DocuPen Executive Kit contest winner announced

Two weeks ago, we launched a contest revolving around mobility and the DocuPen Executive Kit. We asked forum members to submit their answers to the following question: How would a pen based scanner like the DocuPen RC800 Executive Kit impact your mobile lifestyle?

We were hoping to receive at least 50 entries, but the 30 entries we did receive were quite good, and somebody in that 30 deserved to win.

Congratulations to GBM reader Robphy on his winning entry. He is now the recipient of a $399 DocuPen Executive Kit.  Robphy, we expect to hear great things from you on use of the DocuPen.

Robphy’s entry:

As a student, I am often rummaging through  the library reserve stacks, chasing down references to numerous journal articles. Up to this point, I usually have to take a stack of thick now-hard-bound journals down several flights and over to the copier in order to copy relevant portions of  these articles. Having a compact scanner would certainly help me collect and organize these references. No more folders full of papers… I could read and mark them up on my TabletPC.

As an educator, I find that students appreciate examples and discussions taken from their textbook. With a flatbed scanner, I have often scanned in sections of the textbook, which I display and markup using my TabletPC. Having this compact scanner would certainly make this task a little easier, as well as probably prolong the binding of my heavy textbook [which doesn’t like to getting pressed down onto the flatbed]. In addition, I wouldn’t always have to carry that heavy textbook around.

As a physicist, while I now try to do all of my handwritten calculations on  a TabletPC, there are some instances when it’s inconvenient to do  so… like on a crowded city bus.  So, I use another wireless device: a pad of paper. Thus, at the end of each ride, I have a scribbled calculation that will probably get lost in a pile of papers if I don’t scan it in or else transcribe it. So, here again the compact scanner would be useful.

As a physicist traveling to conferences, a compact scanner like this would be useful in (after being granted permission) scanning in abstracts, references, and contact-information from poster presentations. The scanner would also be useful in helping to keep track of receipts and business cards.

As an amateur wine enthusiast, I shop for wine with a small paper notebook with wine-labels taped onto pages, with comments written below. Since it is been rather time-consuming to peel off the wine-labels, a compact scanner with the unique features of the DocuPen RC800 Scanner would make it easier to get the image of the wine-label. Admittedly, one could take a digital photo of the wine label still on the bottle… but it  might not be as legible as a scan. Along these lines, one could scan in labels of food products or medications, which could be used for logging in special diets or one’s medication history.

As an amateur technology-evangelist, I would probably sing the praises of the DocuPen RC800 Scanner, as I have done for the TabletPC. (Over the years, I think I’ve done a much better job than the computer-store salesperson in showing off the TabletPC… to the point where a handful of friends and folks in my department and at some conferences have later asked for my  advice in helping them purchase the right TabletPC for them.)

And, finally, as a gadget-lover, it would just be cool to have a scanner like this.