CPen Scanning Pen | 
| Brand: C-pen
Buy New: $134.90
New (5) from $134.90
Rating:  19 reviews
Media: Electronics
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Model: CPen 20
EAN: 7331424021405
ASIN: B000EOMZO6
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | Reads 167 languages | | • | Also reads digits and barcodes | | • | Powered by ABBYY FineReader OCR | | • | USB Connection | | • | Inputs text into any application |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
C-Pen 20 is the latest contribution to the C-Pen family. It is specifically designed to be used together with a hosting computer. C-Pen 20 is a handheld scanner pen working on-line with a USB host, inputting text/number/barcode data into any host application. C-Pen 20 reads languages based on Latin, Cyrilic or Greek character set. C-Pen 20 is the perfect tool when you need to move paper-based information to the digital world. A stroke of the pen, and the printed text appears in your word processor, database interface or spreadsheet application.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 An Essential Tool for Students and Researchers December 31, 2006
T. Bryan
48 out of 48 found this review helpful
As a scholar who works with books and other printed sources a lot, I have long been on the lookout for an easy way to scan text into my laptop. I've tried using both flatbed scanners and digital cameras for this purpose, but I've found both to be awkward and time-consuming. That's why I was pleased to discover the C-Pen 20 - it's not perfect, but it does the job quicker and more easily than any of the alternatives.
PROS:
- It's easy to use; you just press the pointer to the page and a light comes on to let you know that the sensor is active. You then sweep the C-Pen from left to right at moderate speed as if it were a highlighter, and it converts the text on the page into electronic characters on your computer.
- The text instantly appears wherever the cursor on your screen is located, so you can use this device with just about any Windows program (e.g., Word, Access, etc.).
- The recognition rate is higher than I thought it would be; it's better than 99% on book-sized text. In practical terms, this means that you'll get one or two errors on average per paragraph, but these flaws are easily corrected (particularly if your spell checker highlights them for you automatically).
- It's small and easily portable, so you can take it with you to libraries and archives with a laptop.
CONS:
- The character recognition is sometimes thrown off by underlining and other marks on the page.
- You must use it with a PC or laptop that has a USB port (it doesn't run on batteries like some scanning pens).
- Even though it recognizes just about every major language written in Latin, Cyrillic, or Greek letters, it can't handle older typefaces (like German Fraktur). It also has trouble recognizing some symbols (such as footnotes).
- You have to scan each line of text one at a time, so it's not necessarily the best solution if you need to copy many pages of text.
The bottom line is that the C-Pen 20 has been an excellent investment for me, and I recommend it to anyone who's looking for an easy way to transfer printed text into an electronic medium.
 Good but not great. November 7, 2006
John Kitchens (Lexington, KY)
47 out of 50 found this review helpful
I am a bit of a scanning pen fanatic. I write papers and use them to collect research data. That is why I was excited to see that C-Pen (the best scanning pen manufacturer) had come out with a new model (the first in several years). My expectation was that this model would be far better than the C10 (the previous USB scanner) given the advance in technology since its release. I was pretty disappointed overall. This model is no quicker than the C10 and no more accurate. The software does not do as good a job as the C10 and it is not uncommon to have the pen miss an entire line of text. This is particularly important since I am often scanning very rapidly and don't take time to look up at the screen to see that the text is entered correctly.
Overall, not as good as the C10 (which I would give 4 stars), but better than the Iris Pen Executive (2 stars).
Please also note that this pen does not work with Mac computers (the only USB pen that does is the Iris Pen).
Great Product February 27, 2007
Kevin V. Gresham
23 out of 25 found this review helpful
I feel completely compelled to write this review for the C-Pen 20. It far exceeds my expectation. I am a graduate student, working on a doctorate at Harvard University. It is a tool, or better yet, a weapon that has reduced my time tremendously. I wish I had it while going through my master's program.
I would say that it is about 90% accurate right out of the box without any training. I have had it about 3 weeks now, and with improved technique, I have increased its accuracy to about 95% - 97%. I have found it helpful to always perform the stroke left - right. It is easier for 2 reason, 1) that is the way humans read and 2) you don't have to readjust the position of your hand.
I would recommend it to anyone who has to do research, or persons who are in a profession where previous documentation is necessary.
good June 7, 2007
M. Ozturk
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
in a general sense, this c-pen seems OK, but:
- there shouldn't be too much light (this is a problem especially at night time, i.e. under a bulb)
- you shouldn't expect too much accuracy; i'm using it for Turkish texts and the overall accuracy is around 80%.
- quality of the book also effects the result
- tables and figures can't be scanned, of course
- and finally, you've to be connected to your computer during operation.
Yet, i'm happy with this thing. It reduces the labour necessary to extract large amounts of text. Could be useful especially for PhD students.
dream pen July 12, 2007
J. Ho (Bethesda, MD, USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Got my C-pen recently, and already have transferred so much text from books into my computer. It's a wonderful device with very well worked out software to ensure seamless operation. I would never need my flatbed scanner and OCR for scanning texts anymore, which is quite an unwieldy operation most of the time. Hope this product doesn't get discontinued anytime soon. I hope to be using it for a long time.
|
|
|
