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Taking handwritten notes on digital devices
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Posted by Franz Grieser
Apr 5, 2018 at 12:08 PM
Hugh wrote:
>But the real challenge, it appears to me, is to create software that
>will reliably and accurately convert that handwriting to text. That
>still seems more difficult to accomplish than to convert voice to text.
>Actually, Palm used to achieve both speed and accuracy with its own
>special form of shorthand (which I think was called Graffiti). But
>learning Graffiti was a potential barrier for users.
I found Graffiti easy to learn. And writing on the Palm worked better for me than typing on my Psion 3 and 5, which I had used the years before.
For me, the idea behind Graffiti was great: Let the user do the learning because he is better at it than a machine with limited computing power.
Today, with way more powerful CPUs and machine-learning, things ought to be different - but obviously aren’t.
Posted by xtabber
Apr 5, 2018 at 12:15 PM
It’s been 25 years (1/4 century!) since “egg freckles” and we don’t seem much closer.
http://doonesbury.slate.com/strip/set/24
Posted by Paul Korm
Apr 5, 2018 at 12:42 PM
I used LiveScribe for a while then stopped because I wasn’t actually making much use of digital notebooks, they were only searchable within their app, the supplies were expensive, pens broke, and the software stopped working. It probably would have been a good technology for it’s originally-advertised purpose of note taking in lectures, with the ability to record audio and sync it with the notes. I never used it for that purpose, though.
Technology always ages out so I don’t see myself returning again to a proprietary device.
For document markup, the iPad Pro + Pencil is great.
For extensive note taking, nothing beats a good notebook and a nice pen. If I really need a digital copy, I snap the notebook pages with Scanbot and save the PDF.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Apr 5, 2018 at 12:51 PM
My new Wacom Folio is actually rather good; the capture is remarkably precise (considering you’re writing with what feels like a standard biro on standard A4 paper), and the transfer to iPad has been seamless. The “Live” mode is also entertaining, in that you can watch what you’re writing/drawing on screen, while you’re doing it.
I’ve not had much luck pairing the device with my MacBooks, however, although I confess I haven’t tried very hard. Wacom’s Inkspace app is much better than reviews suggested, but I’ll admit I haven’t tried the handwriting recognition yet, either.
After using the Folio for a while, I’d say it’s probably better for taking notes than for drawing (the pen’s not bad, but not particularly fine or precise), and would probably suit somebody who was into bullet journals very, very well. Not least because you can use any paper you like with the system, meaning you can replace the Rocketbook-like pad from Wacom with bullet-journal templates or any other kind of template if you wish.
An interesting experiment. I shall keep experimenting and report on further results.
Posted by Hugh
Apr 5, 2018 at 01:23 PM
Franz Grieser wrote:
Hugh wrote:
>>But the real challenge, it appears to me, is to create software that
>>will reliably and accurately convert that handwriting to text. That
>>still seems more difficult to accomplish than to convert voice to text.
>>Actually, Palm used to achieve both speed and accuracy with its own
>>special form of shorthand (which I think was called Graffiti). But
>>learning Graffiti was a potential barrier for users.
>
>I found Graffiti easy to learn. And writing on the Palm worked better
>for me than typing on my Psion 3 and 5, which I had used the years
>before.
>For me, the idea behind Graffiti was great: Let the user do the learning
>because he is better at it than a machine with limited computing power.
>Today, with way more powerful CPUs and machine-learning, things ought to
>be different - but obviously aren’t.
I should have written “...learning Graffiti was a potential barrier for some users.”!