A simple yet productive tool that captures handwritten matter on any paper; converts it into a computer–readable format for use in a word processor ( Word) or spreadsheet ( Excel) and stores the information intelligently – as a good secretary would: that is the cool solution offered by what is claimed to be the world’s first electronic diary.

The tools comes with a B5-sized notebook with some 50 sheets of paper; an electronically controlled ink pen and a wireless sensor ‘ sees’ what one is writing – and stores up to 100 pages of written matter.

A USB cable transfers the data to any PC or laptop, where the optical character recognition (OCR) software turns it into ‘soft’ form that can be read in Microsoft’s Office suite as text or picture. When we tried out the product, the OCR could recognize our hand-written ‘doodles’ with over 90% accuracy.
The Rs 9350 tool will be a cool tool for students as well as professionals. How to harness it is limited only by one's imaginartion. For example it makes the whole job of form filling and form digitizing a cinch. 

Product and supplier details can be found at http://www.ediaryworld.com/

A shorter version of this review appears in the current ( Nov 21 ) issue of The Week magazine,

Nov 16 2010