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Linux-Based Smartpen Heads For Kickstarter
DeviceGuru writes with a snippet from LinuxGizmos: "A Linux-based digital pen from German startup Lernstift will go live on Kickstarter on July 10 for about 115 Euros, or $148. The Lernstift pen incorporates an ARM Cortex processor, a WiFi module, and a motion sensor, and is designed to correct penmanship, spelling, and grammar errors as you write. A set of 3D motion sensors, including a gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer help the smartpen's embedded Linux computer calculate the pen's 3D movements and generate 2D vectors. Kickstarter supporters pledging 99 Pounds (about 115 Euros, or $148 U.S.) will receive the first shipment of pens later this year, and standard pricing is expected to start at 130-150 Euros when production devices ship in early 2014."
Ball points just don't work for me, gel pens are barely tolerable, felt tips and markers are okay, but the only writing tools which I really enjoy and am pleased to use are fountain pens (preferrably with italic nibs).
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
will it look like a penguin?
Smivs on the intertubes!
this is never going to actually materialize. you need some sort of absolute position detection, a la livescribe's special paper pattern and camera embedded in the pen.
I can fix my spelling & penmanship by typing everything into a computer. The grammar? It's never going to get better than it is right now because I'm old, I'm set in my ways, and I already have too many signs prepared telling people to get off of my lawn.
and I love Linux, but I have no desire to combine the two. Writing by hand is just one of those things I have to do sometimes but not enough to invest in this kind of thing.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
unless it sucks my dick then it costs too much
Sounds pretty fucking stupid.
I could buy 10,000 ball point pens from Office Depot. Which do you think will last longer?
sudo make me a sandwich
probably as much as they loved the vibrating Harry Potter broomstick
From TFA, it's a learning tool for kids.
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
The main problem with gmarr/\/\/\/\/ grammar checking is that the error is already written if the pen vibrates.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Provide one to each doctor that writes presciptions. The savings from medical errors might actually be worth the cost! :)
I have a livescribe pen and love many of its features. But their software is a bag of cloud crap. Basically in order to use the pen I have to sign in to their cloud stuff. Then they really try to get me to use EverNote (of hacked account fame). Then there is the fact that I need to buy their notebooks. And then on top of all that the tiny screen on the pen basically vanished on a recent firmware upgrade.
All I want to do it make notes and turn them into PDFs. If I want to "cloud" them then I will do that myself.
If this Lernstift pen gets good reviews and they keep it simple then there is a 100% chance that I will be upgrading to their product. Seeing that I love my Livescribe despite its serious flaws I would fall deeply in love with a pen that didn't require special paper, looked nice, and didn't stray from the core functionality of recording my scribbles. Most importantly if it didn't make me log in to some stupid cloud stuff.
the year of Linux on the pen!
If this project didn't have the word Linux attached to it somewhere it would have never have made the front page and even if it had anyone with 4 brain cells would be calling it stupid on its face.
This thing is going to sell about as well as a honey glazed ham in Mecca.
Let me start of by saying "what the hell?", and move on to pointing out that auto-correct on mobile keyboards is a pain in the ass, and in a pen would only be worse.
There's no way in hell a pen is gonna help with my atrocious penmanship. This sounds like a solution in search of a problem to me.
But, hey, it's vaporware, runs Linux, and is on kickstarter -- which means someone is going "oooh, gotta get me some of that".
Now get off my damned lawn, you kids and your fancy wi-fi pens. You'll put someone's eye out!
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
IYKWIM ... :-P http://i.imgur.com/1Kv5RxB.jpg
I did look through the entire article in the first link, and regret having missed the small textual entry of ``fountain pen'' and admit that in retrospect, I should've clicked on the company's link, the first image of which (currently) shows a fountain pen insert.
Mea culpa.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Is it just me or does any sentence with "linux-based" "smart" and "kickstarter" scare the willies out of you too?
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
The brand "Cortex" doesn't mean much if it doesn't include the model number. a Cortex M-series can't even run Linux because it's just a microcontroller. Linux maybe can run on a Cortex-R, if you trim it down enough. Typically Linux is ran on an Cortex-A series, and given that the prototypes use Gumstix it's almost certain it is a Cortex-A, and not something unusual and exciting like Cortex-R.
So there are still people using pen out there ?
I haven't handwritten anything in almost 20 years except for Doctor's interview paperwork, and a couple of essays for a Luddite community college professor. I even take notes on a tablet now. This device seems to be at least one human generation out of usefulness
I'd love to write you a letter but my pen needs charging.
They don't say it in their video, but the picture has a smart phone that has a perfect copy of the handwriting in its app. That isn't going to happen with inertial sensors - they just don't accurately measure position... I bet they can try to recognize letters, etc. but the real value of a smart pen, in my opinion, would be to capture the pen strokes - I'm sure that's what their backers are hoping for. The whole project seems slightly misleading to me.
If it comes with a spell checker and undo option, I am all in.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
A solid state, gyroscopically controlled, wireless input tool. Why, if we'd had that technology back in the day, we'd still be making and selling buggy whips, I tell you.
This pen corrects grammar errors and comes from Germany, for sure it has been designed by a grammar nazi!!!
I recall these being used with disastrous results by Rita Skeeter. Hope the autocorrect is better than the abomination installed in every iPhone since the beginning.
$
The Gumsticks boards themselves are $100+; offering a whole pen based on it for $149 seems rather ambitious.
Where the f is the link to kickstarter? How hard would have been to include that in the summary? these type of amateur write ups are annoying as hell
So I can save ~20 and take a (1 in 3, 1 in 4?) chance this will never actually ship - or ship so late somebody else will have done it better? You're going to have to give me better odds than that.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I haven't handwritten anything in almost 20 years except for Doctor's interview paperwork, and a couple of essays for a Luddite community college professor. I even take notes on a tablet now. This device seems to be at least one human generation out of usefulnesshttp://computersbds.blogspot.com/">please visit it