Mark,
> What, pray tell, could one do with a pocket/pen scanner? It sounds
> cool, but why would anyone want to do this in the first place? I can't
> wrap my wee little brain around this one.
The idea is that it's a fast way to capture small amounts of text (a few
paragraphs at most probably) using the pen which has built-in OCR (optical
character recognition) to convert it to editable text that can be imported
into the newton for further use. Basically it saves you having to copy
write/type the same text manually.
If you get a clean scan and the OCR is happy, then the equation works out -
it's much faster than typing. But if you have plenty of errors in the scan
and you have to edit the text in the Newt it about comes to the same thing.
One quickly gets a feel for what will recognize well and what won't.
The Pocket Reader (the one with which I am familiar) can capture items from
all sorts of sources such as newspapers, magazines, books etc. to a maximum
of about 2 A4 pages then you can download it to the Newt at some later time.
I keep my Pocket Reader near the kitchen table and grab little items while
I'm reading instead of having to put the original on the flatbed scanner and
go through the whole business of OCR on the Mac for just a few lines. I also
take it along when I go out if I am doing some research. As it and the Newt
easily have all-day battery life, one can do a lot of work.
Now they are cheap, I would say that one of these pen scanners is a useful
accessory to have for an MP2K if you can connect them.
Joel.
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