GBM InkShow: Capturx

[Warner Crocker]

- Warner Crocker



[img]../blogimages/InkShow.gif[/img][img]../blogimages/GBMInkShowCapturx_A137/capturxthumb_thumb.jpg[/img] What's this? A Tablet PC/UMPC digital Inking fanatic reviewing a pen and paper solution for note taking? Bear with me here. Capturx by Adapx
is a very intriguing Digital Ink solution. Yes, it does use specially
treated paper in note books (and other media) and a special pen to
capture those notes, but what is intriguing to me about Capturx is the
excellent integration with OneNote 2007. Here's
how it works. The Capturx OneNote 2007 kit provides you with software,
a notebook, a pen, and a docking station. Once you install the software
and recognize the notebook, you can take notes on the notebook using
the tried and true familiar pen and paper method. Then the magic
happens. When you are back at your Tablet PC (or any other computer)
you simply dock the pen and your digital Ink notes are synced to a
OneNote notebook. This also charges up the battery in the pen. The
notes can then be searched or manipulated in the same way any other
notes within OneNote 2007. Adapx
is aiming for the enterprise market with Capturx, more specifically
they are targeting businesses with field workers in extreme
environments who need to take notes but don't need or want to lug
around a computer with them. The OneNote 2007 package is but one method
of note taking Adapx provides as they are also working with GIS clients
that use ESRI to mark up maps, as well as CAD workers. In 2008 they are
looking to have a Bluetooth syncing solution for cell phones and PDA's
as well. In my opinion, this is good vertical market solution that just
might give one of my favorite Tablet PC applications, OneNote 2007,
some much needed exposure. The OneNote 2007 package is Adapx's first
effort in syncing with the Microsoft Office suite and they are planning
to add capability to Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and also Visio in the
future. Capturx is also location aware, and note
pages can be tied back to the hard copy for easy referencing. The
bottom line here, is that Adapx is looking to provide a good ROI to
customers who are looking for in-the-field note taking. At
the moment, Adapx is running a special on the OneNote 2007 package. It
normally sells for $349 but through January 15 you can pick it up for
$299. I've really enjoyed using the evaluation package they sent for
this review. More so than I thought I would. Quite honestly, I find it
to be a very successful note taking solution that could work in a
number of scenarios. The integration with OneNote 2007 is the big key
there and in my experience that works flawlessly. In the InkShow, I show you the pen, the notebook, and the docking station, as well as show you how well the software syncs with OneNote 2007. Kathy Jacobs has also put together a great tutorial on Capturx on her blog, and I'd highly recommend you take a look at that as well. <ul>[*] <div align="left">Check out Capturx at Adapx.com[*] <div align="left">Download the InkShow here (.wmv format 118mb, 17:20min)[/list]UPDATE: Here's a screen capture of Ink on the notebook page:
[img]uploads/5/inksample.jpg[/img]

Edited by: Warner Crocker

[Sir Joe]

Hi!


Thanks for the infos...


May I ask you something? Which kind of paper should I need whit this pen? Not a normal notepad? What do you know about G-Note by Genius, or My Note by Aiptek, DigiNote by Acecad or Cyberpad by Adesso? Which of these 4 brands should be the more reliable? I ask because if this pen uses special paper, well, i find more interesting one of these other products...

[sbtablet]

I'd like to see a side by side comparison of this product and the Epos digital pen that writes on plain paper. If the Epos can give a similar level of accuracy, it makes more sense to me.

Sharon

[KenHinckley]

The accuracy is only a small part of the story. Don't forget that the Anoto pen technology(which this is based on according to the Capturx web site) can detect which piece of paper you are writing on. So if you do some writing on a sheet, and then come back to it later and mark it up, the pen is aware of this fact and can put the strokes on the correct page when you sync (I don't know if the Capturx actually does this, since I haven't used it - once Warner recovers from his CES-induced exhaustion, I'd love to hear if the Capturx actually does this correctly when sync'ing notes to OneNote, as that might tip me over the edge to actually get one of these things :-).

But that is what makes the Anoto special paper approach so hard to beat. With these other things that you set up next to a pad of normal paper or whatever, they don't necessarily know when you flip to a new page or return to an old page.

I had one of the Cross writing tablets that came out years ago. On that thing, you had to press a button to tell it that you were flipping to a different page. So it was impractical to quickly flip to different pages of your notes and jot more information down. Or if you messed up and pressed the button the wrong number of times, the notes would appear on the wrong page when you downloaded stuff toyour computer. That was reallylame!

The Anoto solution auto-magically makes all of that kind of nonsense go away, and I just don't see anyway to possibly provide that nice, clean, intuitive workflow with a digitizing pen on normal paper. I'd rather have to buy special paper than be stuck with a device that is basically useless.

Ken

[Bembo]

Look at www.penvision.se for extended information about this technology.

[sbtablet]

Ken,
Thanks for the info. I hadn't thought of the aspect of going back to a previous page, etc. Excellent point.

And thanks, Bembo, for the link.

Sharon

[Sir Joe]

Interesting...
Well, I have not such a great need to skip pages quickly. And I will never come back on a page i wrote much time ago.
I basically will take notes on some classes and workshops, and I need to digitalize the handwritten notes and transform them in a Word text file.
I thought I could have done that with some G-note, Digi Memo, Cyberpad etc., but they all saves the notes in a jpg or pdf file. To transform them in digital text, I do not know if there are really good OCR or ICR software to do that.
Normal handwriting recognition software work real time, not on jpg...
Is this right?
Well, the Epos seems to be able to solve this, it seems like if when you connect the flash drive on the usb port, it will transfer your notes as if you were taken them in real time on a graphic tablet.
Am I wrong?
I just wonder if it has got al least a basic skip page option, and if when I transfer 3 hours of notes it will take 3 hours real time...

I'd like to see a side by side comparison of this product and the Epos digital pen that writes on plain paper. If the Epos can give a similar level of accuracy, it makes more sense to me.

Sharon

There are benefits to each approach. At least the CapturX is available from AdapX. I can't seem to find the Epos to purchase.

[sbtablet]

Sir Joe,

Sounds to me like what you need is a good inking pc and OneNote. It will save your notes as a Word file.

Sharon

[Sir Joe]

Ok, Sbtablet, the fact is that in those classes I can't take with me big things like a tablet pc. I need the most invisible solution. Even about the G-note, I was decided for the A5 version, because the A4 was too big.
I just would like them (Epos) to answer me...