About five years ago, NeoLab Convergence released a stylish smart pen designed to write like a normal pen, but also transferred notes to a phone or tablet over Bluetooth. Now the company has launched a Kickstarter for a recording device that works with its Smartpen to match written notes with what’s being recorded.
“It is almost impossible to remember and catch every information when you are having classes, interviews, or conferences,” said the company’s Steve Lee. “That is why people take notes. However, sometimes taking notes distracts you more since you cannot really focus on listening while writing at the same time. That is why there are devices such as voice recorders and tools that assist you in recapping.
“When you write notes on paper while recording audio with Reco, it not only records the audio but also matches the audio with your writing. After the recording is finished, once you tap the word or the letter with Neo Smartpen, Reco plays the audio that was recorded when you wrote the word or the letter.”
You can just use a voice recorder on a smartphone to record a lecture or business meeting, and take notes separately or use an app that can transcribe the audio in real time. But with the Reco set to record, anything written on Ncoded paper is timestamped on the audio. This means that you can subsequently jump to key points in a recording by tapping the Neo Smartpen on a keyword or phrase written on the paper. And if you’re studying at home, the system will also work with YouTube or HTML5 videos, allowing students to bookmark specific parts of a video to jump to.
As well as a built-in microphone, the 95.7 x 27.1 x 17.1-mm (3.7 x 1 x 0.7 in) Reco has a small integrated speaker and an earphone jack. There are just two buttons up top – record and play – and volume controls on the side that double as 10-second skip forward or backward buttons. The recorder can even be controlled without touching it, using the smart pen to tap on icons on included paper sheets.
There’s 16 GB of onboard memory, Bluetooth 4.2 for connecting to the smart pen, and the battery is reported good for up to 10 hours of continuous recording per charge over USB.
Kickstarter pledges start at US$48, though if you don’t already own a Neo Smartpen and notebook combination, a bundle comes in at $87. If all goes to plan, shipping is estimated to start next month. The video below has more.
Voice recorder matches audio with notes taken with smart pen [New Atlas]