In this, my next-to-the-last blog entry, I have a story about the greatest tech tool ever. It's something called Digital Ink, by Rover Tech Fusions in Tampa, Florida. Here's the deal ... you write notes using a digital pen, dock it to your computer and it translates the text that can be exported into whatever program you want. Wow !!!
I first heard about this while teaching a caseflow management class with a court administrator buddy of mine from Illinois, who bought this stuff for his probation officers that have to do a lot of report writing in the field. The company has various packages, but their NoteAmation package is the best, and it weighs in at a hefty $1,600 or so per combination of pads, portfolio, pen and docking station. Once you figure out the return in productivity, it soon becomes clear that this thing pays for itself many times over.
I do a lot of writing when I am consulting on site. I conduct interviews and document my observations, only to have to turn around later and assimilate the notes into a report and recommendations. The processing time off site to do this can be substantial.
There are a few tricks about this technology you should know ...
PEN
The digital pen you purchase is specific to you. It learns YOUR handwriting, even if it is not very good penmanship. The pen is a little fatter than most, but it holds a lot of memory and has a reasonably long battery life. Just remember to cap it when not in use to turn it off.
PAPER
The pen needs special paper to work. If you have specific needs such as data-field-specific forms you need to use, Rover will help you design the forms and you can print them yourself. Otherwise, you have to use their template paper pads that have special grid fields the pen uses to "read" your handwriting. Extra paper supplies are not prohibitively expensive.
TRANSLATION
After "teaching" your pen your handwriting by writing four practice pages, the pen does a respectable though not flawless job of translating your writing into text. You have three products from each run ... a titled file you can organize into topical folders, a graphic picture of your form in your handwriting, and the translated text that you can export into Word, RFF or a plain text file. The text is editable from within the program, so you can clean up mis-translates and even add text. If you draw pictures or diagrams, these can be turned into graphic files.
Imagine cops on the street writing tickets and police reports, nurses and healthcare professionals updating patient charts, and judges and court clerks making case notes during proceedings. The list is endless. Most of these folks have to duplicate their efforts by then typing (or having someone else type) the notes into a computer program.
Oh, and did I mention that some of the notepads have task lists and calendar entries that syncronize directly into Microsoft Outlook? YIKES !!!
I am hugely excited about this product and plan to do a lot of preaching about it. It sure has made my life easier, and I've only used it on one short project.
It's the write thing to do !!!
Chris Crawford
Photo Credit = Rover Tech Fusions, Inc.
