital Paper – Printers, ink and software that can print the Anoto patterns on regular paper would be fantastic. I had heard that a solution for this already existed for the Nokia pen, but I think that was false. HP is working on a line of Anoto printers, but I’d rather use my trusty old inkjuet.

LONGEVITY

I just went to Staples to see the wide variety of Digital Paper there is to choose from. Unfortunately, except for 3 standard notebooks in the clearance bins, there was no Digital Paper to be found. I don’t mind ordering it online, but I have to question, a little, the longevity of a device that doesn’t sell well enough in SILICON VALLEY to justify keeping it’s refills in stock at local stores. The guy at the counter said that they sold only 2 pens during the year they stocked them(I hope he was exagerating). Obviously, being able to print my own Digital Paper would quell this fear immediately.

COMPETITORS

iPen Memory (Q2 2004)
The iPen Memory doesn’t require special paper, but it won’t be able to tell you where on the page or where in a notebook your text was written. All of your writing will just run together on the desktop application and you’ll need to sort it out. Still, it will probably be cheaper because it uses a pressure sensitive tip, not a camera to figure out what kind of stroke you are making.

Nokia Digital Pen
The Nokia pen uses the same Anoto technology as the Logitech Pen. Both Logitech and Nokia (and, later, Ericcson) use Anoto paper, but Logitech-ready pads may not work with Nokia-ready pads. I haven’t found a definitive statement on this topic. The big advantage to the Nokia pen(and, later, the Ericcson pen) is that written messages can be sent as MMS by connecting the pen via Bluetooth to a phone.

A great comparison table for the Nokia, Ericcson(not available yet?) and Logitech Digital Pens is here.

UPDATE ON IO SOFTWARE

I must be writing more cleanly. The last two documents I ran through the handwriting recognition app have had about a 90% hit rate. That’s fantastic! Even without the recognition, it’s great to have the digital archive. In a month or so, I’ll toss this notebook in a box or a filing cabinet and start a new one. If I need to refer to old notes, they’ll be right there on my computer, sorted and searchable.

NEXT

This series of notes on the io has been really helpful for me in evaluating the pen. I’ve decided to keep it. Despite the cost of the unit and the paper, the Digital Pen has become as much a part of my day as my PDA. Tomorrow, I’ll finish this review up with a nice summary. Expect occasional posts after that when I get photocopying working and when I’ve found a better solution for using my PDA with the pen.

Crossposted to PalmAddicts