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February 05, 2008, 12:34 PM ET
Notes on the Smart Pen
The smart pen that Wired Campus flagged back in May was unveiled last week at a technology conference in Palm Springs, Calif. The company behind it, LiveScribe, has been aggressively marketing the device to college students with the slogan “Never miss a word.”
It’s basically a combination recording machine and camera. Users take notes while a minirecorder, embedded in the pen, records whatever is being said. Later, to clarify the written notes, the user can touch the pen to a specific passage and listen to a recording of the instructor speaking those words. A tiny camera links what is being written to what is being recorded.
In a takeoff on television commercials for pharmaceuticals, the smart-pen advertisement below features a student who suffers from “restless mind syndrome.” The pen is offered as a panacea.
Livescribe has set up a Facebook page to push the pen, and offers to pay college students to promote the device on their campuses. It’s also advertised on the Web site ThePalestra, where Andy Van Schaack, a senior lecturer at Vanderbilt University, who is an adviser to LiveScribe, is seen praising the pen.
Will the pen, which sells for about $200, take off with college students? Will it be used as a crutch for students who are too tired or distracted to listen to their professors?—Andrea L. Foster
Categories: Student-Life
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